HOW TO FIND YOUR BRAND STYLE

Whether you are starting up a brand new business, or if you have a currently existing company, developing a brand style is essential to fostering brand awareness, recognition, and recollection. If you are new start up, you have a blank slate to work with when it comes to discovering your brand style, considering that decisions regarding personality, aesthetics, message, philosophy, and more have most likely not been made yet. Additionally, if you are considering your brand style before beginning stages like picking the name and mission statement, there is the potential for these two parts to influence each other, creating a brand style that is exceptionally true to the business itself.

Now, if you are trying to find a brand style for a currently existing company, not to worry! Having an already established personality, philosophy, business name, etc. just gives you a direction to head in. You can analyze what aspects might be working for you, and then change whichever ones are not as successful. Everything is adjustable, but not everything necessarily needs to be adjusted. For existing companies, you have a choice of either updating the brand or completely rebranding.

WHAT IS BRAND?

Before deciding on what your brand style is, it is essential to have an understanding of what brand actually is. Brand entails much more than just what makes up the face of your company. Instead, brand includes everything recognizable about your business, such as the obvious appearance and aesthetics, the personality, the message and purpose, as well as the quality of the products or services you provide. All of these can be identified within a company, and it is crucial to have an understanding of how all of these come across to potential clients.

DEFINING STYLE

Now that there is a comprehension of what brand is, it’s also important to have a working knowledge of what style is. Style can have different meanings in a variety of scenarios, however, specifically in reference to brand, style refers to the aesthetics and the mood that the visual aspects of the brand evokes. Style is less about the actual technical specifics of the designs within the branding (though those are a part of it), and more so about the psychology behind the decisions that led to them as well as the emotions that they inspire.

PERSONALITY

Just as every individual has their own personality, each business has its own personality. This personality determines a lot of customer interactions, as well as how the company presents itself to potential clients. For instance, an IT company would most likely have a technical, down-to-business, factual personality, which would drive communications and interactions to be more straight to the point, no games, no frills. That is almost what is expected from companies of the sorts, and it might be off-putting for their personality to be any other way.

On the other hand, different company structures may have some more lenience with their brand personalities. One prominent example of this is the Wendy’s public relations/social media personality. They have recently become known for witty quips and light-hearted joking with customers via Twitter, which has been well-received by the public, thus proving the potential for company success if the right branding actions are taken.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

It is important to realize that all of these parts combine to make a unified brand, so they must be cohesive and make sense together. Your brand is made up of every recognizable aspect of your business, whether consciously realized or not. To make your brand style successful, make sure that all of the individual elements represent the core of the company. Decide what the personality is, develop the style by analyzing the psychology behind the pieces, and line it all up with the message you are intending to get across about your brand. Taking your time through this whole process increases the likelihood that the decisions you make are true to the company, and decreases the likelihood of having to rebrand in the future.

Is your company in need of brand style development, or a rebrand? Contact us today! https://mngragency.com/contact/