6 Elements Your Business Needs To Create A Cohesive Brand That Grabs Attention

Like businesses and corporations all over the world, yours should have an online and offline presence that reaches your target market. The goal of all your real life and virtual marketing methods are to make your online and offline presence effectively grab attention and increase awareness of your brand. That awareness starts with familiarity and that familiarity starts with your logo – but it doesn’t stop there because your brand is much more than your logo, it’s your entire visual identity. Your visual identity and brand message start taking shape when you create a cohesive brand.

Color
Color plays a significant role in creating your visual identity. It tells your customers something about the personality of your business and helps create a consistency that leads to familiarity. Think about the golden arches. Would their meaning change if they were green? Conversely, think about the way a change in expected color can boost marketing efforts. For example, green arches during St Patrick’s Day or orange arches during Halloween can help easily promote special products.

Emotion
You may think of your business in concrete terms, but your target market often creates an emotional link to your products and service. The colors you choose can help enhance that emotional connection and boost your bottom line. For example, calming blues and greens can signal relaxation for the clients of a luxury spa while bright, vibrant primary colors are ideal for a children’s retailer or create excitement at a music festival.

Imagery
The pictures, photos, clipart, and other images you use to create a cohesive brand say a lot about your company. Your ideal consumer will get one impression from a cartoon and quite another from a professional photograph. This is true even if the images are otherwise identical. Just like with color, a strategic change in imagery can also bode well for your marketing when it’s used to reach different market segments.

Logo
Your logo isn’t the only depiction of your business identity, but it is a necessary one. It’s also the one that breeds the most familiarity. Think of your logo as your brand’s collateral or as its snapshot. That means it should be prominently featured on every iteration of your marketing from product tags to posters and banners to vehicle wraps.

Consistency
Consistency in color, emotion, imagery, and collateral create the recognizability your small business needs. In fact, not creating consistency in marketing can actually harm your business because it tells your target audience too many different messages and leaves them with a feeling of confusion. Think of the impression it leaves and the confusion it creates when a consumer sees one thing on your banner, then tries to find you online and sees something entirely different.

Differentiation
Differentiation can mean setting yourself apart from your competitors or it can mean creating different images to reach subsegments of your target market. For example, your business can successfully serve adults and children, men and women, professionals and DIYers, carnivores and herbivores, and vegans and vegetarians with a simple adjustment in imagery, messaging, and visual cues.

When you’re ready to create a cohesive brand, the award-winning graphic design team at Dprint can help you create the visual identity your business needs to achieve the success you deserve. Contact us today to start creating consistency and cohesiveness in your visual identity.