I would like to express my profound gratitude to those who read my first article on this platform, and those who made comments. I appreciate your comments, seeing that they are nice and encouraging. Before I continue, let me remind you about my previous blog post and if perhaps this is your first time of reading my article, I welcome you on board……
I would like to express my profound gratitude to those who read my first article on this platform, and those who made comments. I appreciate your comments, seeing that they are nice and encouraging. Before I continue, let me remind you about my previous blog post and if perhaps this is your first time of reading my article, I welcome you on board.
In my last article, I talked about the Language of Branding, featuring Basic and Linguistic elements to consider in developing a successful brand. I also talked about my nine year journey into the world of Branding. In this article, I will be telling you the basics of branding.
Think Big
As a business owner or starter, you need to think big and bring up great ideas especially about your brand on how to grow your business. My number one advice to business owners is; “get a dedicated book for your brand, state out the great visions you have for your brand and back it up with realistic branding plan.”
Ask yourself; is there any height that is unattainable in business? I may not know your opinion about that, but if I were to answer that question, my answer would be “NO”. There is a popular saying “the sky is your limit” well, that doesn’t sound bad but why not try the sky as your starting point? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to shy you away from the fact that I mentioned in my first blog article that “Rome was not built in a day”. What I’m trying to insinuate is that you should get a plan on how your Rome will look like and how it will be built and don’t let your words limit you. Break the limits off with positive words and positive plans, let greatness be your language. Let’s take A.O.S Academy as an example; the vision of A.O.S Academy is to become the No. 1 Online Language and Linguistics University in not just Nigeria, Africa but the entire world. A.O.S Academy is well under way because this vision is been pursued by sense making realistic plans and actions.
The primary vision of Dara Expressions is to become the number one brand consulting firm which builds and rebuild brands (that have great visions just like yours) in the whole world. Oops! Did I just say the whole world? Of course, I did. I do believe that the sky is my starting point. My watchword is “NO LIMITS, NO BOUNDARIES”. I look forward to the day I’ll see your brand listed amongst top most successful brand in the world. Keep focused, you can do it with the power of branding.
Basic Components of Brand Identity
Now, after drafting out a great vision and a realistic branding plan you need to also know the rudiments of branding which I’m going to be explaining but first let me remind you of what branding is.
Last week, I defined branding as the act of creating a strongly and persuasive positive perception about a person, a product, or a company. These are the basic components that bring brands to life;Logo
Logo is a symbol that is designed to represent a person, an organization, a community or a company. It is mostly the combination of words, objects and colours.
Your logos will always represent your brand by appearing on your products, fliers, billboards, social media pages and anywhere. When a popular brand is mentioned, their logo is the first most likely thing you would think of.
As a brand consultant, I would advise you to hire a trained graphics designer to design your brand logo because the way logos are being designed in this modern time is quite different from the former pattern. If you checkout most successful brands you will see that they have switched into the 21stcentury pattern. Why am I saying this? I’m saying this to shift your mindset about logo designing because your logo is the first thing that will represent your brand. Let’s take Pepsi for example for exam; Pepsi as a beverage company have changed their logo up to 11 times since existence till date just to move along with the modern trend.
Cadbury changed its logo after 50 years with just a slight difference just to meet up with the 21st century logo standard. Cadbury spent a million pound to redesign its latest logo. What does that mean? It means that branding requires money and that spending much on your brand logo if you want an outstanding one is worth it even though Dara Expressions can provide you a less expensive and outstanding brand logo.
Colour
Colour is one of the major components of a brand. It can portray the perception about a brand appropriately or inappropriately. There is a psychology to colour usage. Hence, it is critically important to consider what a colour symbolizes before picking it as a brand colour. These are some colours and what they symbolize:
White: Purity, smplicity, innoncence, minimalism
Black: sophisticated, formal, luxurious
Red: Passion, excitement and energy
Yellow: Optimistism, Cheerful, playful, happiness
Green: natural, vitality, prestige, wealth
Blue: communicative, trustworthy, calm
Brown: organic, wholesome, simple, honest
Purple: royalty, majestic, spiritual, mysterious
It’s not mandatory to choose one colour, you can as well chose two but don’t let it be more than three because many colours can create great confusion about your brand. It is strongly advised to make use of the colour wheel when selecting brand colours. Colour wheel will direct you in choosing colours that complement one another. Above is an example of a colour wheel. The colours that are directly facing one another are complementary.Font
Fonts are also very important component of a brand. You should also consider the type of fonts you use for your brand because there is also a psychology to fonts, fonts can also give right or wrong intentions. For example; Using Gill Sans Ultra Bold to write the word “fashion” will give readers a wrong impression. They will read fashion and at the same time think of rigidity. Whereas, fashion is not meant to be rigid. A good example of a font to use when writing fashion is Brush script (fashion not fashion).
You can purchase or even get free and nice fonts at myfonts.com, dafonts.com, fonts101.com, Google fonts and the likes.
Slogan
Brand slogan is also a component to be considered in building a successful brand. Although its not compulsory but it is necessary. Getting a nice slogan for your brand in conformity with your brand font is a good way of branding. For example; MTN slogan is “everywhere you go”, Mortein will always say Mortein with the same voiceover at the end of every advert likewise Glo, Glo will always end their adverts with the same voice always saying “Glo, Unlimited”. Dara Expressions’ slogan is “pushing your visions forward”. Your slogan is mostly like your brand promise it communicates your brand Identity. You can add your slogan to your branded T-shirts, wristbands, fliers, billboards and even stickers. Your slogan portrays your reputation amidst other brands.Are you a new business owner
Or perhaps you are old in the game
Or you are even planning on having your own business in the future
Do you want to level up your income
Do you want to know the 21st century branding strategy
Do you want your business to stay on track
Or you even want to be a brand manager
Let me gladly announce to you that you are on the right blog. Do ensure to stay tuned to read my subsequent articles on this same platform to get the best tips about branding
Thank you for reading this article, you can make comments and ask questions in the comment section given below and you can also send emails to daraexpressions@gmail.com. You can even subscribe below to get updates about latest offers from A.O.S Academy. See you next weekend.