As a business owner there are so many things to worry about from sales to marketing to finances – and if you’re anything like us, you may be wearing a lot of hats—or maybe even ALL the hats in your business.
One important aspect of any business is brand recognition. Investopedia defines brand awareness as:
“...a concept used in advertising and marketing. It is considered successful when people are able to recognize a brand through visual or auditory cues such as logos, slogans, packaging, colors, or jingles rather than being explicitly exposed to a company's name.”
My favorite example of this is the Nike check mark. Everyone knows Nike’s brand without having to do a double-take. As business owners, we should all strive for brand recognition to this degree.
Why is brand recognition important?
Brand recognition creates trust between the brand and the consumer. Once a customer purchases from your company or uses a service from your company they are more likely to be a repeat customer. Think about when you go to the grocery store and choose a brand of rice, more than likely if you liked the rice you purchased, you won’t think twice about buying it again next time you’re out shopping.
Another way you can create trust is to bring value to your customer, and not try and sell to them 100% of the time. You wouldn’t want a friend selling to you every time you got to together for dinner, would you? Your brand is the same way, create connection and the rest will fall together as you build trust.
How do we accomplish this?
Brand awareness isn’t created overnight—this takes time and consistency. This comes from various efforts such as your website, social media, apparel, and merch all being cohesive.
One of the things we create for clients is our “branding guide” or “branding bible” (pictured on the left). This guide helps companies stay “on-brand” and is a list of guidelines to follow to ensure that they are sticking with their company logos, fonts, and logo variations. Colors are extremely important to keep consistent and help with recognition.
New companies may want to experiment with designs and colors – but after your brand is set, your logo is printed and your gaining social followers, it’s important to drive home your logo and keep your brand consistent before going rouge. In design, I believe, you must first learn to abide by the rules before you can break them.
Think you have great brand recognition for some of the big-name brands out there? Check out this fun quiz to test your knowledge below.
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