If you’re starting a new business, or revitalizing an old one, think long and hard before cutting corners with the design of your brand identity.
Your brand identity is essentially the “look and feel” of your business. It includes things like your logo, colors, typefaces, and the style of images you use in your marketing. Virtually everything a customer can see in your business can be built on top of your brand identity: ads, marketing materials, signage, interior & exterior decore, vehicles, uniforms, and even little details like napkins and pens. In many ways your brand identity is like the foundation of a house: it provides a basic structure and shape for everything that is built on top of it.
And as you can imagine, changing the shape of that foundation after the house is built is extremely difficult and expensive.
So while it may seem like a good deal now to save a few thousand dollars on your branding, what happens in 5 years when you realize that it’s the wrong image or isn’t versatile enough to grow with your business? Imagine the cost of re-designing and reprinting everything your business has. Not to mention the advertising you’ll have to do to re-educate the public about your new look.
What saved you a few thousand dollars today could end up costing you tens of thousands a few years down the road!
Aside from any eventual re-branding you may face, a poorly designed brand identity starts costing you right from day one. When your brand identity looks unprofessional, lacks the right strategy, and doesn’t have the proper files, documentation and resources to go with it, your business will scream one of two things: “I don’t have a clue what I’m doing”, or worse yet: “I don’t care about my business.” You’ll also spend much more to market and advertise your business because you’ll lose all of the benefits of a properly designed brand identity.
Is it really worth the risk to save a few bucks now?
The moral of the story is don’t take your brand for granted. It is one of the most important investments you will make in your business and can be a goldmine if you manage it properly. Why do you think the world’s most successful businesses make building and managing their brands a top priority?
