What is Branding and Why is it Important?
If you’re a small business owner, you may be wearing many hats and trying to balance it all. In many cases, business owners skip past the very important step of creating their company branding. If this is you, take a moment to dive into what is branding and why is it important.
What is branding?
Most people think branding only includes logos and colors, but your brand includes so much more than that. It entails the entire identity of your business. Branding includes your logo, company colors, typography, and brand voice, all of which help give your business personality and ways to connect with folks, online and in person.
Why is branding important?
Let’s use a local example. Think about all of the fishing companies there are in the Kenai Peninsula. A lot. Since Homer is the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World, you can expect quite a few charter companies here. So, how can your fishing company stand out? When you start with branding that leaves an impression on folks, you will immediately differentiate yourself. You can start with branding that will leave an impression on folks.
Having a logo with colors, fonts, and imagery that reflects your company is a great tool to connect with your target audience. They say a photo is worth 1,000 words, well, it’s the same with branding. Your brand will automatically communicate so much more to your audience than just some nice looking colors accompanied by text.
Where to start…
When creating your company brand, here are a few categories to think about:
- Mission. What does your company do?
- Target audience. Who do you want to do it for?
- Edge. How can you do it your own way?
- Why. Why do you do what you do?
- Aesthetic. How are you seen by people?
Once you take the time to think about those categories, we can move onto more specific brand questions to dial in your brand’s logo and graphic designs.
- Look. Clean, modern, minimalist, elegant, bold, vintage, creative, retro
- Feel. Professional, serious, funny, friendly, relaxed, happy
- Colors. Warm, cool, bright, subdued
- Symbolism. What symbols, if any? I.e. wildlife, landscape
- Typography. Modern, thin, curvy, bold,
- Vibe. What do you want people to feel when they see your branding
Now that you have some tools to get you started on your own branding, let us know how it goes! If you have any questions or need support, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our team loves to help companies with fresh, new branding!