When developing or rebranding your business, it’s essential to think ahead about placements – where and how will any logo, messaging and offers appear later on?
To help you think about some of the areas where your brand may well feature, here is a checklist:
- Website
- Search engine result
- Social media
- Business cards
- Business stationery
- Email headers or footers
- Brochures/leaflets/flyers
- Building internal and external signage
- Vehicles (signwritten)
- Uniforms
- Promotional items such as mugs/pens/bags etc
- Point of sale
- Exhibition stands
- Banners
- Directory listings
You should view each and every one of these items as an opportunity to reinforce your brand.
Obviously things in the list above will all carry your logo (part of your brand identity), however you still need to think about how it will reproduce in different sizes, on varying materials and in colour and/or black and white, as well as in print or electronically. Our graphic designer can advise on the technical make up for each item if you need any guidance.
When a rebrand takes place and it comes with a new web domain, it’s easy to think about the above list but forget about the less obvious. We’ve been working on a rebrand project recently for an engineering company and created additional checklist points with a timeline so that nothing was forgotten. Things like changing email addresses, communicating changes to staff and customers, updating online listings and using domain redirects with an explanatory pop-up.
Through your messaging, you’ll want to maximise the touchpoints with your target audience, communicating a clear and consistent vision of what your business is delivering for them. A good way to convey the brand message is to have a short and concise brand strapline. This strapline (some call it a motto) can easily be used on everything without the need for lengthy explanations.
For example, a restaurant might want to wax lyrical about its fresh produce, extensive menu and fabulous service, but they can’t write that every time and everywhere. Instead, a strapline that says something like “Fresh, local, delicious food.” would give a good indication of what they offer. Or to get a bit more emotive, they could say “Fresh food that will make your tastebuds tingle”. A financial services company could simply list “Savings, Investments, Wills, Finance.” We get it. We don’t need any more detail.
In current times it’s easy to be put off by companies who have a strapline or brand message that talks about ‘great service’, or being ‘reliable’. It’s dull and we like to assume that any business is going to be doing their best for their customers, because they should be!
Below you can see some examples of companies where sometimes the strapline works well, some where it doesn’t really add anything (you can decide), and some that use just their strapline or just their logo alone because we all know who they are and what they stand for because of their previous brand and marketing work.
For more information about how and where to make the most of your branding or if it’s in need of a facelift, contact Shake It Up Creative at www.shakeitupcreative.com or put our next #ShakeItHUB in your diary so you can come and meet the team and ask any questions. See www.shakeitupcreative.com/shakeithub-free-marketing/ for dates and details.