Outsource2Us shares 3 critical success factors for launching or relaunching your brand which are covered in our brand workshop.
Creating a new brand is an exciting time for any entrepreneur. Getting it right and creating a successful business brand isn’t always easy, but the Outsource2Us team having the experience in working with clients to make it happen. Here are some tips on how you can ensure a successful new brand launch or a brand refresh.
1. Research
Research is arguably one of the most important steps in developing your brand. Don’t begin the creation of your brand until you have finalised all required research for the basis of your brand. Keep in mind, in order to stay on top of the game in your industry that you will have to continue researching throughout the brand’s life.
Get to know your competitors. What do they promise the market, what do their clients like about them? What aren’t they doing that you could offer? What are they doing that you can incorporate? What do their design choices say about the services they provide? Are there similar style guides amongst your competitors?
Outsource2Us will browse forums and social media to gauge what the industry is lacking and how it can be improved, especially how you can differentiate your brand. Using forums is another great way to receive instant feedback on any brand and new concept ideas you may have.
2. Logos & Style Guides
Brand design is more than just logo design. It is important to have consistent typefaces, weights and colours throughout all of the material within your business. You need to be certain of your chosen themes for your brand as you will inevitably be seeing a lot of it throughout the brands lifetime. The positioning of the brand, what you promise the market, is arguably more important than the look and feel.
It will be very beneficial for you to create a campaignable and flexible logo. We work with you to envision how your logo will look across different platforms. Is your logo easy to make large, or make small? Is your logo recognisable without text? Does your logo remain strong without colour? How does it work on clothing, signage and other promotional items.
If you are including text in your logo, it could be a good idea to include this text either in body text, headings or advertising. You should try use no more than 2 – 3 typefaces in your branding. At Outsource2Us, we provide some excellent guides on selecting the right font for your business.
3. Brand Values
From the beginning of your business adventure, it is crucial to define your values and goals for the brand. Your employees should be made aware of these values as soon as they take up their role in your company. This will ensure that everyone expresses the value your brand offers the market in the same way, this helps build your brand awareness and ultimately drive new business. Creating visual elements around the office, developing an internal blog or using the company intranet, where your employees can read detailed information about the values that they are expected to uphold, will help in making an emotional connection between your employees and the brand.
You may be unsure of what you want the core values of your brand to be. Think about what you stand for as a person, ask close friends or family what they believe you strive for. It could be integrity, family, honesty, etc. Then be sure you understand the values your potential customers align with. There has to be a match to ensure maximum brand engagement.
