Brand Development

Back to: Business Planning 2 Marketing Basics: Video Course

Please note: the sound on this recording is a little low, you may wish to listen through headphones.

Branding is about presenting your business in a way that appeals to your market segment or – even more precisely – to your ideal customer. ​

​Branding often starts with the visual Identity you’ll be using across all marketing materials ie your logo, graphics, theme, colours, fonts, etc. ​

​But branding is more than the visual elements. ​

​Your brand story should be apparent everything you do. It flows through everything you do – whether it is your website design, your advertising, the sign over your door, even pricing strategy. ​

​It also incorporates your business reputation, what customers expect from you, the quality of your products and services, what other clients are saying about you, what level of expertise you are known for, etc. ​

​So, we’re going to look today at 2 specific branding elements which should be considered as you develop your marketing materials and marketing plan as a whole. ​

1. Your messaging: business name, taglines, vocabulary, and tone. ​
2. Your design elements: logo, colour, emotion.​

Both the messaging and design elements work together to create a theme. Often it is this theme that sticks with your clients long after they have seen your marketing. This theme can generate an emotional connection eg nostaligia, celebration, luxury; or more of a practical association eg efficiency, informational, value for money.​

​In order to bring this segment to life, we’re going to talk about these various branding elements in a couple of real-life example websites, but remember that branding will flow though ALL business marketing, from the headers on stationary to product packaging or the sign over a retail store doorway.

Here’s a slide created from elements of the Man Crates website – the link is on the slide. ​

​Rather than go over this slide, however, let’s take a tour of the website itself, and see if we can pick out some of the branding elements they have developed in terms of messaging and design

[Note: the commentary of the website is not included in these notes.]​

Now let’s do the same with Letterfolk. 

In the next video, we’ll take a look at the marketing methods you can use to build your campaign. See you there.