With so many ways to shop, consumers expect much more from brands, presenting steep competition to win their business. Research from McKinsey shows that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions and 76% express frustrations when those interactions fail to materialize. But while consumers hold more power of choice when engaging with brands, brand loyalty isn’t going away. It’s just evolving.
We’ve entered a new era of brand-building – an evolution in strategies, technology and formats employed to grow long-term brand equity, levelling the playing field for marketers. When it comes to harnessing new brand-building opportunities, it’s up to marketers to redefine the traditional parameters for building deeper connections with people. At the height of consumer expectations, brands must marry tried-and-true marketing principles with contemporary concepts. If that sounds contradictory, well, that’s because it is!
Here are three strategies that challenge conventional thinking but promise to forge lasting connections and captivate audiences for your brand.
Build an authentic brand by letting your audience shape your story
The digital age has transformed our culture, with people cultivating their personal brands online. As a result, consumers increasingly value new and different content over time-tested traditional advertising, relying on creators for honest brand reviews and engaging in discussions on their own terms. Placing more of your brand’s destiny in consumers’ hands enhances brand loyalty and expands your reach by maximizing the likelihood of being a part of their content.
The era of the 30-second TV spot has given way to mobile platforms, where people connect and create. Highly polished videos can now be seen as inauthentic online. For example, creators and consumers share content via short-form video formats like Reels and Stories on Instagram and Facebook. These tools offer more creativity, a low barrier to experimentation, and allow marketers to fit the format and fidelity consumers expect. Partnering with creators holds the potential to drive discovery to new audiences, especially younger audiences, as Gen Z and Millenials are two times more likely to trust creators than Baby Boomers. Granting creators and consumers agency in evolving your brand’s narrative not only meets audiences where they are but also fosters trust within communities and furthers your brand’s equity over time.
Leverage AI to engineer serendipity
Whether recommending a new product or offering expanded services, consumers seek brands that will meet their personalized needs and wants. At the same time, they want to be early adopters of a trending brand or product. Striking the right balance between prediction and surprise may seem impossible. But, with the help of AI technology, you can create personalized creative and serendipitous discovery experiences that speak to each consumer. At Meta, AI has been at the core of our DNA, and we’re working to create 3 billion customized experiences for everyone across our platforms. Leveraging tools like Meta’s new generative AI-powered features for ad creatives, such as background generation, image expansion, and text variations, can help maximize productivity, personalization, and performance for all advertisers.
Simultaneously, AI can empower marketers to test and prove creative to understand what works best, the right audiences to target and the optimal budgets to put behind your ad spend. For example, with Meta’s Conversions API, marketers can increase performance and efficiency by connecting directly to their brand’s marketing data to optimize ad targeting and decrease cost per result. Combining the power of AI with your own data can fuel delightful ad experiences that enhance – not disrupt – your audience’s ad experience to drive more meaningful, long-term connections to your brand.
Prioritize everyday interactions as much as tentpole marketing moments
Modern brand building requires the understanding that everyday moments hold the same scale and impact as major tentpole advertising moments. For example, 200 billion Reels are watched daily on Facebook and Instagram. That means delivering a frictionless online transaction or reposting a customer’s Instagram Story may have a more lasting impact on consumer perception than a standalone ad campaign.
Frequent, light-touch, everyday moments can have a lasting impact on brand loyalty. Leading marketers prioritize small engagements alongside major campaigns. For instance, a global sports drink brand known for its presence around key cultural and sports moments also found that its everyday activations drove a significant impact on its long-term equity. Its campaigns on Meta drive 61% of media’s total contribution to preference, a key metric for the brand, outpacing traditional media like TV.
Brand loyalty isn’t fading, it’s just expanding. In the modern world, people value shared experiences and unique stories from their peers and favourite brands. It’s up to marketers to work against the grain and move between contradictions – from your brand to their stories, serendipity to data-driven predictability and major moments to everyday interactions.
Explore the captivating design journey of Copper, showcasing its vibrant visual identity and brand evolution. Dive into the art of branding and visual identity with our insightful analysis.
In the ever-evolving landscape of brand identity and business relations, Copper’s latest design venture stands out as a testament to creativity and strategic thinking. Spearheaded by Creative Director Aaron Poe at the renowned studio Ueno in 2018, the project marks a significant leap for the company, formerly known as Prosperworks.
The journey of Copper’s rebranding is a fascinating tale of collaboration and innovation. Aaron Poe and his team, including talented individuals like Andrea Mata, James Rice, Jessica Volodarsky, Keene Niemack, Megan Miller, Valgeir Valdimarsson, and Troy Stains, embarked on this transformative venture with a clear vision. Their goal was to craft a brand identity that resonates with the essence of Copper – fostering thriving business relationships in this relationship era.
What sets Copper’s design apart is the harmonious blend of classic and contemporary elements. The use of beautiful serif typography melds seamlessly with a vibrant colour palette, creating a visual language that is both inviting and authoritative. This strategic choice not only highlights Copper’s commitment to tradition and reliability but also its adaptability and forward-thinking approach.
The rebranding initiative extended beyond mere aesthetics. It involved a comprehensive overhaul of Copper’s brand strategy, starting with a thoughtful renaming process. This change was not just cosmetic but deeply rooted in the company’s ethos and future ambitions. The new name, Copper, reflects the company’s core values and its dedication to building and nurturing lasting business relationships.
Moreover, the rebranding effort included a revamp of Copper’s website and out-of-home advertising. These platforms were transformed to convey the new brand identity effectively, ensuring a cohesive and impactful presence across all mediums. The redesigned website now serves as a digital embodiment of Copper’s philosophy, with an intuitive user interface that enhances visitor engagement.
In essence, Copper’s rebranding journey is a stellar example of how design can be leveraged to redefine a brand’s narrative. It’s a case study in how strategic design choices can align with a company’s vision, breathing new life into its identity and fostering stronger connections with its audience. As we delve into this remarkable transformation, we are reminded of the power of thoughtful design in shaping the future of businesses.
Branding and visual identity artifacts
For more information make sure to check out Aaron Poe Linktree
Supplement industry and coworking spaces thrive on branding, not just product, and success hinges on targeting and differentiating for specific markets.
The success of businesses, including supplement companies and coworking spaces, largely depends on their branding and positioning to stand out from competitors — even when their core products or services are similar or the same.
Companies must identify and understand their ideal customers to tailor their branding and marketing efforts effectively.
A strong, unique brand that resonates with the intended audience is key, as it is not the generic product but the relationship and the experience of the customer that builds loyalty and defines success.
I recently learned something that blew my mind.
It’s obvious that a lot of companies sell supplements. But there are a lot fewer supplement manufacturers than there are these companies that sell supplements. Which means—I learned—that many supplement companies all get their products from the same manufacturers.
So the success of these supplement companies comes down to marketing, branding, positioning and target market.
Which is kind of crazy, right?
But it’s an incredible example of how understanding who you are and who you serve is your biggest differentiator.
For example, one supplement company may target athletes, and their brand may evoke feelings of power, endurance, discipline; another may target women over 50 and focus their brand around staying active, living a quality life and keeping up with their grandkids; and a third may target college-age students and create a vibe of hangover recovery, mental sharpness and sleep support.
And they could all be selling the same products—although presented very differently.
And the same goes for coworking spaces.
You all have desks, fast Wi-Fi, meeting rooms and good coffee. But that’s just the supplement—that’s just the product—the thing that everyone has. It says nothing about who you’re for, how you help them and why you’re the right choice for a particular person.
There’s zero branding or positioning in the fact that you have meeting rooms and coffee. So does every coworking space in the world. Maybe you have a location advantage, but that’s only an advantage until another space moves in. Maybe you have a price advantage, but competing on price is a race to the bottom, which I don’t recommend.
Your brand is not your chairs, meeting rooms, Wi-Fi, coffee machine or even event programming. It includes all of these things, but every coworking space has these and the future is coming fast. There will be many times as many coworking spaces in the next few years as there are right now.
So, since you don’t want to sell generic supplements or a generic coworking space, get to work creating and strengthening your brand.
Who are you for? Who is a perfect fit for your space? Who will benefit the most from joining your community? Figure this out and then go find them.
Focus all your energies on attracting your best-fit members. You can’t serve everyone, and trying to do so will result in a diluted, vanilla brand that truly attracts or serves no one.
Imagine a supplement company trying to target athletes, women over 50 and college students all at the same time.
It doesn’t work with supplements, and it doesn’t work with coworking.
Cat Johnson is an industry-leading brand community coach for coworking space operators around the world. She runs Coworking Convos and The Lab marketing club for indie coworking spaces. She writes about coworking, content and community in her weekly emails and blog posts at catjohnson.co
Your impact on the perception of your organization is more significant than ever, and this is where personal branding becomes a key tool to leverage.
As a CEO of your organization, you are likely thinking about investing in your personal brand, but you are likely also hesitant. My personal branding agency works with GenX CEOs from across the globe, and I can assure you that you’re not alone in your hesitation.
As a GenX’er — member of the often called “forgotten generation” — you did not grow up with a cellphone in your hand and did not develop a habit of sharing every single opinion and all your whereabouts online. Many of the leaders we speak with hesitate to put themselves out into the public eye because they have no affinity for the spotlight. Instead, they want to focus internally — on building a world-class organization, scaling teams and inspiring enviable organizational cultures. And of course, many CEOs have internalized the importance of discretion – choosing battles with careful deliberation to avoid any controversy.
The importance of personal branding for modern leaders
And yet, the world we live in has changed. Hiding behind the proverbial curtains of our organizations is no longer an option. Research shows that nearly 50% of Millennials expect CEOs to speak out, and this number is growing year to year. Silent CEOs risk criticism from employees, the media and certainly consumers.
Edelman Trust Barometer study showed that workers expected their employers to take a stance on a variety of societal issues, including vaccine hesitancy (84%), climate change (81%), automation (79%) and racism (79%).
Whether generated internally or externally, the pressure to have a more visible public profile is more prevalent for you than ever. And it certainly comes with a myriad of risks to mitigate. The court of public opinion can be merciless when it comes to hot-topic issues. Just ask the CEO of Anheuser-Busch about it!
And before you use the Brendan Whitworth example as another reason why a low profile is the winning strategy, let me offer a paradigm shift. I posit that the very reason Whitworth and Anheuser-Busch have faced the amount of backlash we all saw is not because of a public stance, but rather because of a knee-jerk decision to capitalize on a trend. The trend of an influencer-du-jour.
You see, in branding — both corporate and personal — it is crucial to first understand what your brand actually is and what it stands for, and then remain “on brand” across all marketing efforts. Anheuser-Busch did not do that. And neither did many of the “cancelled” CEOs you think of when considering your own public presence.
Let’s use their examples as a reminder of the crucial importance of going through the process of brand discovery, creating a personal brand architecture, and then aligning all communication to remain “on brand” at all times.
It all begins with identifying a brand positioning for your personal brand. And, by the way, if the term “personal branding” feels overly narcissistic and unrelatable, simply replace it with “leadership branding.”
Brand positioning
What is it and how do you identify yours? In personal branding, brand positioning is a way to express who you are or what you stand for in a singular word or phrase. In order to define yours, you need to zoom out — away from what you do, away from the vertical you serve, and as close as possible to the essence of your core beliefs.
A personal brand positioning is typically a reflection of a core:
Belief
Value
Trait
If you have discovered your purpose, the WHY in Simon Sinek’s terms, the question to ask is: WHY is that your WHY? Please forgive the tautology, and focus on uncovering what core belief fuels that purpose.
For one of our clients, his brand positioning is expressed as “timeless principles.” This is a reflection of his core values: He is someone who believes in the power of a handshake over a signed agreement and investing in gold over crypto. Another brand positioning we developed for a client was “interiority” — the “inner space” of physical spaces, with feelings over things at the core. Her WHY as an interior design entrepreneur is to give people a sense of a home, and the core belief behind that “why” is that spaces are built out of things, but their key purpose is to create feelings and memories.
My brand positioning is cantered around “radical authenticity.” I believe in taking a stance against censorship in every possible form, including self-censorship and censorship of every opposing opinion (cancel culture is the stuff of nightmares for me).
Here are some exercises to help you uncover yours:
Build out your “lifeline.” Identify the most significant moments of your life, both personal and professional. Look for patterns. What keeps surfacing for you? Engage a qualitative researcher or a personal branding agency if you are stuck.
List out your core values. Is there one that expresses the true essence of who you are?
Do you have a point of view on something that is so unshakeable that you would defend it at any cost?
Now take what you uncovered and hand it to a branding specialist — or put on your own creative hat — to turn it into a concept that you can “own.”
What to do next
This is merely step one. It is likely the hardest piece of the branding puzzle, but it’s the one that allows you to align all of the other pieces of the personal branding architecture. Before you step out into the spotlight, you will need to have clarity on your:
Brand descriptors: How do you want to be perceived?
Brand voice: How do you want to sound, both digitally and offline?
Content pillars: What topics do you want to be associated with, and which ones do you want to stay away from?
CEO story: Gone are the days of the boring bios that nobody wanted to write, let alone read. Research shows that storytelling helps release cortisol, dopamine and oxytocin in the brain — all chemicals that enhance human connection, empathy and an emotional response. Replace your corporate-sounding bio with one rooted in storytelling. You will use its components for your social media profile, speaker page and when you’re introduced at events.
I spend my days speaking about the importance of personal branding with CEOs individually and from global stages. The hesitations are the same regardless of geography and, yet, so is the understanding that personal branding is inevitable for the modern leader. With 82% of people more likely to trust a company when its senior executives are active on social media, and with 77% of consumers more likely to buy when the CEO of the business uses social media, your impact on the perception of your organization is more significant than ever. Will 2024 be the year you build and scale your personal brand?
Co-Founder of Brand of a Leader. Marina Byezhanova is an entrepreneur, global speaker and university instructor. She has spoken to audiences in North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Her mission is to inspire entrepreneurs to stand up, stand out and to be radically authentic through the power of their personal brands.
Rimowa and Under Armour joined Vogue Business and Bolt in New York City for an evening of discussions on how to build a smarter brand online and beyond.
Winning over customers online and beyond — whether you’re a luxury brand or a sportswear company — requires smart loyalty strategies and investment in technologies that drive next-level customer experiences.
This was the topic of discussion at the recent Vogue Business event at Legacy Records in New York City, in partnership with Bolt. On the heels of the NRF Big Show, we invited Jim Dausch, Under Armour’s chief consumer officer, and Jerry Wang, Americas director of e-commerce at Rimowa, to share their approaches to building their respective brands, while Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla, addressed the crowd on how e-commerce is evolving in the year ahead. They were joined by executive Americas editor Hilary Milnes.
Photo: Paolo Verzani
For Dausch, who joined Under Armour last year after spending over two decades at Marriott, cracking customer loyalty is the key to success for the sports brand’s e-commerce strategy. At the centre of his plan to increase loyalty is the mobile app, which Dausch says will be the main touchpoint for the brand’s most-engaged customers. “It’s the most-direct relationship you can create with a customer. Even if you’re doing well [on the web], often that traffic is still coming in through an intermediary, like Google or somebody else,” Dausch says. “And so once you can take them out of the picture and build that direct relationship with the customer, on the same device where they’ve got their friends and their family and everything else, you’ve made it.”
Customers are then rewarded for their loyalty via product previews or tickets to the Super Bowl. Technology also plays a role: AI has promising use cases in the way Under Armour sets up its e-commerce pages, by using what the brand knows about the customer to deliver the most-relevant products to them first as they scroll the site.
Photo: Paolo Verzani
Wang, who joined Rimowa in February 2020, says that over the course of the pandemic the customer began to skew younger. The brand found that this new audience wanted to see pieces in person before buying them, so they hop from online touchpoints, to stores, back to online — meaning the brand has to be agile and consistent in how it shows up across these channels, as well as flexible in how it tracks conversions. The main selling point for online customers, Wang says, is the convenience. To get new customers in the door, the brand is experimenting with live chat and live streaming.
All of it amounts to a better customer experience, no matter how long you’ve been buying from the brand. “This is the year of ‘clientcare’,” says Wang, who notes that the brand doesn’t discount but offers 100-year warranties and high levels of customer service — all things she believes will be a competitive advantage this year.
We were delighted to have Chris Johns and Jim Power join us on Tuesday 27th of February for our Toolkit webinar.
76 states will have elections of one kind or another during 2024. Some analysts think that will be the largest number in history. A lot of those elections could be very consequential.
We start the year with Taiwanese elections – the outcome could well provoke China, widely thought to be preparing for a possible war by the end of the decade. We end with the possible return of Trump. How bad could that be? Unimaginably bad.
5G provides quick response and loading times through low latency, transforming mobile shopping into a seamless experience.
Humans have incredible capabilities to advance the technologies around us. We’ve created transformational technologies that save lives, like MRI machines and stoplights, to revolutionary handheld technologies like the iPhone and wireless headphones.
But there’s a broader network of technology that keeps all of our pieces of tech fast, fresh, and valuable, and without it, we’d be stuck with slow loading periods and laggy connections. 5G is the latest generation of mobile networks, and it’s designed to create a new kind of network to keep us connected and efficient.
5G is the new global wireless standard, following in the footsteps of 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. 5G wireless technology should provide ultra-low latency, increased availability, higher network capacity, and more reliability.
It will change the speed of everything we do with our tech, from online gaming to making phone calls. But 5G also promises to transform how we use our mobile devices to shop online. Here’s how.
In 2022, e-commerce was responsible for more than $800 billion of revenue in the US and is projected to grow to $1 trillion next year. 5G promises to aid in that growth by meeting consumers’ computing demands, such as quick response times, fast loading, and virtual try-on.
Ultra-low latency for seamless shopping
Low latency is a characteristic of a computer network that can process high volumes of data with minimal delays. Low latency will allow us almost real-time access to digital showrooms and customer service agents.
When a page takes too long to load, consumers quickly lose interest as their willingness to wait significantly decreases. So, when e-commerce companies take advantage of low latency, they’re helping their business maintain high sales, as customers are less likely to click away from their site.
James Blake, retail consulting practice leader at Vertex, explains that low latency will help e-commerce brands meet consumer demands. He also says that companies that can meet consumer demand the fastest and the most intuitively will be the winners in the e-commerce industry.
“The goal should be an online shopping experience so fast and snappy that customers become fully engaged and immersed in the product or service as opposed to being frustrated or distracted with sluggish websites,” he says.
Justin Day, CEO at Cloud Gateway, shares the same sentiment as Blake, agreeing that companies don’t necessarily need to be the best, but they do need to be the fastest.
“Shoppers now demand instant access, and as latency improves, we lose our tolerance for any kind of perceived delay,” Day says.
And lower latency doesn’t only promise to meet customers’ demands, as 5G’s low latency will help the enterprise remain competitive and up-to-date on business metrics. Parm Sandhu, VP of enterprise and 5G products and services at NTT LTD, explains how companies can use low latency to improve customer satisfaction and enhance brand loyalty.
“5G and edge computing enable real-time logistics, such as location tracking of inventory, faster shipping, real-time product information access, and updates, all of which translate to improved customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, which translates to revenue,” Sandhu says.
The more we live online, the more stress we put on current networks. Each signal you send from your devices must be processed via broadband: cables, fibers, routers, and wireless transmission.
In each information processing step, minor delays add up and affect your wait times on a specific website or application. Thus, 5G hopes to decrease these delays’ instances and duration to provide a seamless user experience.
5G and extended reality enhance visuals before buying
Extended reality, or XR, is an umbrella term including augmented, virtual, and mixed reality. Essentially, XR is an extension of reality that uses technology to modify your reality by adding virtual elements to your physical environment.
A great example of XR is Apple’s Vision Pro headset, as the device doesn’t fully immerse you into a digital environment like Meta’s Quest headset but adds virtual components to augment the space around you.
But XR is not limited to headsets. XR can be used with a smartphone — chances are you’ve used it already. Amazon already offers mobile shopping experiences that incorporate XR technology. When shopping for furniture on Amazon, users can use the “Room Decorator” feature to place digital furniture in their homes before buying it.
A yellow couch digitally places in a living room with Amazon Room Decorator. Screenshot by Jada Jones/ZDNET
Birkenstock offers a digital try-on feature allowing users to point their phone’s camera to their feet to see which colour and shoe style looks the best before they make a purchase.
Birkenstock Boston Clogs places on feet with Birkenstock’s virtual try-on feature. Screenshot by Jada Jones/ZDNET
Low latency promises almost real-time feedback for consumers to make XR the best mobile shopping resource for retailers and consumers. 5G’s low latency means minimal disruptions and sharper imagery can make the virtual try-on experience more enjoyable and accurate for consumers.
Blake says that XR working with 5G’s low latency will aid in retailers offering users a more personalized shopping experience, similar to how generative AI chatbots and virtual assistants have made customer experience faster and more immersive.
“5G could result in empowering retailers to deliver richer, more interactive mobile apps with higher quality videos, images, and animations not historically possible without sacrificing performance,” he says.
Stuart Greenslade, Kyndryl UKI network and edge practice leader, says that XR will eliminate the annoying parts of clothes shopping, like waiting in line for a dressing room. But he says that retailers will also have an advantage with XR try-ons, but XR may reduce the need for physical stores.
“For retailers, it means they won’t have to stock huge amounts of inventory on-site because consumers will be able to virtually try on the clothes before ordering, reducing theft, having AI suggest alternatives, matching accessories pushing baskets up and increasing accessibility of new ranges,” he says.
Consumer access to 5G
5G promises a long list of innovative speeds and benefits for consumers and retailers. But implementing 5G worldwide has challenged telecommunications companies, especially in the US.
Companies like T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T have boasted about 5G for years but have experienced many roadblocks to achieving 5G speeds.
First, many Americans lack 5G compatible devices, although the gap is closing. As more smartphone manufacturers debut phones with 5G connectivity, the chances of an American owning a 5G phone are getting higher, but not 100%.
Millions of Americans still do not have access to 5G networks due to unforgiving terrain and infrastructure, and it will remain a challenge for telecommunications carriers to reach those parts of the country.
Still, more and more people are connecting 5G as the years go on, but without total adoption, its promises could remain unfulfilled.
Feature Image Credit: Francesco Carta/Getty Images
These are among the brands known as “loyalty juggernauts.”
Levi Strauss, Nike, T.J. Maxx, Walmart, Dollar Tree, TikTok, Costco, Sephora, Zappos and Amazon led in their respective categories in an index measuring loyalty and customer engagement.
According to the 27th annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, those are some of the brands that are “‘loyalty juggernauts” — brands of such overwhelming economic force that their ability to meet expectations makes them far more powerful than universal awareness alone,” said Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys, the New York-based brand engagement and customer loyalty research consultancy. The index examined customers’ relationships with 1,200 brands in 114 categories. Some 95,607 consumers, ages 16 to 65, were surveyed.
For example, Levi’s won in the apparel category (91 percent); Nike won in athletic shoes (89 percent); T.J. Maxx was in the top position in department stores (79 percent); Walmart won in discount (82 percent); Zappos won in online shoes (90 percent); Costco won in price clubs (89 percent), and Amazon came in first place online (96 percent). The percentages indicate their ability to meet expectations consumers hold for the ideal (100 percent) in their category.
“This loyalty paradigm has changed dramatically since the ‘Cola Wars’ of the ’70s,” said Passikoff. “Today, loyalty — and consumer choice — don’t come down to one-or-the-other option. Today’s loyalty bottom line comes down to consumers’ deepest expectations, and how they feel which brand measures up best. Customer behavior and brand loyalty are now almost entirely governed by emotional values related to expectations and expectations grow constantly.”
Passikoff noted a few economic facts that substantiate the cost-and-effort effectiveness of brand loyalty strategies. For example, it costs 16 times more to recruit a new customer than keep an existing one. A 5 percent increase in loyalty lifts lifetime profits per customer by as much as 78 percent, and a 5 percent loyalty increase is equal to a 12 to 21 percent across-the-board cost-reduction program.
He noted that being a loyalty juggernaut moves brands beyond primacy of product, distribution, ad budgets, even pricing. Being a loyalty juggernaut essentially commands category leadership. “The ability to meeting those very high consumer expectations better than the competition acts like the ‘super glue’ of loyalty,” he said. “Brands create a virtually unbreakable bond with customers.”
Feature Image Credit: SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES
How quality, personalised printed materials can allow brands to reconnect with customers.
In a digitally saturated world, engaging customers in a meaningful way is harder than ever before. Digital communications are appealing for many businesses as they can be easily measured, are relatively cheap and are able to reach consumers wherever they are. However, to truly put customer engagement back at the heart of campaigns, businesses need to diversify.
Customers are becoming increasingly aware of how they are being targeted online, leading to growing digital fatigue. The sheer volume of digital communications is causing many to switch off and opt out – and actively seek ways to reduce their intake of online content. In fact, according to Hootsuite’s Digital Trends Report, 42.7% of internet users globally are now using ad blockers, demonstrating that digital only campaigns are no longer enough to influence people effectively.
In response, businesses are reassessing their communication methods and re-exploring avenues to reach both customers and prospects outside of the digital world. This is where integrating high-quality, uniquely personalised, printed materials into the communications mix can offer an opportunity to re-connect with customers and build brand loyalty.
Achieving a competitive edge through print
(Image credit: AzmanL via Getty Images)
Print can bring the cut through that brands are looking for in a predominantly digital environment. With the flood of emails in customer inboxes, the unique message each is trying to convey is getting lost and subsequently lacks impact. Content that flashes on and off the screen can be quickly forgotten by consumers as they are served the next ad moments later.
Print offers a promising alternative and an addition to the communication mix which needs to be considered due to its tangibility, which leads to improved brand recall and a higher level of information retention. The fact that it’s different and tactile to the other content customers are served means it is more likely to linger in their minds for longer. Individuals also have more control over when they choose to engage with a printed asset which leads to a better focus on the material, unlike digital communications that are designed to be served wherever customers are online.
Seizing the ‘in-house’ opportunity
To capitalise on the benefits printed content can provide, many organisations are turning to third parties and specialist print shops for their printing needs. In Europe, the majority of businesses outsource their colour print material, but with operating costs rising as a result of the current economic backdrop, many will likely be looking for ways to minimise extra spend where possible.
While there are many reasons outsourcing can work and offer advantages, in-house printing offers both the benefits of increasing internal productivity, with the opportunity to boost customer engagement through the flexibility it provides.
Enhancing customer engagement
First of all, in-house printing removes all the additional time intensive administration associated with outsourcing, such as choosing a provider, signing contracts, and processing payments. More importantly, cutting lead times offers the opportunity to increase customer engagement as it helps businesses to bolster content relevancy. They can be more flexible with their communications and adapt campaigns at short notice to align to the latest trends – or capture immediate competitive opportunities as they arise.
Personalisation is also a critical way to have a longer lasting impact on individual engagement, as individuals are more likely to turn to brands that offer them a relevant and personalised experience. With in-house print capabilities, this is easier to achieve, as businesses can change and customise documents for each individual or group at no extra cost.
Customers also value quality, and with in-house capabilities this grants businesses more control over the end-product. By having a say in the devices that they choose, organisations can achieve a high-quality output consistently and can check quality regularly. With people more naturally inclined to remember poor brand experiences over good ones, this highlights the importance of getting the quality of your printed materials perfect every single time.
Bolstering internal productivity
Outsourcing print may be a short-term cost saving, however, bringing print capabilities in-house also helps to reduce operating costs well into the future. While investing in hardware requires upfront investment, it is more cost-effective long term as it removes the need to pay for external support each time a new printed asset needs to be produced. With the right technology, internal operating costs can also be streamlined through full usage visibility that helps to optimise the internal print environment.
Security is another factor that in-house printing can help to resolve. Whether preparing for a product launch or handling sensitive internal communications, investing in internal printing capabilities improves data security by keeping sensitive material within the company infrastructure. This avoids the need for external parties to have access, whilst also removing additional contract administration related to disclosure.
Striking a balance
(Image credit: Tom Werner via Getty Images)
Digital communication will always have a place in engaging customers, however, as attitudes towards online platforms are changing, digital only campaigns no longer serve all purposes. Thankfully, this does not mean businesses must choose between investing in digital and print technologies, but instead they should be seen as complimentary systems.
Print is an opportunity for businesses to increase engagement and reconnect with customers in a meaningful way. Bringing print capabilities in-house can offer internal benefits, greater control over the process from start to finish and increased flexibility.
But it’s true value lies in the ability it has in elevating communication to the next level, in a format that can provide a more creative and memorable experience that can be personalised to demonstrate the true value of the customer relationship.
Carlotta is Production portfolio Marketing Manager at Canon UK and Ireland, overlooking the Product Marketing side of all the Production portfolio, spanning digital to inkjet, cutsheets to roll to roll to suit every customer need across all markets. She’s passionate about production and commercial print and has launched several new products and accessories, engaging with stakeholders and developing new product propositions. Her approach is 360 degrees, believing in the integration of hardware and software to provide customers with a complete solution for creating outstanding output. Carlotta has a proven background of over 10 years in Product Management and Brand Marketing in global B2C and B2B organisations.
Richard Stewart
Richard Stewart is a B2B Marketing Manager at Canon UK & Ireland and is responsible for their workspace portfolio, which includes print and scan devices, output management software and their document and information management solutions. Richard has always had a passion for technology and has over 19 years’ experience in both B2B and B2C marketing functions, using this passion to help people and businesses to achieve their goals by linking customer pain points with technology led solutions.
Ever felt invisible? We share the world with 8 billion other people, and it’s easy to feel like you’re fading into the background in the hubbub of the city. Likewise, every business shares its industry with a huge number of competitors in a crowded market.
Sure, you might be more affordable, reliable, or innovative than your competitors, but your customers don’t know that for sure until they’ve tried you. Before that happens, you have to stand out from the crowd.
The way to do that is with clear brand identity design. A tight brand identity communicates your difference to your customers, sets you apart from your competitors, and makes you memorable to anyone who has used your products or services already.
Brand identity design is the sum of every visual and tonal branding choice your business makes. When it’s done well, it creates a coherent identity that gives you a relationship with customers that transcends the transactional.
The truth is, if you want to build a business in the 2020s, you need to build a brand. So let’s dive into brand identity design.
What is brand identity?
When you shop with the businesses and brands you love, you feel something.
IKEA doesn’t just make furniture, it furnishes homes with thriving families crafting their individual lives inside. Louis Vuitton doesn’t just sell bags, they sell luxury, and anyone buying a Louis Vuitton bag gets to feel, for a moment, a sense of that luxury in their lives.
This is brand identity: it’s how your customers, and potential customers, view your brand. It encompasses your mission, your values, and your brand tone.
Brand identity is built through various channels and strengthened in every interaction with your customers, but it is communicated in the first instance through the very first things your customers notice about your brand: your name, your logo, your tagline, and the wider visual elements of your brand.
Get the elements of brand identity design right, and you’re off to a strong start.
Why is brand identity important?
According to research published by the Economist, ‘brand’ creates around 30% of the value of companies in the S&P 500. A strong brand identity has a big impact on your bottom line.
Every successful brand has carefully crafted an identity so that its customers know exactly what the brand stands for. A brand identity connects your products or services with the lifestyle of your audience, and customers can have a meaningful experience when they shop with you.
In competitive markets, a strong brand identity ensures you stand out from your competitors and plays an important role in both reaching new customers and ensuring the loyalty of existing ones.
It takes work to create and maintain a brand identity, and that’s where brand identity design comes in. Brand identity design is the process of crafting your brand identity through your brand’s style choices, marketing and communication, and customer service.
A quick case study in brand identity design: The Netflix brand
Examine any one of the products and services you regularly use and you’ll see the elements of brand identity.
Take Netflix, used every day by millions of people around the world, and a quick analysis reveals:
A great, memorable name with a modern, disruptive feel and a clear link to the product.
An iconic logo, with arcing text reminiscent of the cinema experience.
A distinctive black and red colour.
Minimalist typography choices that emphasize ease of use.
A quirky brand tone on social media.
Image Source
Did Netflix grow into an online streaming giant by accident? No, they used clever brand identity design to do it.
Everything is considered, creating a consistent brand experience every time you open the Netflix app. In fact, they even use sound as part of their brand identity. You think of Netflix as soon as you hear that “badum”, right? Even the souped-up movie theatre version.
The bare bones of brand identity design are everywhere, once you open your eyes to them. Let’s take a closer look.
How to start developing your brand identity
To design a brand identity that fits your business and will resonate with your target audience, you first need to ask (and answer) a few questions.
1. What is my brand’s purpose?
Everyone launching a business has a big idea, and every idea has a story behind it. Identify the unique value proposition that your business offers its audience: what has driven you to start your business and what do you have that your competitors lack?
Your purpose is the foundation of your brand identity, and as you develop your brand identity design you’ll be able to communicate your mission to your audience at every step.
2. Who is my audience and what do they want?
Brand identity design isn’t just about you: it’s about building a relationship with your customers. Building a strong brand identity is a dialogue, so you have to understand who you’re talking to.
Conduct market research to discover exactly who your customers are, what they dream about, and what they want to hear from you.
At the same time, perform some industry analysis to understand your competitors’ brand-building projects. Ask yourself what they’re getting right and what they’re missing. Spotting key trends in your industry can give you some shortcuts in communicating your purpose with your audience.
3. What core tone will work for my brand?
Your brand tone is like the personality of your brand. It should communicate your purpose and values to your audience, in a way they’ll be receptive to based on your research.
Luxury brands communicate exclusivity and prestige through their brand tone, while disruptive brands might be cheeky and creative.
Here are some brand tone examples:
Cutting-edge and innovative
Quirky and playful
Warm and homely
Your purpose, your audience, and your brand tone will come together to define your brand. Now it’s time to communicate your brand identity to your audience: let’s take a look at brand identity design.
What are the elements of brand identity design?
Once you understand your brand identity, you can begin brand identity design. Careful curation of the imagery and style choices associated with your branding will enhance your brand identity, reinforce your values, and fix your brand in the hearts and minds of your customers.
1. Craft your logo
Your logo is the launching point for brand identity design. It will be the most consistent image accompanying your products and can provide a foundation for further style choices, like colour and font choice.
A good logo must always be simple and memorable, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple to design one. Your logo needs to evoke your brand’s purpose and values and be versatile enough to use across video and still image marketing marketing material.
Prioritize simple, block colours and clean lines to create an uncluttered logo that consumers can grasp at a glance. Nike’s iconic swoosh symbolizes movement and sports, while Google’s utilitarian logo is paired with a splash of colour. Both create timeless imagery to accompany the brand’s further design choices.
You should have a consistent colour palette to accompany your brand’s communications. As well as being functional (a predominantly black logo will fail to stand out against a dark colour palette) your choice of colours will also stir your customers’ emotions, so choose the right ones.
Read up on the psychology of colour to understand how your colour palette will influence your customers and relate to your brand tone. If you want to create an impression of security and trust, lean on blue tones while orange is connected with creativity and confidence.
Mailchimp has opted for a ubiquitous cavendish yellow for its brand identity design, a colour that’s memorable and energetic. And we can see how to colour choices of the fashion house and perfume brand Christian Dior emphasize luxury
The next ingredient in brand identity design is your typography, and the fonts you use can say a lot about you.
Burberry’s new serif font has a classy and timeless feel, while simple fonts like those across Google’s branding are friendly and appealing. You could even design a new font based on sketches or handwriting if creativity and personality are at the heart of your brand identity.
Your typography choices should align with your logo and color palette, and they should always facilitate understanding rather than confusion in your customers. Mixing typography can create visually appealing contrasts, but avoid overly elaborate typography that’s hard for customers to interpret.
We’re visual creatures, devoting almost half our brain processing power to what we see around us. That means a visual language, one integrating icons and graphics, is a powerful addition to your brand
Throughout your branding, ask yourself if you could say it with a picture and if so, what kind of imagery would appeal to your customers and remain consistent with your brand tone.
Google’s strict guidelines for imagery and icons create an intuitive visual language for customers. For your own, you might prefer artistic sketches that appeal to your customers’ creative side or something photo-realistic over computer-drawn graphics.
5. Keep it consistent
While there are many important choices within brand identity design, the choices you make should be fixed. It’s fundamental to the functioning of your brand that your design choices are consistent across your website, product design, social media, email newsletters and anywhere else you have the opportunity to use them.
Consistency is professional and it will reinforce trust in your brand. But more importantly, it helps get the message across and builds a coherent identity that customers begin to understand implicitly. Eventually, it might take nothing more than a splash of your iconic colour to remind your customers of the values that your brand is founded on.
Building a brand style guide alongside your brand identity design can help keep your brand consistent. Your style guide can document your chosen colour palette, typography, and visual language, it can quickly onboard new hires who are learning about your brand tone and it can streamline the process when you hire creatives for new campaigns.
A brand style guide can even outline the tone your employees take when talking to customers, the arrangement of shop floor displays, and the rules for sonic branding. Brand identity design begins with your name, logo, and the immediate visual components of your brand, but the strongest brands curate every instance of user experience to align with these fundamental elements.
Brand identity design examples
Think about any of the brands you love, and you’ll realize that they have a coherent strategy around brand identity design. The most successful examples of brand identity design aren’t obvious: these brands have created a brand identity that feels organic, and customers connect with these brands naturally.
However, it doesn’t happen by accident. Every brand, from Christian Dior to Mailchimp, has made key decisions about every aspect of their brand design. Here are some brand identity design examples to draw inspiration from.
IKEA
IKEA’s powerful branding gives them a strong top-of-mind awareness. The iconic colour scheme of their logo was inspired by their Swedish origins, but as well as being a patriotic nod to their homeland, it also effectively emphasizes the clean design and practical functionality they’re known for.
Even the name ‘IKEA’, in block capitals, combines pre-eminent practicality with a stylish and exotic twist.
Across IKEA’s branding, they use clean, uncluttered imagery, real photography over graphics, and prioritize neutral colour palettes.
This combination creates space for IKEA’s customers to project their desires onto their products, to the extent that the whole process of shopping at IKEA is one of self-actualization.
Oat milk brand Oatly follows well-established naming trends, with the -ly suffix immediately hinting that this is a disruptive brand outside the establishment.
They have created a quirky brand identity through their design choices, using subtly unaligned custom fonts to create an invitingly unprofessional feeling, and have perfected a warm, casual brand tone packed with offbeat humour.
Importantly, this humour is consistent across their social media, website, and product packaging to create a cohesive identity.
Oatly is a friendly brand integrating itself into the lifestyle of its users. These design choices might appeal to vegetarians and vegans already looking for alternative milk products, but by creating a wholly unpolitical brand identity, they effectively target young consumers from all walks of life.
Oh, and does anybody else see a cow in the black-and-white ‘Oatly Who?’ design above? Talk about subliminal.
Final thoughts
In a competitive business environment, the strength of your idea alone doesn’t guarantee success. You also need to communicate that idea to your customers, in a way that meaningfully connects your business with their lifestyle and aspirations.
That’s why building a brand identity is essential, and understanding brand identity design lets you optimize every detail of your brand to send the right message.
From a timeless logo, creative typography and a colour palette that leverages your customers’ psychology, brand identity design gives you the tools to build a powerful brand. Ready to get started? Check out our Brand Identity Design service at Squadhelp.
By Lotte Reford
Guest Author:Lotte Reford is Communications Lead for Squadhelp.com, an innovative naming & branding platform with more than 40,000 customers globally, from the smallest startups to corporations like Nestle, Philips, Hilton, and Pepsi.
