How to remove personal bias from your branding
Let’s talk branding, and more specifically, colour. The whole point of the colours and imagery that you use to depict your brand is to project an image (and then become recognisable and known for that image).
In the same way that you express yourself as an individual, whether your vibe is pop and block or hot goth, how you express your brand puts it in a perception bucket to which others assign meaning (in other words, how you’re judged). So before jumping straight to the Pantone colour wheel, there are two steps we suggest you take before making these all important decisions.
The first step is to get clear on who your brand is, why it matters and to whom. Specifically:
Who are you targeting?
What’s the desired image you want to emulate to resonate with your target customer?
What is your brand personality?
How do you want people to feel about your brand? Are you projecting a desired state of being, or perhaps you’re appealing on the basis of security or freedom?
Then, once you’ve settled on the above, have briefed your designer, and are reviewing the first round of colour combos (aka part two), check in one more time:
Is it distinctive? (And unlike your competitors)
Flexible? In a world saturated by new, emerging and traditional media channels, your branding needs to have legs. It should be tame enough to build strong recognition, but flexible enough to stay fresh and interesting across the plethora of different marketing channels available to you.
What’s the psychology behind the colours you’ve selected? And, if like us you’re going for a trio, how do they feel together?
If part A marries with part B, congrats you’ve found yourself a winning palette.
Developing your branding is undeniably the most enjoyable part of the brand building process (unless you have to suffer design by committee, in which case it’s a painful subjective shit-show). But, you gotta give it a little more thought than ‘oh we like that’ because you’re stuck with it for the long haul, and the last thing you want to do is depreciate any equity you’ve acquired by changing it further down the line.
That’s why brand strategy is the best way to get clarity on the brief to your designer, copywriter, leadership team, or anyone for that matter, who is responsible for a brand or customer experience.
Our Brand Campaigners are there to help mid-sized businesses and marketing folks clarify their brand’s direction to boost its influence on their bottom line. So, if you’re struggling to make time to think strategically and are not satisfied with how your brand is being executed (remembering that the external representation of your brand is a direct reflection of how well it is understood internally), toddle on over here and check out how our Brand Campaigners might be able to help you.