Your business' design, or look, is a cornerstone of your brand. Brand is how people perceive your company and its values, the worth of its products or services, and how those products compare to those output by your competitors.
Customers can define your brand with online reviews and word-of-mouth. The media can also have a powerful influence on public perception of your brand, from a local newspaper profile to a blog post mentioning your business in some capacity. But the most significant portion of your business identity is in your own hands - you can help shape what customers and media say about you. Part of your brand is defined by your actions as a company and by your product itself. And a very large part of your brand is the perception you intentionally create through imagery and messaging that speaks to the strengths of your company.
Design is a huge part of your marketing program, arguably the most important part. People recognize simple and distinctive symbols - like the shapes and colors that make up your logo and other visual identity elements - almost instantly. Your visual branding should be apparent in all of your public outreach, as it is an opportunity to associate your company's values and positive attributes with your company itself. Is your company reliable? Does it offer high-quality products? Is it innovative? If so, these attributes should be conveyed to your potential and existing customers through purposeful, consistently applied design in all of your communications. Your logo, website, promotional materials, emails, invoices, signage, ads, newsletters, etc. should be immersed in this cohesive design.
No matter the size of your company, you will have opportunities to engage people with your brand. Each time you hand out a business card, you have the opportunity to make an impression. A professional business card that carries your custom logo solidifies a positive impression and helps make the sale. A Vistaprint template business card that your potential client has seen several times before and that has the Vistaprint ad on the back... maybe not so much. The same goes for your e-newsletters, your website, and more. It's not just about plugging in the logo - successful branding is more intentional than that. You want every element - line, paragraph, photo - surrounding your logo to support and highlight it, not distract from it or bring it down with a generic overused template or an unprofessional hodge-podge layout.
When you see an unprofessional-looking website or a website that doesn't function properly, what does it make you think about the company that it represents? You might think that the company doesn't pay much attention to detail, or that they cut corners with cost, or that they don't keep up with changes in their industry, or that they have poor judgment, or that quality isn't important to them. If a company is lax enough to allow that to be their public image, what can you expect of the quality of their service? Even if sub-par branding seems to be the norm in your locale or industry, you can use professional design to differentiate your business from your competitors', and communicate the superiority of your product or service.
Money spent on your brand identity is an investment - literally. Established brands can command top dollar during acquisitions and mergers, with a significant part of their value attributed to the brand identity itself. It is no accident that large companies often budget millions of dollars each year for branding, marketing, and advertising - after all, their branding is a large part of how they got where they are now. Whatever the size of your company, investing in design will provide you with brand value that far outweighs the cost of the design.
Nicole Aue is a Graphic and Website Designer for 45th Parallel Web Design, LLC, in Portland, Oregon. As a designer, Nicole's objective is to present her clients' target audiences with effective visual cues, logical hierarchy, and inviting imagery to facilitate absorption of the intended message. In the field of website design, she is concerned with creating a quality, standards-based product, focused on usability, content, and information rather than fads and fashions - without sacrificing originality and visual interest. For more information, please visit Nicole's small business web design and marketing blog at http://www.45thparallelwebdesign.com/blog/.
