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With so much negativity in 2020 thanks to the worldwide pandemic, 2021 could be a bumper year for retail in order to rebalance economies and get things going again. Retail sales took a hit this year but that hasn’t stopped everyone from getting into the Christmas spirit. BBC News has reported that turkey sales were up 36% this week over the same time last year.
This could be a sign that world economies are about to pick up so now might be a good time to start thinking about your branding. Whether you have developed a brand strategy or you are just beginning, you should always be thinking about your branding and how it can affect your business.
Branding isn’t easy, and it can take a while before people start brand awareness and brand association with your business, but once it’s there, it’s there forever; Coca-Cola and McDonald’s haven’t changed their branding at all since inception, which highlights the importance of brand awareness.
When people think of branding, they may automatically think of a logo, but branding is much more than that. While a logo is very important as a part of brand identification, branding also affects how people perceive your business and whether that’s good or bad is down to how you plan it.
Once you have settled on a logo, colors and slogans, etc. then you must apply your brand wherever necessary. That isn’t to say you plaster it all over the place, but anything related to or owned by your company should contain your brand, and it should always be consistent.
It goes without saying that you should have a website for your brand in 2021, but many companies often use custom branding on everyday items that might be used for the office either as promotional material or gifts for staff. Such items might include customized pens, letterheads and office mugs but some might opt for USB sticks, a branded metal water bottle or even mobile phone covers.
Saving any raw files, color data, image dimensions, etc. can really help with keeping a consistent brand identity throughout everything to which your logos, colors and slogans can be applied. Keeping raw Photoshop data for example means that you can edit and resize any component of your visual brand data individually.
Different logo styles, slogans, typefaces and colors can all impact the public’s perception of your brand. You wouldn’t want to use a bold impact typeface with an image of a bull’s head on a red background as a logo for a veterinary blog for example. This would give the impression of dominance and strength. Rather, cartoonish dogs and cats with a soft serif typeface would be a better fit.
These should all be taken into consideration when developing a brand awareness strategy as the perception of all the individual components will come together and influence the perception of your company as a whole.
The development of your brand should always be focused on how it will be perceived. If you need assistance to grow your business, you can always outsource to a team of professionals.
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