UPDATED: A Denver graphic design firm’s explanation of graphic design & branding
One of the most widely used terms in the industry is “branding”. What is branding? How is it important? How can a company maintain its brand identity? Is a logo a brand? There are so many lingering questions out there and business owners have no idea what the answers are.
Any Denver graphic design firms can help a company with unifying their branding efforts, but this does not make this company a branding expert. Here’s why:
What is a brand?
The “brand” of a company or organization is its unique identity. For a company or organization to be successful, the brand needs to reflect its values, its competitive edge, and be consistent over time.
What does a consumer think when they hear of your brand? Negative or positive thoughts? Would they prefer your product over a competitor for specific reasons? Can they easily identify your brand?
Starbucks, Adidas, Nike, Dunkin’ Donuts, and many other larger corporations are all examples of brands that customers are extremely loyal to. Think of it like this, which phone would you choose? An iPhone or Android? Why?
The objectives that a great brand will meet include:
- Clearly delivering your company’s message
- Confirming your company’s credibility
- Emotionally connecting with your target audience for your product or service
- Motivating the buyer to buy
- Creating user loyalty
What is branding?
“Branding” refers to the ways in which marketers present that brand that the company or organization decided was its unique identity. A company can have a negative connotation with hundreds or even thousands of consumers, but if their branding is on point, this perception can be easily changed or enough customers do not care.
A research study has shown that as consumers we are psychologically influenced to choose one brand over another one. The right branding strategies in place have the ability to influence us, and shape our perceptions on the brand.
What is shared on social media, television, advertising and so many other channels of digital marketing and traditional marketing strategies all play into the overall perception of a brand.
Like we said above, why would you pick an iPhone over Android? What if the Android phone was the only phone left in the store? Would you go phoneless for weeks? Months? At our office, it is a running joke that, “Apple could hurt me and I would still pick them over Android.”
Another thing to consider, what type of company have you never seen an advertisement for but know that they are a reputable company or brand? Years of work and conception of branding strategies can be thanked for that!
Who works on branding strategies? Well, branding agencies, but graphic designers can help companies with their branding efforts, but that does not make graphic designers branders.
How does Denver graphic design firms correlate with branding?
Graphic design helps you to visually capture the essence of your brand and crafts the features that customers can use to identify your brand. A beautiful video, animation, social media images and billboard can all be designed by a graphic designer with branding strategies in place such as colors, logos, photos, fonts and such but graphic design is not branding.
Graphic design is only part of a company or organization’s branding. Graphic design is only part of a company or organization’s branding.
Graphic design is the skeleton and branding itself is the internal organs and skin! Branding goes far beyond the visual. It is the tone of the messaging. It is the aesthetic of the website. It is the perception. That is why a Denver graphic design firm is different from a branding firm.
Once the brand is clearly envisioned and the branding is clearly defined, a graphic designer can produce work that delivers the full impact.
When branding is clearly defined, graphic design can be an extremely powerful tool! An image is worth a thousand words after all! It not only conveys the brand image, but it can help to strengthen it, too!
Denver Media Group is a leading faith based creative management firm in Denver, Colorado, who can help a company with branding strategies and graphic design work. For more information, contact us today!