Branding is crucial to the success of any company. It is the visual summary of who the company is and it determines how people view the company. Effective branding brings you positive results from the clientele while establishing a faithful customer.
1. Logo:
Logos should be timeless and bold. Coca-cola is an excellent example of this, and the text they’ve created is recognizable worldwide. Because of these qualities, Coca-Cola has been able to keep the same logo for decades. In contrast, Pepsi has changed their logo countless amounts of time. Sometimes they’re Pepsi, and sometimes they’re Pepsi Cola. Sometimes their font is italicized, and sometimes it’s not. This constant change reflects a disconnected logo that doesn’t have the confidence in the brand it’s representing.
Coca- Cola
Early 1900’s vs. Today
Pepsi
1898 vs. 1940 vs. 1962 vs. 1991 vs. Today
2. Color:
Coloring should remain consistent and kept to 2-3 colors. It should also represent the brand in some way. The McDonald’s logo is an excellent example of effective coloring. Not only have they kept the same 2 colors for their logo, but they also chose colors that create hunger. A brand that constantly adds or changes their colors can send a confusing message to the customer. Palm Computing has not only changed their logo and color palette 3 times within 10 years. This makes it hard for customers to remain faithful to a brand that can’t even remain faithful with the way they want to be perceived.
Palm 1996- 2005 vs. McDonald’s 1970-present day
3. Name:
A question one should ask themselves upon branding is how well and how interesting is a company’s name being represented in the brand itself? Apple’s branding can clearly be seen represented by their logo, which is an apple itself. This creates a much more visual and interesting relation between the client and the brand. The brand Nokia on the other hand is represented simply as Nokia, and the text used is not as widely recognizable as the infamous Apple logo.
4. Personality:
Each brand should have it’s own personality. The logo, colors, and name should all reflect on the company’s personality. One of the strongest brand personalities out there is Google. They realize that personality is important because that’s how the customer can relate to the company, trust them, and continue to use them as their search engine of choice.
