After you’ve swallowed the pill and chosen a name for your product, you need a brand identity to support it. Branding is important, and over time a good brand can help you rise from a pool of commodity competitors into someone that makes 1-2% more in margin. A good brand effort requires customer research, trials, and measurement. But if you’re like me, with limited budget, no time for research, and an already-differentiated product, then you should consider……just doing “identity” work. I won’t even call it “brand identity” because it does a disservice to branding experts. I’m talking about plain, old-fashioned “identity” efforts like a product logo, website pages, sales materials, letterhead, envelopes, and business cards. You can set standard font, color, and design cues that are used in all your marketing materials to quickly appear professional.
Logos Don’t Have to Take All Year to Develop
In my experience, logo development can really eat at your budget while a lone designer struggles to present multiple concepts (which usually seem to look alike). Of course, each creative concept costs money and eats at your time and patience.
I recommend www.designoutpost.com as an alternative to the traditional logo development path. Design Outpost is a contest forum where you can post a creative brief and prize and let designers submit entries. I provide daily submission feedback and I’m awfully direct in my critiques. I’ve personally used Design Outpost five times and always had good options from which to make a final logo selection.
Blow It Out With Print or Web
A logo is a great start to your identity, but it needs to be applied to a print piece or website to nail down those important design cues that help unify marketing pieces. I always do website work next because it allows me to make layout choices for large sections of copy as well as apply visual treatments for image work. You might have large print pieces that give you the same opportunities. Regardless, make font, color, and other choices during this phase.
Special Note on Design Elements
I love stock photography. I hate stock photography. I love stock photography. I hate stock photography. I love and hate stock photography!
Stock photo sites (like www.gettyimages.com) give me fast access to photos that I can’t afford to have done by a photographer. But they are often bland and clearly “stock”. I ALWAYS work with my designer to alter image use with treatments that make them appear more custom. Don’t get stuck in the stock photo trap—push your designers to experiment with overlays and graphical elements that make your photos appear custom and establish design elements that clearly belong to your product.
Keep it Consistent
Be a stickler for consistency. Funnel final approval for all your print, web, sales, and other materials through one person to ensure that they comply with your identity standards. Prospects and clients will become aware of your product more quickly if all the materials that they encounter over time contain the same identity elements.
Bottom Line
Strategists: Sometimes you need real brand work. Sometimes you don’t. Figure out what scenario you’re in and be open to pursuing lower-cost identity work.
Creatives: Limited budget and time (and research inputs) doesn’t mean you should settle for bland output. Be creative with your colors and fonts and especially with treatments to stock photos.
