Brand design advice for start-ups and new businesses

by admin | Mar 8, 2011 | Blog, Design

For many small and medium size business owners, a graphic designer is the first point of call when it comes to brand design and strategy for their business.

A scenario we come across on a daily basis is one where the entrepreneur starting a business, realises the need for a business name and basic business collateral; business card, letterhead, website, brochure, etc and they seek the services of a graphic designer. This hence becomes the critical point in the development of their business, not just their business image.

You should be asking the following:

• Do many graphic designers raise warning flags with their clients if their chosen brand name is unlikely to pass the trade mark application?
• Do graphic designers explain that a properly ‘designed’ brand name can make an emotional connection with your audience, and help to build a brand that ignites the passions of your customers and propel itself through the world on its own, becoming a no-cost, self-sustaining PR vehicle?
• Do graphic designers check that the brand name achieves its key objectives:
  • Differentiation from competitors
  • Reinforcing a unique positioning platform
  • Creates a positive and lasting engagement with their target audience
  • Is unforgettable
  • Provides a deep well of marketing ideas and advertising images
• Do graphic designers stop their clients and ask them for a Positioning Statement (a creative interpretation of the business USP – Unique Selling Proposition), which in most case should form part of the logo?

Of course these questions are not the expertise of most graphic designers or design studios and not really their job. It is the job of the clients’ marketing people (in a small business it is the owner) or their marketing agency or consultant. qubePartners’s truly integrated team of marketing communication specialists makes sure that the following questions are asked, checked, debated and agreed upon before developing the right solution for your business:

• How can the design better communicate the personality of the brand?
• How can the positioning of the brand be enhanced through visual communication or
• How can the brand experience be enhanced in store or on the website using visual cues that make decision making easier?

You really do get what you pay for, so think twice before “ordering your logo and collateral online” or getting your cousin’s brother to do it for you. think about how you and your company will be perceived by your target audience and whether the brand design you get will give you an advantage over your competitors or will it make you look like a one man band!

Contact qubePartners on 03 9018 7224 and see how we can make your life easier and your business more profitable.