Why Crafting a Visual Identity is Crucial to any Business
Creating and growing a brand takes a lot of hard work, creativity, and strategic thinking. One of the first things a business should do in their earliest stages of development is consider exactly how to visually represent their brand. This is more than just creating a logo and choosing a colour palette. It is deciding how your brand will be recognized based on visual cues alone. This includes typography, tone, photo-graphic and video-graphic elements, website design, and the list goes on. All of these elements must be used together, consistently, in order to drive impact.
Many professionals often underestimate the power of a strong visual identity. At ROC Media Inc, we know just how impactful a consistent brand theme can be for companies, particularly in terms of driving recognition and qualified leads. That’s why we’re sharing our top 3 reasons why crafting a visual identity is crucial to any and all businesses.
1. A consistent brand identity is proven to help drive consumer recognition, differentiating you from the competition.
Take a look at the blank logos below. Try to guess which big name brand is associated with which logo.
You were probably able to correctly guess at least one of the three logos above. What that tells us is that a particular brand has established its identity by consistently reinforcing its logo, colours, and typography. This has now enabled you, a consumer, to recognize them based on even the most vague cues.
Essentially, by utilizing key elements of your visual identity in every aspect of your marketing, you will be able to differentiate yourself from the competition, simply by targeting consumers’ memories. As a result, people are more likely to remember your messages, while visually associating them with your brand.
2. Brands with a consistent & recognizable visual identity establish trust with buyers, creating a loyal customer base.
Let’s go back to those three brands above. A common thread that links these brands is their trustworthiness. Because you’re able to recognize them, you are more likely to trust them as a first-time shopper. They are well-established and visually identifiable to you, which causes you to understand the brand as legitimate.
Trust is one of the most important factors in consumer purchasing behaviour. In fact, a lack of trust is a deal breaker for over 80% of customers (Source: Edelman Trust Barometer, 2019). Most customers base purchasing decisions on how trustworthy a brand is perceived to be.
Developing a brand that consumers can recognize and trust is crucial to building out your business, and is the key to creating a loyal customer base. This all begins with a strategically thought out, and properly implemented visual identity. Once people can recognize your business, they can begin to trust your product/service offerings.
3. A strategically implemented brand identity drives a successful ROI by enabling consumers to identify you.
Building on our last point, it’s important to know that a trustworthy brand attracts higher quality customers, who provide a higher lifetime value. These customers are more likely to purchase from you in the first place, and are even more likely to keep coming back after that initial purchase.
Ultimately, you can get more out of current and future customers through logical and consistent branding. The stronger your visual identity, the easier it is for users to recognize, trust, and purchase from your brand. The best part, brand guidelines are designed for the long term, created with the idea that they will stick with your brand throughout its lifetime. This helps ensure that your business is on the right path for constant growth and improvement, as more people will come to recognize you over time.
Does your business need help with their branding? At ROC Media Inc, we help our clients curate their brand and design an experience that engages audiences, builds relationships, and produces measurable results.
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