Let’s Talk Branding
Hi, I’m Corry and I’m a Designer at Rinard Media. If I asked you what Apple’s Brand is you may immediately think of its Logo. The classic simple monochrome apple with a bite out of it. While this logo is absolutely a part of Apple’s brand, it is actually just one small piece of it.
Branding: What Is It?
So what is a Brand? In Marty Neumeier’s book The Brand Gap, he says that “a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.” But how do you influence someone’s gut feeling? For one, with a lot more than just a logo.
Branding: Why Is It Important?
Your customers create their own perceptions and definitions of your brand based on their interactions with your company. These interactions can include anything from:
- Visiting your website
- Reading your newsletter
- Watching a youtube video
- Driving by your storefront
- Or talking to one of your employees.
Too often it’s assumed that “branding” begins and ends with logo creation.
The reality is that branding is in everything that your company does! With so many different opportunities for a customer to gather a perception or definition of your brand, it’s important that you are doing everything in your power to influence them.
Branding: Our Process
At Rinard Media, we believe that consistency is the key to a successful brand strategy. Your organization or business needs to meet the expectations that you’ve set for your customers through your brand messaging. If the image you paint of your brand doesn’t match up to a customer’s actual lived experience, it can cause dissonance. That dissonance in turn can create mistrust.
You can never 100% guarantee that your business or brand will be perceived exactly the way you want it to be. However, taking the time to lay the groundwork and define your brand DOES give you a better chance of communicating effectively and achieving that desired impression from your customers.
We start every branding project the same way, by getting familiar with our clients and their customers. We want to know everything we can about you!
- Why do you do what you do?
- Why are you in THIS industry?
- Why THIS audience?
- Is there a mission behind the business?
- What are your goals?
Once we have a solid understanding of a client’s business, purpose, and mission, we can start building a brand from the ground up! From here, our Branding team will help you create a list of core values, write purpose, mission, and vision statements, craft customer personas, develop brand usage and style guides, and of course logo creation.
We’ll also create all different types of branding collateral including everything from apparel, billboards, and email templates, to product catalogs, menus, and social media graphics.
Branding: We Love It!
At Rinard Media we love Branding. There is no better feeling than helping a company find its voice and take charge of the way they are perceived by their customers. We provide all kinds of branding services both in Idaho and nationwide! To learn more about branding and how it fits into your marketing strategy check out our resources at rinardmedia.com