Although Florine isn’t officially a brand yet, I like to fantasise about my own little atelier and designing bags with and for customers. I might, therefore, need to start learning how to brand a brand…This won’t be a step by step plan for you ladies, but I would like to take you with me on my ‘learning trip’. When you are reading this, you probably are in the exact same position as I am. Since there is so much to learn about how to brand a brand, so I will turn this into my second mini-series. The first series is about different techniques of making bag handles, Part I – Part II – Part III if you missed it.
I would like to highlight one more time that I am no expert on this subject but I do like to dig a little deeper into the theories. Since there are a lot of books about this subject but I will just describe my vision, my newly gained knowledge and my experiences.
A brand identity
First, let’s talk about your brand identity. If you are just starting like me, on your own, you probably want your business to represent something of you. It might be your power, your strength or your creativity. But maybe also want it to represent your soft side, your kindness or your love for your hobby/job. Luckily, you don’t have to choose just one of those characteristics but if you don’t know what you want to represent, what should your customers think of you?
Consciously influencing the subconscious.
After this little bit of self-reflection, it might be time to move on for now. With this identity you want everyone to recognise your brand. It’s a funny thing about recognition because it all happens in your customer’s mind subconsciously. Even though it is recognised in the subconsciousness we cán influence it a lot. It all starts with your logo. There are a lot of examples on the internet of big brands who influence your subconscious with hidden signs, like the arrow of FedEx or the little smiley face in LG. You can use your logo to your advantage. Although, you can also use it to represent something of your brand identity. For example, when you are a minimalistic designer it would be logical to have a minimalistic logo.
A little colour here and there…
Branding doesn’t stop after designing your logo. You might want to think about colours. I have for example chosen for black/grey/white and one colour, light blue. For now, I am happy with it but I might want to ‘rebrand’ it. Maybe after this mini-series, I will end up with something totally different. The great thing of branding is that it isn’t set in stone. You don’t have to have the same logo/colour or style forever. Because when your company grows or you grow as a person, you might have some new directions you want your brand to follow. But how to make a smooth transition to overcome that your customers don’t recognise you anymore…? Do you have any ideas? I haven’t found the answer yet…
Psychology of colours
But let’s get back to colours. When choosing your colour pallet you might want to dig a little deeper into the psychology of colours. Which colours emphasises certain feelings and what feeling do you want your customers to have with your brand? I have made a little overview of the most used colours with the association people might have. The one difficult thing is, is that these feelings or associations with colours aren’t the same worldwide. For example, we (in the Netherlands) associate white with a wedding while in some countries the associate it with funerals… Every country may have their own associations although there is a trend shifting due to the connectedness via the internet!
Brand implementing
Now that we know (or almost know) our identity and we have chosen our colours, it is time to implement them. Since I also have a blog, …your reading it …, I have implemented it in the styling of my blog design. I have chosen for a simple and clean looking blog with the focus on the content. The one thing I do want to do in the future is continuing the branding in my photos. I am still searching for the right settings, light and style of photography. So in the next few weeks, you might see some different styles, don’t worry it’s just me, experimenting!
So let’s review this first part:
- We have thought about our brand identity
- We have designed our logo with or without subconscious influencing
- We have thought about colours and learned how certain colours emphasises feelings
- And we have thought about how to implement our logo and colours
In the next part, we will continue with some different strategies, missions and take home messages.
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