When you think of the word ‘brand’ what comes to mind? Do you imagine big brands’ such as McDonalds, Coca Cola or large supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda? They’re all great examples of successful businesses that have managed to build recognisable and highly successful brands. But every business, large and small, needs to focus on building their brand. It’s no small task, brands don’t become successful overnight and it takes hard work, determination and patience to build a strong and successful brand for your business.
What Makes a Brand Successful? Aside from the above, there are steps every business must take to build a successful brand: Market Research Your brand will only succeed if you find out who your target audience is - you need to build trust and a lasting relationship with your customers so it’s imperative you learn who they are and what they want. What is your Mission? What are you trying to achieve? Why did you start your business? In order to create a successful brand you need to pin down what you're trying to achieve- all your branding including logo design will then reflect this ethos to reinforce your message to your audience. What is your USP? You need to stand out from your competitors so make sure you shout about what makes you different. What are your company values? Ethics? Do you offer locally sourced goods for example? Champion what makes your business unique. Great Visual Assets Once you’ve established the above you can get creative and build your brand assets - your logo, colour palette, fonts etc. Why Hire a Designer? A professional designer has a swathe of skills and knowledge to help you build your brand. They know how to help you craft your story and can help you find your audience. Not only that, they can take your story and USP and together create the perfect logo and other visual assets to determine your unique brand style. You might think you know exactly how you want your logo to look but a designer can help you push the boundaries and create something truly spectacular. Their knowledge of colour and how it will work on the web and in print will be invaluable- get ready for hexadecimal triplets and Pantone chats over a cup of coffee! Even after you’ve established your brand image, you need to reinforce that image at every customer touch point. Website, social media, email marketing, in print and your physical premises - all need to give out the same message using the same brand imagery. Your designer will ensure your logo is the correct format for every requirement - print ready and web optimised. Ultimately, a great designer will save you time and money in the long run. They can be on hand at every step in building your brand and can help ensure you stay true to your brand values, message and story. Are you struggling to establish your brand? We can help bring your brand to life, contact us for more information: Contact Creative Remedy
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You can’t have failed to have noticed the buzz surrounding the recent launch of ChatGPT. Initial excitement may have waned a little but with version 4 recently made available to paying subscribers, it is certainly making its mark. Its release took the world by storm as us mere humans watched in awe as the AI spat out written content based on carefully constructed prompts. First thoughts for those who rely on creative jobs in order to earn a living may well have been ones of dread and fear, afterall, if AI can write content or produce images in a fraction of the time it takes a human, is there any need for the human to have this job at all?
It’s a complex question and the answer will no doubt change as time goes on and AI becomes even more intelligent. But, for now at least, although AI is absolutely a tool that can aid the creative processes of many jobs it is a tool that still requires the human touch. Using AI For Content Creation Struggling for ideas for content creation? It can be hard to be able to keep up with the constant need to post content and AI is a great tool to help when you’ve got writer's block. Just one prompt can yield multiple ideas for content, saving you valuable time and allowing you to get on with the writing/creating part. With design and art, AI can create ideas you might not have thought of. Instead of seeing AI as a way of producing the finished piece, it could become more a part of the ideas process, speeding up the initial ‘thinking’ part before you execute the final design. AI is a great tool that is advancing at great speed. But we need to be sure what we are posting or creating is safe and legal. Plagiarism One obvious yet often ignored problem with using AI for content creation is the risk of plagiarism. If you ask a chat bot to write you a blog it will scrape content from multiple sources and will not provide citation. If you choose to write content in this way you run the risk of plagiarising published work. Misinformation Because AI doesn't provide evidence or citations you have no way of knowing if what it has written is actually true. We are all painfully aware of the dangers of misinformation so to avoid posting false information it is very important to check anything written using AI. Content creation is a huge part of a brand’s identity. In order to build a loyal customer base, brands rely on having a unique voice and message that conveys their brand ethos. If this voice isn’t consistent or the messages don’t match the brand values then customers will lose trust. In order for AI to produce unique content it needs to be told how to do it. No matter how good AI is it still needs to be trained to be able to write in the unique voice of an individual business. For small businesses in particular, that unique voice and message is what will set you apart from your competitors. When creating content and designs for your business you need to ensure you are delivering:
AI for Design There has been a lot of backlash from artists and creators surrounding the training of the technology, as it scrapes images from the internet and mashes them together to answer the prompts. Artists rightly protest their work being used without consent or credit. As well as potentially infringing copyrighted work there is also no way to copyright any work produced by AI- so even if it produces something you want to use as a logo for example, there would be nothing to stop anyone else using the same image for their logo. Adobe’s hotly anticipated release of Firefly may answer some of those concerns as they have trained their technology on Adobe stock images, openly licensed content and public domain content where copyright has expired. In a bid to help creators produce great designs regardless of their skill levels, Adobe’s Firefly could be a tool that allows users to improve their working practices. It has to be noted that it is not currently possible to opt-out of data set training for content submitted to Stock, although Adobe do say they are looking at ways to make this a possibility in the future. Personally, I’m a little worried that AI will make it harder to tell what is fact and what is misinformation eg. when doing web searches or reading ‘news’ on social media platforms. AI is constantly evolving and is definitely here to stay, but for now, is it best used as a tool to help optimise our workflow to avoid running the risk of producing soulless and generic creative work. And, if content is wholly written by AI do you think it should be credited as such so that readers can verify its accuracy? Written by Louise Lockhart at Creative Remedy To stand out from competitors a successful business needs to have a unique brand. But it’s important to remember that your brand is more than just a name and a logo, you need your brand to tell your unique story. You want your customer and target audience to connect with you and your business so it’s essential your brand communicates your key message. Your Story
You need to communicate your brand to your customers and a great way to do this is by giving them the low-down on your business values, qualities, products and services. You are aiming to capture the essence of your business and create a connection between you and your customers. Use a Consistent Tone
Your ‘Why’ When you tell your story make sure you tell your audience what it was that inspired you to start your business and what you were trying to achieve. Again, this will help to build trust with your audience and make them see that your business is about more than just sales and profit- building your brand! Make sure you tell your employees about your ‘story’, this will ensure you are all sending the same message to your clients and reinforce your brand identity. Telling your story and connecting with your customers will help build strong relationships and brand loyalty. Your Visual Brand and Logo Your visual brand needs to be on all your branding material both online and any printed materials such as stationary, business cards and any marketing materials. You should use colours that reflect your brand and the design of all your branding needs to clearly show your tone and voice. This is where you should consider using a graphic designer to help you create a logo that encompasses your identity. Even if your business is fully established, it's important to review how your branding reflects your identity- is it giving the right message? Does it give a clear message about what you and your business are trying to achieve? It’s a good idea to make sure your brand is conveying your key messaging and communicating with your target audience. Business’s change and adapt to the economic climate so there is a good chance your message has changed if your business has been running for a number of years. Take a look at Marketing Donuts invaluable ‘Building a Brand - checklist’. Do you need help shaping your story? Contact us for a FREE Health Check! There are often stereotypical images painted of graphic designers, most of which don’t do us justice. You know the nerdy sort who have a low vitamin D count, sleep deprived and can’t put their smartphone down. In all seriousness I hope to challenge these preconceptions and give you 5 good reasons why you need a graphic designer on board. If you find a good graphic designer who is qualified with lots of experience, they can be an invaluable asset to your business. Often knowledgeable about business, technology, trends, online tools and business processes.
They are usually multi-skilled individuals with expertise that cover many disciplines in design, marketing, advertising, digital design, web, print, SEO and photography. 1. Save time Why struggle with ideas, creativity and technology if it isn’t your forte. Hiring a good graphic designer will save you lots of time. Lots of your time that you could spend on other areas of the business, the parts that you are good at. We all don’t like to admit defeat especially when we are close to a solution, but there comes a time… when there is limited time left to work on your business. 2. Save money Saving time is saving money. If a graphic designer can do these jobs quicker, it’s a no brainer! 3. Consistency This word is essentially OCD for designers! They know your brand inside out because they probably created it. Consistent design and messages means adhering to a strict set of, often unspoken rules in a small business. Visual communication that is the same everywhere you see it, across all platforms. THE most important first rule in branding. 4. Boost your brand Good design is often underestimated in value. Good design has longevity it can be effective, clever, striking, make an impact, evoke an emotion and even tell a story. Great design stands you out from a crowd, from your competitors, makes you memorable and converts to sales. 5. Problem solving Graphic designer’s objective and out-of-the-box thinking will benefit any business. A good graphic designer will ask lots of questions and help you understand what you need for your business. Graphic designers are hugely creative people. If you have a problem, they are sure to solve it in truly unique ways. Here are 5 tips that could help you improve your online presence today! 1. Know Why You Need a Website
It sounds like a ridiculous question but if you know the real reason why you need a website (other than… well its just silly not to have one these days!), this will help you get the most out of your online presence. You will find it easier to focus your attention and get the right website functionality for your business needs. 2. Portal to Drive Traffic Your website or blog is your main portal for sharing information to social media not the other way around! In most marketing, the main aim is to drive traffic to your website where potential customers can find out what you do and how to buy your products and services. How you keep them there and get them to purchase it the next step… 3. Building & Maintaining Your Online Brand Does everything you publish online reflect your current brand? Check now… is your logo consistent, does your social media match your website brand, does your email signature match your website design? When you see something out of place on someone else’s website what does this make you think? If you see a strange comment on someone’s business social media post, does it change your perception of that company? 4. Mobile Friendly or Responsive A good website is one that is mobile friendly or has a responsive design (RWD). A mobile friendly or responsive website is one where the design fits the device you are viewing it on (you don’t have to zoom in and the navigation buttons are easy to click on). 5. Measure Your Success There are many tools out there for measuring the success of your marketing from Facebook insights, Hootsuite Analytics to Google Analytics. If you put content out there it is good practice to measure your success, so you know you are delivering the right content at the right time. |
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