They consume your product, but they buy your brand.

Studies show that the top 4 aspects influencing customers' decision to buy are quality, convenience, value, and what goes into making the offering, however, 81% of customers report that, in addition to those, they also need to trust the brand, to commit and take the purchase decision. Can you survive without a good brand?

What is Branding?

Branding is more than a logo or a clever tagline. At its core, branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for your offering in the mind of your target audience. From you visual identity (logos, colors, typography) to your purpose, values, voice, and the resonance of your customers’ experience, branding gives your offering an appealing and memorable point of contact, allowing customers to have a closer, more intimate relationship with your product, and setting it apart from the competition. Jeff Bezos once said, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room. ” That’s branding in a nutshell.

What is Branding?

Branding is more than a logo or a clever tagline. At its core, branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for your offering in the mind of your target audience. From you visual identity (logos, colors, typography) to your purpose, values, voice, and the resonance of your customers’ experience, branding gives your offering an appealing and memorable point of contact, allowing customers to have a closer, more intimate relationship with your product, and setting it apart from the competition. Jeff Bezos once said, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room. ” That’s branding in a nutshell.

The word "brand" comes from the Proto-Germanic word "brandaz", meaning to burn. Initially used referring to the act of burning a mark on livestock using a branding iron, to claim ownership. Over time the concept evolved into our modern concept of a brand. Some of the original iron brand concepts still remains. For instance, a prominently displayed logo, with recognizable coloring, that displays professionalism and the values of the target audience, isn’t just alluring, it also communicates pride in the offering and the excellence that goes into making it, hitting two of the four chief decision influencing parameters (quality and ingredients). It also resonates, creating a kinship with the target audience, alleviating the marketing losses from the 81% exposed to the offerings and who do not buy over brand mistrust.

We can help you make sense of branding and provide assistance developing your custom brand, perfectly suited for the business tone you need to set for your application and target audience.

The High Cost of a Weak brand

Businesses that fail to invest in a solid brand strategy often experience a series of avoidable and costly issues:

  • Lack of differentiation: Without a clear brand, you fade into the noise. Your target customer doesn’t see you as unique, much less as superior.
  • Low trust and credibility: A weak or inconsistent brand erodes confidence in the business that offers it.
  • Ineffective marketing: Ads fall flat in all metrics without a solid brand being communicated. From catching and holding attention, to conversions and referrals.
  • Price Sensitivity: Without the perceived unique value, you’re forced to compete on price.
  • Poor customer loyalty: People don’t stick with things they don’t connect with emotionally.

Consider this: The rule of 7, states that on average, it takes 7 engagements for someone to consider purchasing from a brand, but without clear and consistent branding, people may not notice enough to register the accumulating engagements in their mind.

Why Branding Matters: The Numbers Don’t Lie

Still not convinced that branding is worth the investment? Let’s look at some compelling data:

  • 89% of shoppers stay loyal to brands that share their values (Fundera)
  • 77% of B2B marketers say branding is critical to growth (Circle Research)
  • 64% of consumers cite shared values as the primary reason they have a relationship with a brand (Harvard Business Review)
  • 55% of a brand’s first impression is purely visual (IOM)
  • Brand recognition can nearly double with the use of signature colors (University of Loyola)
  • 88% of consumers become loyal to a brand after 3 purchases (Yotpo)
  • Brand consistency has been linked to revenue increases of up to 23% (Forbes)
  • B2B customers are more than twice as likely to buy from brands that show personal values rather than business ones (Corporate Executive Board)
  • 84% of B2B marketers state their main goal is brand awareness (Content Marketing Institute)
  • 89% of HR leaders state that strong branding gives a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent. (Randstad)

We can go on and on with similar statistics for days, because there is consistency in findings among a wide variety of organizations and research studies. They all underscore a single critical point: Your brand is the bridge between your business and your audience. If that bridge is weak, unstable, or unclear – conversions, loyalty, and growth, all suffer.

Brand Strategy: The Blueprint for Success

A strong brand doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of intentional strategy that plays off of the strengths of the business, the needs and preferences of consumers, and the opportunities afforded in the market. A winning brand strategy most often will include:

Brand Strategy Services image.

Brand strategy is a plan to conquer the market by way of extreme differentiation.

  1. Brand Purpose: What is the reason for being of the brand? Customers are much more likely to buy from, trust, champion, and defend, companies with a strong purpose.
  2. Brand Vision: What will the brand look like in the future? A clear vision guides a brand towards an area of unique value.
  3. Brand Mission: What are the brand’s commitments today? This guides the actions of the team driving the brand to take actions aligned with the purpose.
  4. Brand Values: What are the actionable boundaries of behavior that will guide customer interaction? This is an integral part of the formation of a brand culture, which is the real connection with consumers.
  5. Brand Position: How does the brand fit the market in comparison with the competition? How is it superior in satisfying the target audience? Creating clarity in the brand position becomes the driving force behind what is presented to the market.
  6. Brand Personality: What attitudes, subjects, and personal traits resonate with the target audience. The brand personality is exuded through all communication of the brand.
  7. Brand Story/Heritage: (Optional) Stories are engaging, and one that speaks of the origin of a brand, and leads to a clear understanding of the attitude and values, and why the mission is so important, can tie everything together in a very memorable and compelling way. These stories can also pick up on connecting emotions like tradition and nostalgia.

Need help developing a brand strategy that synergizes with your business and product strengths, is in line with your target audiences’ preferences, and is geared towards opportunities and a firm position in the market? We can help.

Visual Design for Brand Logos

Being pretty is one thing. Being attractive to the target market and inspiring confidence in taking a decision to buy, is a completely different thing. Our work speaks for itself. Can you tell the tone of pride, assertiveness, and professionalism? How about the nuanced feels of elegance, sophistication, casual fun, playfulness, inspiration, dynamism, official authoritativeness, or sublime confidence?

Visual Design for Brand Logos

Being pretty is one thing. Being attractive to the target market and inspiring confidence in taking a decision to buy, is a completely different thing. Our work speaks for itself. Can you tell the tone of pride, assertiveness, and professionalism? How about the nuanced feels of elegance, sophistication, casual fun, playfulness, inspiration, dynamism, official authoritativeness, or sublime confidence?

Visual design must be aligned with all the brand strategy direction, as it will flavor and tie into the perception of the market known as the brand promise, which is what customers can reasonably expect the brand to deliver.

When a brand logo is well designed, it is not just art. Logos must be flexible enough to comply with a variety of needs. From being recognizable in a 16px X 16px favicon, to being interesting when scaled up on a billboard. From having a sense of depth, to being capable of single color printing (used stylistically in some powerful forms of media, and allows etching, 3D carving/printing, and embossing of the logo commonly used in signage and gifts). A good logo has the ability to adapt to those business needs, and more.

Logos must look sharp and organized, and have an element of wittiness that relates back to the brand promise to reinforce memorability. The design itself, of good logos, creates credibility and sets a tone that is positive to promote customer engagement. The design must also be timeless, avoiding the major trends/fads in design, to avoid feeling dated within a few years.

Colors also evoke emotions, purple is often associated with the divine or with inspiration, blue can inspire reliability and trust (sky and water support life), green can inspire renewal and hope (spring time) and environmental conscience, warm colors (yellow to red) can elicit youthful energy and passion, black and sharp contrasts can feel insightful (clarity of lines), less saturated colors can cast off a sense of elegance, sophistication, altruism, and confidence (think clouds and stratosphere), while full saturated colors can be more dramatic and convey intensity, and fun. Multiple colors can give an impression of levity, simple variety (could be for children with simple colors), exploration, verstatility, and inclusion, while few colors hint at a more tightly operated organization and/or a greater depth of focus in the offering. When colors are aligned with the purchase intent and values of the target audience, it can be very powerful.

Shapes can also elicit emotion. Sharp corners tend to feel unfriendly, structural, or product/process focused, while curves tend to feel softer, friendlier, more approachable, and focused on the customer and the relationship. Clear geometric shapes tend to convey organization and cohesion, free form shapes tend to convey creativity, slanted shapes can convey dynamism, an upswing in the visual balance can convey progress, animal figures can be endearing.

Brand Asset Design to the Max

So once you are clear about what your brand represents, where it is going, and how it fits the market compared to the competition. And once you are clear about the brand personality and the feel it must convey. You are ready to begin developing your brand assets. It is an iterative creative process and must be done with the input/evaluation/commentary of people within the target audience. Ultimately they should see themselves reflected in the brand. Brand assets we frequently work with include:

Logo

The face of your brand and a symbol that elicits emotions and connection to the products instantly.

Palette

A cohesive set of colors that elicit emotion and produce a suitable business tone, per color psychology.

Font Style

Lettering choices that are clear, aligns with the message and personality, and set the right tone for business.

Tagline

A brief, catchy, and witty phrase that makes a statement that distills your position among competitors.

Packaging

The container in which customers see products for the very first time is a key part of the brand experience.

Jingle

A catchy and brain worm type of riff intended to enhance sensory immersion and brand memorability.

Mascot

A character that adds personality and represents the brand values and mission and guides interaction.

Guidelines

A manual of best practices to implement all brand assets in a way that supports the brand strategy.

The process of brand asset design involves research, theorizing, creating assets, testing, evaluating feedback, and then starts again with research. Three iterations is usually a sweet spot. Less than three means the assets are not as good as they could be, and 6 or 7 iterations start having diminishing returns. Instead of becoming clearer, there is a tendency for the design to lose power to compromise, confusion, and complexity.

We assist small to medium sized businesses, in avoiding early mistakes in branding that may cost them dearly down the line. Brand assets that support your specific brand strategy must have consistency in tone and presentation, in order to reinforce each other in creating greater depth of sensory immersion and emotional engagement of the target audience, and enhance the memorability of each engagement with the brand.

Final Thoughts

In an age where attention is scarce and competition is everywhere, branding is your secret weapon. It’s not just how you attract people-it’s how you keep them. Companies that invest in strategic branding are the ones who stand out, survive, and scale.

Branding isn’t just design-it’s destiny. If you’re serious about growth, it’s time to treat your brand like the business asset it truly is. Reach out to us now. We are here to help.

Frequently Asked Branding Questions

When people within your customer base have become aware of your product and it’s unique benefits, branding it clearly with a fun, differentiated name will make it so they instantly recognize your offering among your competitors, increasing the chances they purchase your product.

When a brand is established, consumer perception is that the product delivers the brand promise, and other products are somewhat of a gamble. They may work well, but probably not. Products labelled with the brand can command a higher price than competitors offering a similar product, and people will be glad to pay it, and be proud of their purchase.

Interesting Fact:

In the early 2000s, Volkswagen launched a super sedan called the Phaeton, with specs that rivaled the Bentley Continental at half the price. It was the very best VW could offer. But sales fell very short of expectations... You would think that an established brand like VW, at a far lower price, would take away Bentley’s business. But Bentley’s sales were relatively unaffected. The reason is because Bentley is a very strong brand in the segment of luxury cars, where VW is not.

Strong brands develop a following. Customers who have become believers in the brand, fall in love with it, and return to purchase more products consistently. Even friends of the believers have more openness to try the product their friend loves so much. Customer loyalty to brands can be very intense, even to the point where customers can demand a say in the product and development of new products and become angry if they are excluded. It seems like a problem, but it is the contrary. That type of following makes a company extremely stable and allows it to be very profitable.

Interesting Fact:

Kraft Foods was sued over the trans-fat content of their Oreo brand cookies. They agreed to change their recipe to remove the health-risk in their product, only to find an enormous outcry from their loyal customer following, who did not want any alteration whatsoever to the product they loved so much.

When new competitors come into a market, they often are very loud and seem to advertise everywhere, and often try to entice people to try their product and gain new customers by offering lower prices than the established suppliers. Those who built their business based on the argument of price are now vulnerable to the new competitor. Those who developed strong brands will lose the least customers.

When a brand is strong, customers are more likely to remember the product and name, and when they speak with friends who are looking for a similar solution, they share their positive experience with the brand, which translates into greater sales.

When brands take root and become strong, competitors often try to take advantage and impersonate the leader with similar graphics and names. Imitations come out of the woodwork. A brand can receive trade protection from the Patent and Trademark Office, and beneficial rulings in courts of law, including injunctions for those encroaching on the brand and settlement proceeds for damages.

Strong brands are short and memorable, so when they are advertised, people have a greater tendency to remember and share the advertising message with others. Short strong brands also take up less space in ads, which is actually very important. Cluttered ads are less effective.

Studies of Recruitment officers around the world have shown that the brand recognition of the employer has great, favorable influence in the application process. The reputation of a brand that delivers on its promise to the consumer, conveys status upon the employees. The best candidates want to work with the strong brands.

The product and service make the offering superior. The main objective of the brand is to make the offering distinctive (stand out as different). Standing out isn't about having the brightest color. If competitors' brands are in yellows, oranges, and reds, then perhaps we can be blue... or green... Same with the iconography, attitude, values, and story. They don't have to shock, but they must have a substantially different feel to other brands in the market.

Visual branding must stand for what a customer can expect of the brand. If a customer cannot tell what you do quickly when seeing a brand's assets, it is likely to create confusion and reduce the market impact of the brand.

People purchase in a setting. For instance, a luxury apparel brand will not be purchased in a flea market. At least not at the premium price it is worth. Visual brand assets are a backdrop of sorts that must align with the ideal product purchase environment.

A brand's visual identity, must have a design and feel that aligns with the demographic and psychographic traits of the target audience. If you supply funeral services, your brand should not be extremely youthful, aggrandized, bright, humorous, or sexy. However, confident, mature, and compassionate consultance excellence, would probably resonate very well.

On average, it takes a person 7 contacts with a supplier before they decide to purchase (become a customer), and it takes a customer three purchases to feel brand loyalty. It is essential that every point of contact drives the same feel and appeal, so people progress towards their 7 contacts and 3 purchases to become loyal brand supporters.

A brand that is distinctive, clear in focus, resonates with the target audience, sets the right tone, and is consistent, will already be highly memorable in comparison to many, if not most, competitors. But name selection and graphic design can make a brand more memorable. For instance, short names that flow well phonetically, and are easy to spell, and visual graphics that reinforce the brand name, can make a brand easier to remember.

Our favorable perception and interpretation of new concepts, and the speed and depth with which we embrace them, is intrinsically related with the authority, familiarity, and alignment in the values perceived from the attitude with which the concepts are presented to us. Stated simply: If a brand has a relatable attitude that is highly regarded by the target audience, it will lower the barriers of defense and allow the offering to be considered quicker.

Some brand assets are intrinsically linked with the recognition of a visual brand identity, and all differentiatable businesses should have them.
  • Logo - The entire concept of branding is rooted in the mark left behind by a hot branding iron. Being the point of recognition that is central to a brand, it should be common sense, that having a logo is essential. The logo is the banner behind which your supporters rally, in the same way as patriots rally behind their flag...
  • Color Palette - The psychology of color is essential to create the setting that encourages your target audience to purchase from you.
  • Font Style - Fonts have personality and it is important to decide on styles that support the brand strategy.
  • Brand Guidelines - Using the assets in a clear and consistent way, is key to memorability and reinforcing the brand's presence, making it stand out among competitors.

Although they can be eliminated if there is pressure for space or simplicity in design, most businesses can gain very real benefits from have a succint and impactful tagline that ties directly into the most important strategic differentiation factor of the brand. Taglines are particularly useful for businesses for the following specific reasons:
  • Message Clarity - Taglines can help communicate a brand's value proposition or promise in a concise way.
  • Establish Positioning - When rebranding, changing the positioning of a brand, or establishing the brand position in a market that is not yet familiar with the offering, a tagline can help define what the brand stands for.
  • Greater Cohesion - When brands grow, there is a tendency to degrade in power due to confusion created by variations born from adapting to new geographies, launching new product lines, and expanding existing ones. A good tagline serves as an anchor point to bring everything together consistently, clarifying the brand message and impact.
  • Increased Emotional Engagement - Taglines are an opportunity to present the wit and attitude of the brand, which can resonate emotionally with the target audience.
  • Standing Out - When brands are seen side-by-side, having a compelling tagline can make your brand stand out among all others, and pique curiosity for viewers to explore it.

If your offering is experienced in a physical form. For instance, it is served in a bottle, cup, or glass, or is a food that is served wrapped, or is delivered in a box, etc. The customers' brand experience with the product (up to that point it is only the promise of a product) begins at the moment they see the packaging. It is a moment of heightened expectation and intensity, particularly for first time buyers. Packaging can be costly, but the reinforcement of a positive experience at that moment can be very impactful. Packaging can be particularly important for brands that have the following concerns:
  • Shelf Competition - If your product is selected by customers in a retail aisle that has your competitors' products, then packaging may be your single most important point of contact with your target audience. Spending on marketing, only to bring interested buyers to the aisle and have them decide on a better presented competitor... is not the aim of marketing. In a worst case scenario, after a long sales process, the fight for the intensely coveted shelf space, and the high expense of marketing your product locally, the retailer removes your product from its shelves due to low product rotation that resulted from poor packaging.
  • Unboxing Experience - Particularly with premium brands, and brands of items that are commonly given as special gifts, the packaging presentation can be critical to the brand experience. If we combine these three aspects: 1. Premium, 2. Gift product, and 3. Sold among competitors' on a shelf, as could be the case with high end chocolates box sets in a supermarket. The packaging could be so critical, that it alone could make or break your brand. It is so powerful a combination, that you can likely double the price of the second most expensive option on the aisle, and display your chocolate gift box in an amazingly luxurious and opulent presentation, with a backstory of Belgian roots, and discerning ingredients, and it will likely outsell many competitors.
  • Sustainability Positioning - Brands that are driven by a core value of being environmentally friendly, can demonstrate those values in the packaging, creating synergy with their marketing, and a satisfying experience that reinforces the buying decision.
  • Tactile Brand Interaction - Products that we classify as "touchy-feely", meaning that people sell themselves on the purchase when they have the product in their hands, can benefit from some types of packaging that allows better interaction.
  • Regulatory or Informational Needs - When a branded product requires assembly instructions, an operation manual, or other disclosures, those items within the packaging are a part of the brand experience of the customer and should be treated as such, using the brand guidelines.
  • Brand Connection - Included within the packaging, can be branded items that enhance the customer experience and depth of relationship. Like a brand sticker that provides extra advertising when happy customers proudly use them, warranty sign-up cards that provide contact information when sent in, quality certification / originality statement which reduces returns and deepens the customer relationship through greater peace of mind, and / or a pamphlet of available accessories and related products, which brings in extra sales due to the high conversion of a strong branded message to a pre-qualified lead. These all must be consistent with brand guidelines of course, but the benefit each of these additional branded items brings to the business, improves significantly when delivered alongside high quality, brand-appropriate packaging. They synergize together.

Jingles can make a brand more unique, engaging, attractive, and memorable. They may not be suited for many businesses, but can make a big difference in some scenarios.
  • Audio-First Channels - When marketing on the radio, ebooks, concerts, meeting rooms, podcasts, and other venues that deliver their message with heavy use of audio, jingles can leave a powerful impression, help the message stand out, and make the brand communication much more memorable.
  • Earworm Recall - When jingles are very contageous, they can keep members of the target audience experiencing brand recall for hours and even days. One exposure to a jingle could make the brand unforgettable, and that is worth looking into for many brands.
  • Emotional Tones - Similar to colors and descriptive words, sounds also have a psychology. Jingles that synchronize with the emotional setting in which the purchase decision takes place can have a positive impact on customer experience, brand recall, and conversions.
  • Mass Media Campaigns - Jingles are particularly well suited for advertising that is aimed in a less targeted way. They can be a topic of conversation, and improve awareness, prompting more virality and long-term retention of the brand message in people who will later become members of the target audience.
  • Brand Launches - When brands are first introduced in a market, it is often advisable to blanket cover the market so the brand is seen and remembered. There is a wave of curiosity that can quickly drive word of mouth and viral story effects. Jingles can help make each engagement more memorable, amplifying the message, and improving ROAS.
  • Brand Value Reinforcement - Some brands have strong values through which they connect with their target audience. Particularly when those values are related to a culture, ethnicity, or age demographic, a jingle that is aligned with those values can resonate in a big way.

Being an extra element to manage, and one that requires a lot of professional insight and effort to create well, most business can find a mascot to be more of a burden than a benefit in their brand building efforts. But there are situations where mascots are worth the expense, as they can bring true power to a brand.
  • Children and Family Oriented Offerings - The target audience has a duality in which it has to appeal both to the children directly, and their parents who take the decision to buy. Friendly mascots are often great for that purpose.
  • Long-Term Engagement - Instinctively we recognize people by how they behave, often moreso than their looks. Mascots like the Kool Aid Jug, Planters' Peanut, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Kellogs' Tony the Tiger, The Energizer Bunny, Epcot's Figment Dragon, Mickey Mouse, and M & M's talking candies, enhance long term recall. In a way, they grow on us in our hearts, as a friend might, particularly with children. Later in life, we often see the brand as a comfort producing experience.
  • Brand Personality - Brands whose strategy involves having a bold and engaging personality can often benefit greatly from the right mascot. Characters like the Geico Gecko, Progressive's Flo, the Marlboro Man, Land O Lake's Native American Woman, and Aunt Jemima's Cook. All drive a personality that adds to the brand's appeal.
  • Event Marketing - When your brand has large events with numerous attendees, mascots can make the experience more immersive, entertaining, engaging, and memorable, particularly before the main segment of the event starts.
  • Mass Marketing - Very large media campaigns require variety to maintain attention. A singular brand tone and visual identity, but multiple types of hooks, and engaging situations. Mascots can work well in adding variety, because of the many opportunities to create fun situations and communicate brand values in the form of a mascot's tone, attitude, and backstory.

Other important brand assets that may offer great success in the market and you may want to consider including in your brand are:
  • Internal Brand Framework - Printed policies that all employees are aware of, which include the brand strategy (vision, mission, values, story, positioning etc), and rules of interaction of employees with customers that reflect the internal brand culture of the business, like the brand's telephone etiquette, sales presentations and tone, customer onboarding process, handling of issues, delivery interactions, post sale follow up, and many other similar possible interactions.
  • Brand Iconography System - Icons are useful to maintain clarity and simplicity, and break up what could otherwise be an unappealing wall of text. If you will use icons, it is important to specify in your brand guidelines, the library and style of icons used in the brand, so they are consistent.
  • Brand Pattern - A stylistic choice that provides a background accent that enriches the visual interest of the brand and is unique and trademarked to the brand. The brand pattern can bring extra power, since the main objective is to be unique and different, and competitors can use similar colors and font, causing confusion.
  • Brand Graphic Design Style - Often times brands need to use images with graphic adaptations, or vector diagrams to illustrate ideas. It is good to have a clearly defined style that is consistent with the other brand assets.
  • Brand Voice - A voice that is used in audio communication, sometimes without the mascot, or in addition to it, and represents attitude and values of the brand. For instance, Harley Davidson has a strong, confident, no bs, down to earth, man's voice they use in their voice overs.
  • Brand Story - People are more likely to buy from brands they align with, and are more likely to pay attention to information presented as a story. So a good brand story that resonates can be very powerful.
  • Influencer Spokesperson / Ambassador - This is the use of a celebrity's status and influence as the brand voice. It can be tricky, as sometimes celebrities are involved in scandals, but can also be very powerful. For instance, Hanes had great success with Michael Jordan as their spokesperson.
  • Strategic Brand Collaborations - Sometimes, there are partnership opportunities that synergize. For instance, a brand of sports apparel, may find a good fit with a brand of sport watches, a brand of sports equipment, or shoes. There are many initiatives that can produce great synergy in results for both. Examples of strategic brand partners as part of the brand strategy, include Louis Vuitton America's Cup Challenger Series, movie features on McDonald's happy meals, and Star Wars Lego products.

We do not build brands without a clear strategy. We begin by studying your existing brand strategy to better understand they intentions, satisfaction, and experience behind transactions with customers. If you do not currently have a formal strategy for your brand, we can consult on a retainer basis to help facilitate defining your strategy. Unfortunately, there is a significant amount of time and effort that is required to be able to start designing a brand identity that resonates. Here is some key strategy information we will need to know.
  • Target Audience - Full demographic profile (who are they?), and in depth psychographics (preferences).
  • Value Proposition - What needs (physical and psychological) does the brand satisfy in the target audience?
  • Competition Landscape - Who are the dominant players that compete against you and what are they doing.
  • Brand Strengths - Are your customers weak in comparison to you in any particular area? In particular, we need to know where those strengths align with real market opportunities.
  • Market Positioning - How do you want your brand to be perceived among your competitors?
  • Core Strategic Statements - What are your mission, vision, values, culture, and story?
  • Marketing Channels Used - How do you currently reach your target audience?
  • Messaging - What does your current customer communication system look like? What ad copy and imagery are you using?
  • Brand Contact Points - Where do existing and new customers have contact with the brand? What is the setting in which they are buying?
  • Customer Brand Feedback - What is the experience of your customers with your brand? From their point of view.

This part involves summarizing the tone required. It is recommendable that we develop mood boards that approximate the feel we are aiming for with the visual identity, however, if your budget does not allow for it, we can simply agree on intent and dial in the tone using a set of brands in other industries that you feel could set the right tone that would be engaging to your target audience.

This is a quick step that is the start of the logo brainstorming process. Finding things that could be emblematic of the core strategy differentiation factors and energy the brand needs to display. Once this is agreed, we work on developing logos that could work, drawing from the nouns ideas and the feel we need to achieve.

We devlop between 50 and 100 very rough drafts of logos we feel could work for your application. We clean up, flesh out, and deliver 10 black and white, initial professional drafts of different logos we feel could work well for you. We evaluate the appeal and general feel of the logos, and with your input, select three from the batch, that we agree would best serve your purposes.

The three logos are developed into a basic visual branding system, with a free standing logo icon, wordmark logo, emblem logo, and brand pattern (if required). We deliver the 3 semi-final visual system drafts to you.

After you have taken the 3 brand visual systems and shown them to your team and customers, and there is feedback on which system is best, we take your feedback on final shape tweaks and colors, and implement them into a final draft of the visual brand system.

We deliver a pdf file with sections detailing your official brand assets and how to use them (and not use them) in order to present a consistent brand touch point across marketing channels and at every interaction with your customers.

This concludes the brand development process. But we do follow up with you to ensure the implementation is going well.

Would you go to a doctor who hadn't studied medicine? Or use an engineer who didn't have an engineering degree?

Online marketing has a very low barrier to entry, so many people with dreams of making easy money, can learn a small aspect of marketing and sell that service. Every day we encounter multiple claims, advice from self-proclaimed marketing gurus, and marketing implementations that are rather clueless. The amount of misinformation related to marketing online is staggering.

At Max Branded we not only have the formal education in marketing, but our founder graduated tying the concentration GPA with the valedictorian of his class. It is like needing a doctor and being treated by a doctor who graduated at the top of his class.

Our real world experience involves taking some of the world's top brands, like Nike™, Adidas™, Scott™, San Jamar™, Chef Revival™, Tork™, and Cellcosmet™, among others, into both domestic and international markets.

Most graphic designers that enter the field of brand design seek to deliver aesthetics they feel are beautiful. It is their name riding on the design after all. But the personal preferences of the designer can sometimes be misaligned with those of the target audience, the environment that encourages a purchase decision, the strategic goals of the brand, or the values that resonate with the target audience.

At Max Branded, we seek to deliver designs that feel right. Not just to engage the target audience, but also produce the emotional state in which they are willing to trust and take the purchase decision.

Below you will find a dozen samples of our work that are presented in line with two modern branding trends:

  1. DarkMode is preferable due to recent scientific studies that have proven it preserves the eyesight of guests.
  2. Studies have shown that having a dominant brand color in marketing communication can drastically increase the retention of the brand and it's message.

In today's environment where we frequently see greed and misrepresentation to unfairly gain an advantage, it can be hard to come across partners who will take ownership of their work, strive to deliver honest results, and live up to their agreements, as we do.

When we state what we believe, we can't guarantee it's 100% factually accurate. But we do guarantee it's what we believe to be true, and any mistakes are not intended to mislead anyone. With our formal education and experience that is a very meaningful guarantee. We strive to be trustworthy, and a big part of our effort, is that what we think, say, and do, all reconcile at the end of the day.

There are strategic plans, internal processes, and proprietary technologies that we protect to preserve a competitive advantage in the market. We also do not discuss privileged information regarding our customers and their plans, and confidentiality agreements with partners. We also seek to simplify our communications for the sake of clarity, so much of what you hear from us can exclude details. The intent is to protect essential value, be a loyal and dependable, added-value partner to you, and streamline our interface. Never to deceive.

Our confidentiality, transparency and integrity are especially important for you when we are offering marketing insights, and exploring your brand strategy and the key differentiators behind your brand as we develop it.

We have the ability of outsourcing many of the tasks that require highly focused talent, and provide oversight to ensure all efforts are concerted into marketing power for your brand. As such, our pricing is built upon a cost plus management structure. Projects like brand development are done on a retainer basis, so the less work we have to do, the less our services will cost.

Our current billing per hour is $150. If we take into account the uncompensated time spent securing projects, identifying the scope of work to be done, and sending proposals, and we use the best practice for standard independent contractors of doubling the hourly rate of a full time employee, then our hourly rate works out to the equivalent of hiring a highly qualified and experienced full-time marketing professional for a yearly salary of $150,000, which is actually a great value.

In a best case scenario, with available priority scheduling, open communication with you, your brand strategy being ready upon starting, and no major setbacks, it is possible to complete the initial 3 semi-final drafts you will share with customers for feedback, within 2 weeks. Assuming you take one week to obtain the feedback, and adding in a few days to produce the full guidelines and iron out any final wrinkles, your new brand guidelines can be available in as little as 3 1/2 weeks. In a worst-realistic case scenario, with common delays, common scheduling issues, regular priority, but having the brand strategy ready upon starting, and with no major setbacks, we can have the 3 colorized visual brand systems in 5 weeks. If you take 2 weeks to test and gain feedback from customers, and assuming the final adjustments could take another 2 weeks, In a worst case scenario, we are looking at 9 weeks until your new brand is ready to launch.

If your brand strategy is not ready, and you want our help facilitating the strategy with you, we are happy to assist. The brand strategy facilitation process will take between one and four months in addition to the brand development timeline. Below are the details on the timeline.

  • Brand Strategy Clarity - Between 2 days to 1 week (if your strategy is already in place), or between 1 and 4 months (if we have to facilitate the strategy development).
  • Agree on Essence of Visual Branding - 1 business day to 1 week.
  • Create Noun List - 1 hour to 2 days.
  • Rough Logo Shape Drafts - 1 to 2 weeks.
  • Colorized Semi-Final Visual Brand Systemss - 2 days to 1 week.
  • Final Draft of Visual Brand System - 1 day to 1 week.
  • Final Adjustments - 1 day to 1 week.

We need to understand your business, your market, how you fit in it, and your strategy to succeed through it all. This information is essential if we are to help you develop a brand that stands out from your competitors and resonates with your target audience. Specifically, we need the following information:
  • Target Audience Profile - Full demographics and psychographics of your target audience.
  • Value Proposition - Clear statement of the needs your customer has that you fill with your offering, and why your customers choose to buy from you.
  • Competition Landscape - A list of your major competitors and why they are leaders.
  • Brand Strengths and Weaknesses - A detailed description of what is easy to compete and take business from competitors and what is not.
  • Market Positioning - A description of the position, relative to your competitors, that you want to have in the perception of your customers. This is usually the cross sections of your strengths and the opportunities in the market, expressed as the strategic differentiators that you want to be known for.
  • Core Strategic Statements - Your brand mission, vision, values, culture, and story.
  • Marketing Channels Used - The current marketing channels you are using to communicate with your target audience.
  • Messaging - The text and images of the advertising messages you are currently sending your customers.
  • Brand Contact Points - What are the major contact points (ads -> landing pages -> receptionist -> sales person -> showroom floor -> delivery driver) you have with your typical customers, and how those contact points feel.
  • Customer Brand Feedback - Raw customer testimonials and reviews.

We may have questions, or require your opinions as the person closest to the target audience we are seeking to engage, closest to product offering of the brand, and as the entrepreneur who has to manage the brand and drive it into the market. Open communication with you is important to achieve high quality results.

We can attend and help guide the customer feedback, but you can save the expense and do it yourself, with the additional benefit that customers will be more brutally honest in our absence, and that is what we need. Brutal honesty. If they love a design in our absence, we are on the right track.

Select 10 customer you have good rapport with, and are examples of your various higher volume customer types. We will give you a detailed list of questions to help you be prepared. Our objective from the feedback is to get acquainted with how the logo feels to them compared with the strategic goals and brand values, attitude, and feel of the transaction we are seeking to build into the brand. Feel free to insert your own questions to drill in and ensure we will understand the customers' perception in depth. The questions are simple, along the lines of:

  • Which of these brands is the best looking?
  • In your opinion, which brand best displays X, Y, and Z? (brand values)
  • Which brand feels like a solid offering you can trust?
  • If you had to select only one among these three brands, which would you do business with?

Developing your brand is a truly cooperative endeavor. We do the design research and expression to match your target audience's values and the tone for the brand, and align it with concepts that help them remember the brand, then we validate our research with their first hand opinions to fine tune your new brand so you can take the power to market.

If you don't have a strategy, it makes no sense to build a brand visual identity. If you need help developing a brand strategy that will set you apart in the eyes of consumers in a way that will resonate with them, we are more than happy to help. Strategy development services are billed on a retainer basis. We bill an hourly amount of $150 as consultation compensation. Normally, brand strategy consultation can run between $1,500, and $15,000, depending on how in depth and extensive our involvement is required to be.

Developing a visual identity for your brand that is in line with your strategic objectives and resonates with your target audience takes some doing. Talent, skills, effort, and time. The total cost of building a brand with us should run between $2,250 and $7,500, depending on the amount of drafts, revisions, and research we are required to do. We deliver full brand guidelines with your logo, wordmark, color palette, font style, and best practices for using everything so the brand presents consistently at each point of contact with customers.

We can develop additional brand assets that are consistent with your brand strategy and resonate with your audience. Their price can vary greatly depending on the extent of the work to be done. For instance, packaging is often done as a system for product lines, not a single product, and our cost of development varies with the scope of work. It is hard to give an estimate not knowing the scope. In general, prices for additional brand assets in brands we developed and are intimately familiar with the strategy behind them can cost as follows:

  • A single simple retail packaging design for a bottle or box, can cost an additional $600 to $1,500
  • Jingles can cost in the ballpark of $1,500
  • Mascots are often more design and time intensive, perhaps in a range of $3,000 to $4,500

Always with the caviat that additional drafts and revisions will increase the cost.

Take advantage of our free initial consultation. Introduce yourself and you business. We can discuss your objectives and see if we are a fit and how to get you to where you want to be.

Don't worry about talking with us, we're actually very down to earth and chill. Click below right now. It's that easy.

Brand design is a retainer based service, so we work out a schedule of work and collect, usually half of the forecasted expense as a deposit.

Brand development is an iterative process, each time arriving closer and closer to the final result. It is also an involved process, expect to participate providing a lot of information up front and along the way.

Along with the notification, we give you an itemized report with the expenses charged against the retainer, a progress update on the work done, and bill you for the estimate of the remainder of the brand development process.

We deliver the final brand guidelines per the brand development schedule, you sign off on it, and if there is a positive balance on your retainer we refund it, if there is a negative balance, we send you a final bill for it.

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