Brands have (unknowingly) existed for hundreds of years, it started with a few, then a few more and now millions of brands exist around us. A regular consumer is spoilt for choices, and of course while the product is of utmost importance, the significance of good brand building and visual identity cannot be ruled out anymore.
Creating your Brand, Visually
A brand identity is an amalgamation of a unique name, logo design, typography, colors, shapes and probably a catch phrase or a tag-line. Not to forget, identifying the key quality that sets your brand apart. Founders & marketing managers often overlook the importance of the above factors and rely heavily on just the product doing all the talking. However, in today’s world, if you’re launching a consumer product or a service, brand identity can’t be ignored. Let’s talk more about it.
Studies have shown that using a brand signature color can increase the brand recall by about 80% (Reboot, 2019). Brands like Coca Cola, Ikea, McDonald’s to name a few, have built such a strong brand recall, that they let their colors do the talking!
The First Impression
Now, let’s talk about making that first impression count. Did you know that it takes only 0.05 seconds to form the first impression of your website (8ways,2019) and not more than 7 seconds overall to make an impression of your brand overall? (Forbes, 2018) Yes, you heard that right! The choice of colors, spacing, fonts etc. contributes heavily to the first impression of your website so you better make that count!
Studies say that it takes about 5-7 impressions to develop a brand recall (Pam Moore, 2019). This could be across multiple touch points such as your website, social media handles, retail stores etc. It’s pertinent to make sure that you keep your brand identity consistent across all of these platforms to ensure that your potential customers can start recalling your brand subconsciously, just by seeing the subtle cues such as your brand colors, typography and so forth.