It goes without saying that if you want your brand to stand out you need to be different, but how do you differentiate your brand while still connecting to the masses? Easy, popularity shouldn’t be your focus. This does not mean you should disregard everything you know and have learned about good branding and graphic design, it just means that you should never compromise the soul of your brand to please the masses.
If your brand lacks authenticity your target audience will smell it like fear and will retreat accordingly. No one wants anything that tries too hard. If you craft your brand with the hopes of becoming popular, or ‘going viral’ chances are you will experience quite the opposite. These types of attempts generally land flat and vanish into obscurity. If you want to make a splash and rise above the crowd, you have to build a brand that truly represents your unique voice and vision.
So, how do you find the middle ground between being true to your vision while still reaching your target audience (and perhaps a few more)? First of all, don’t panic, here are a couple of tips to help you out, before you seek out a designer
- Get real about what is driving you to create this brand, aside from making money. Think about how will serve, benefit or positively impact your future clients and/or customers, and use that as a driving force. When you take your own self-interests out of the equation and identify the value of your product or service for your consumers, you will benefit. Everybody wins.
- Dig deep and uncover the core values of your brand. Who are you and what do you stand for, as a brand? This is a crucial step in the process of building not only a genuine voice but also a successful one. Once you have defined that, it is essential that you stay true to that core value, and that your brand reflects it at all times. If you sway from that value, your consumers will lose trust in your brand. So stay true, my friend, stay true.
Easier said than done. It is one thing to answer these questions and visualize what you want your brand to embody, how you want it to look and how your future clients or customers will respond. It is a whole other ball game when it comes to physically creating that perfect brand or launching that idyllic campaign and controlling how the public will react, the latter of which is rather, well, impossible for someone without experience. This where finding a good graphic designer will be your saving grace. A designer is like a middleman for your ideas (the good, the bad and the ugly) and your dreams. They will guide you to the conception of that authentic, unforgettable brand, will reign you in when that need to be ‘liked’ rears its ugly head.
Now, where do you find these glorious, elusive beasts? Well, we may be able to help you out in that area. Give us a call, or fire us an email, we’re always here and always ready to help you launch your authentic brand stratosphere!