How to Create an Image of Branding for Your Online Store

I'll mention a couple of features of design. What companies spring to mind.

• A red and white color scheme.
• Smiley faces.
• Two black circles that overlap a greater black circle.
• Product names beginning with the initial letter "i."

I'll bet you can figure out at the very least two brands that are well-known using these two elements.

It's not a coincidence that the most powerful, largest and powerful companies usually are the ones with the most famous brand names. This is that branding is widely regarded as to be one of the most crucial aspects of managing a company. That's why the people who can create iconic brands have the greatest influence within the world of business.

There are several basic elements to a brand image:

• Logo
• Colors
• Typography
• Icons

Your job is to create each of these components so that they cooperate. Make sure that you have the entire set up before launching each one. If you start early, you'll end up having to improvise something in the future, which could easily end as a weak point to your branding strategy.

But first, before you create any of them, you'll need first...

Find Out Who You Are

Create a strategy for your brand that includes your values and your mission statement. It also includes what you're hoping to offer to your clients, and what you'd like people to be thinking of when they hear your name. Note down a list of key words you'd like to use to define the impression you want to convey.

One process you can use for this process is the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, potentials, weaknesses, and threats, and is intended to help you identify the four pillars of your business. "Strengths" are the values that you have to offer and what makes people care about your business. "Weaknesses" could mean that your worth isn't as high. it, or a prospective buyer might choose an alternative. Opportunities are things that you might have a chance to pursue within the next few years, or goals that you're currently working on. And threats, even though you don't want to consider these are issues that could possibly damage your business or create most of the obstacles you're facing. When you've got a good understanding of these factors, you'll be better prepared for your next step.

Define Your Goals

Like any e-commerce endeavor, if you don't set a goal at the beginning, you won't have any way to measure your success.

When you've determined what you would like people to be thinking of whenever they see your brand name, you've begun. What's next? What's your primary goal in this branding (or redesigning)? Are you the first to be branding your business and you're aiming to create the basis of all the future initiatives? Do you already have one, but you want to determine if changing the design will boost conversion rates?

To get ideas, don't be afraid to take a look at your competition and anyone else who's developed a brand image you admire. Look at the fonts they're using and what type of composition they employ for their layouts, the kinds of logos they like as well as, perhaps the most crucially the things they've accomplished which could be improved upon.

Design Toward a Purpose

Be selective with your colors. use only a select few fonts, and be sure they're visually connected.

There are two basic kinds of fonts you have to consider: head and body. The head font is the one that will be used for your ads and sales pages so you should try to make it distinct and attractive. However, the body font is supposed to remain within the background, and not be attracting attention. The main consideration for one, besides how well it matches your image and is the ability to read at smaller size. A great guideline for selecting one can be found on Creative Market.

Iconography should usually be the simplest way to remain memorable, but don't treat that as the sole norm.

It often helps to develop guidelines or a style manual, a guideline from which organizations or employees are able to make decisions regarding how to write line with the company's branding. This will help to make sure that everyone you collaborate with is aware of the best way to ensure consistency.

And consistency across all your campaigns is one of the fundamental aspects of branding. If you see a website that looks like it was created in the past, or a different era as your business cards, something's wrong.

Change Your Business to Fit the Needs

Like your narrative what you do with your business can be a crucial part of your image as well, since they both deal with how your potential customers think about you. No matter how cautious of a brand image you create, just one "Ocean Marketing" incident could be the end of it all.

In fact, putting excessive effort into the corporate standards manual and not enough into ensuring that your customer service and corporate practices are up to par will just create an illusion of achievement.

When you've figured out the strength of your brand, and also the goals you're trying to achieve, you can organize your events and promotions in a way that helps enhance your image as a brand. It's also possible to plan your orders (or the designs in the event that you design products) to make sure that the product you're selling helps to reinforce that message, and pick the right people who best fit your needs.

In particular, Disney is one of the finest brands that has meticulously engineered every aspect of their business to reflect their ideal of magic and childlike wonder. It's especially evident in their theme parks, that are masterpieces in brand-driven engineering. It is recommended to check out Drew McClellan's " Marketing Lessons from Walt" to see more examples.

Conclusion

It is important to note that if you have the money to employ an ad agency, design firm or an independent graphic designer, then you ought to do this. The skills they have will take long to master. Additionally, they have a thorough knowledge about which fonts and graphic elements can bring specific images or associations to mind.

And don't hesitate to alter your image later, if you feel it's appropriate. Every brand goes through significant changes throughout the course of its life, often for very well-intentioned reasons. Anyone who has ever heard of Frito Bandito will attest.

Are there any examples of great branding you would like to showcase? hat are your favorite types of branding, and how do you make them look great? Tell us in the comment section below.

Image source: Derek Gavey, olle svensson