Branding Services That Help Establish Your Brand Retention and Identity

Unless you have that one-in-a-million business idea, there’s probably a business or two out there that’s selling products or services similar to yours.

If so, why should people buy from you instead of the competition? And if they’ve already bought from you before, why should they do it again?

The answer is branding.

Done well, it won’t just make you stand out from the competition, but it will also:

• Tell your story
• Inspire customer loyalty
• Make people trust you and your brand
• Help you spark an emotional connection with your audience
• Generate referrals

 

In other words, it’s what separates the Facebooks, Amazons, and Googles of the world from the rest of the pack.

And while you may not have millions of marketing dollars like them, you can still replicate their success through branding services provided by a full-service digital marketing agency.

What are branding services?

Like most businesses, you need your branding to separate yourself from your competitors. And for this reason, you need to decide on a logo design or a new name for a product or service.

However, you need more than just a brand name, typography, and form. Building a brand is about understanding what qualities your target audience admires in a business. And then combining your personality and business values with those qualities.

The main concept here is to put across what your business is about in such a way that engages your target audience.

Branding services can help businesses with whatever facet they might be struggling with. A branding agency can help your business whether you simply look for a better way to communicate your company values and core messaging. Or if you want to create a brand identity from the ground up.

There are numerous angles brand agencies use to approach all sorts of branding services. And these help in establishing, maintaining, and expanding businesses in every possible way.

7 Types of Branding Services That Boost Your Marketing Efforts

1. Logo Design

First impressions are crucial for a business and having a logo lets your potential customers get a glimpse of what your brand is about. Essentially, a logo is the face of a business, organization, or company. It should effectively convey to your prospective customers what your business is all about right up front.

A great logo can provide support to your marketing efforts in several ways:

a. Brand Awareness

When we think of popular consumer brands it is often their logo that pops into our minds. It is not surprising that for top brands, their logos have become easily recognizable worldwide. With their logos, they were able to cross international borders as well as cross-cultural boundaries.

Let’s take Coca-Cola as an example. Around 90% of people all over the world can recognize its logo. It doesn’t matter if it’s written in English or if it’s written in cursive, many people can recognize it when they see it.

This only shows how crucial a good design is in attracting potential customers in crowded markets.

B.  Brand Identity

A good logo design can convey to potential customers a lot about your business without saying anything. For instance, Coca-Cola’s logo did a great job at reflecting the company’s core product and long history, which has not changed for more than a century.

Being a trustworthy company is the main reason why many people choose Coca-Cola. These people know what they’re getting from a dependable product.

Another popular brand is FedEx, which has a logo that tells quite a bit about the brand but in a subtle way. This deliberate move to shorten the company’s name, from Federal Express to FedEx, has attracted more consumers rather than organizations and government agencies.

A brand agency can design logos that demonstrate core business values and establish a clear brand identity rather than just catch someone’s eye.

Whether you want to stress your brand’s historic legacy, no-nonsense professionalism, or cutting edge and disruptive ideas — logo design services can create an amazing visual representation of those principles.

2. Brand Messaging

Your brand messaging should answer certain questions that help define what your company is all about. This permeates everything from marketing materials to product descriptions to tag lines. These questions can be:

• What can your brand offer to customers?
• How do your brand experience or services compare with those of your competitors?
• What do consumers get from your brand that they can’t get from your competitors?

There are so many factors that are fully involved in brand messaging, which includes:

• Target audience
• Product positioning
• Value proposition
• Brand principles
• Organizational culture
• Key differentiators, etc.

In conclusion, whatever your brand says, it should have a meaning that consistently reflects your brand messaging.

Partnering with a digital marketing agency allows you to receive expert guidance on how to compose the right message for your audience, your industry, and your organization. Moreover, an existing approach may need full-scale rebranding, while others may only need slight tweaking.

3. Brand Positioning

While brand positioning might be just a subset of brand messaging, it’s an important part of business branding worthy of its own discussion.

Simply put, brand positioning is how you separate yourself from the rest of the competition. It’s about offering something that’s totally distinctive from other players in your industry. And as a result, it will be easy for you to persuade potential clients to choose your business over the competition.

Branding companies can help you with this, of course.

With market research and organizational analysis, they can determine:

• What your customers want
• What your business can offer, realistically and
• How those offerings compare with the competition

To create an effective branding and marketing strategy means you have to match your capabilities with the expectations and desires of your customers.

Generally, branding companies are not looking to over-promise or exaggerate. Rather, they only want to take stock of what makes your business stand out. And eventually, find an effective method to display those strengths.

3. Brand Voice

Every brand has its unique way of expressing itself. And like people, some are irreverent while others are friendly. Some are aspirational while others are unflaggingly professional.

Establishing a brand voice and holding on to it across all touchpoints is vital for your business. But customer interactions and marketing campaigns are equally important as well.

A strong voice solidifies the identity of your business. And any deviation could harm the perception of your organization.

Many businesses need assistance in identifying and creating a brand voice that’s ideal for them. Again, branding agencies can determine the right approach by analyzing your:

• Industry
• Customer base and
• Company culture

For instance, a playful, conversational brand voice is most likely not suitable for a financial services market where potential clients are expecting professional support and guidance.

5. Style Guide

Once you’re done defining your brand voice, you need to organize it so that it would be easy for your employees and stakeholders to follow your branding guidelines. And this is where the style guide comes in.

A style guide can outline your brand voice, design principles, messaging, and more in precise detail. It instructs your business partners and staff members on what color schemes to integrate into design layouts. It also instructs what language to use in various scenarios, and how you can communicate effectively with your core audience.

In brief, the style guide is your branding bible. A branding agency can help you create detailed style guides so that there will never be any confusion regarding how to best represent your brand.

6. Social Media Branding

Social media branding is a tricky thing to do and many companies struggle with it. On one hand, Twitter and other social media platforms often lend themselves to playful and irreverent content. On the other hand, you want all your social media channels to have the same consistent branding.

Businesses need to play upon social media’s inherent strengths. And simultaneously manage to remain true to their brand messaging, values, and voice. Thus, it is a very tricky balancing act that many businesses often end up falling flat on their faces.

This is why partnering with branding companies can be extremely helpful for your business. They know what content works on various social media platforms. Also, they have the expertise to use those platforms without giving up on brand integrity.

7. Website Design and Development

While you might be surprised that web design and development is one of the branding services mentioned here. Remember, your website is active all the time. Thus, it’s crucial that you consider its design and functionality next to your brand identity project.

Your website is running 24/7, whether you’re away on a holiday, asleep, or just busy. So, you want to make sure you are working diligently. You want to think about your website strategically, ultimately converting your visitors into customers.

If you get your marketing strategy right, your website could generate a huge amount of inquiries or sales.

And so, don’t sleep on your website design and development. It’s essential that your website delivers, and is able to move the needle of your key performance indicators.

What are the types of branding?

Corporate or Company Branding

This type of branding is more focused on reputation, which is about making a cultivated name for the entire company. Done right, it can yield long-term effects.

Generally, companies and businesses rely on brand name recognition. And most customers immediately trust products associated with a brand they already recognize.

Product Branding

A bit similar to building a brand for a certain individual, this one also involves cultivating aesthetic and public vocabulary for your business. With it, you can direct how the public views your product through calculated aesthetic choices.

Personal Branding

In comparison to branding a whole business, this one is for an important person. Specifically, personal branding is for politicians, celebrities, or those who seek to maintain a positive public image.

Through social media, an individual can reach a wider audience, invest heavily in his/her online presence, and establish his/her expertise in a chosen field.

Service Branding

Putting a strong emphasis on consumers, and providing impeccable services is what service branding is all about. While every business does their best not to isolate themselves from their clients, service branding takes it to another level.

Specifically, it focuses on combining customer service with perceived value. And then use it as a selling point.

FAQs

1. What does a branding company do?

A brand agency (or company) provides a wide variety of business branding services, which often depend on a client’s specific needs.

Their branding services must include:

• Building a brand identity from scratch
• Rebranding for existing businesses
• Creating a brand strategy
• Designing logos
• Preparing guidelines for design, style, and tone
• Establishing brand messaging and positioning
• Developing a social media strategy that integrates with brand identity
• Generate copies for websites and other digital assets that accurately represent the brand’s voice

2. What comes first marketing or branding?

When building a brand for your business, branding always comes first. Branding is who you are as a business. It is also your strategy.

On the other hand, marketing is your way of building awareness. It encompasses your tactical goals.

3. How much do branding services cost?

Similar to the cost of building a website, the cost of branding services may range from $1,000 to $30,000. This will depend on whether you need to just make a few tweaks here and there or start from the ground up.

Since the price range of branding services is quite large, here’s a breakdown of how each service will cost.

• Logo design – $100 to $8,000 (this is from a simple to complex logo design)
• Visual style guide – $2,500 to $5,000
• Editorial style guide – $1,500 to $4,000
• Brand identity (includes the brand name, positioning, messaging, tag line, and story) – $1,000 to $5,000
• Market research – $1,000 to $7,000
• Brand guidelines – $3,000 to $4,000

Partner with Digital Delane to Elevate Your Brand

Investing in the right branding services and deliverables can provide your business the best chances of achieving success.

Digital Delane is a full-service digital agency with years of experience in growing brands, creating stunning logos, and developing extensive digital marketing plans for our clients.

Reach out to us to discuss how we can put your business on the map!