Identify a target market and get to know your customers better

The biggest mistake most designers make is trying to design based on the subjective preferences of their clients. Effective brand design speaks to the buyer, not the client. 

So we focus on identifying your ideal buyer; who are they and what sort of brand would pull them in? How do we get them excited? How do we build trust?

Once you have a clear picture of who you are selling to and not just who you are selling for, you’ll be able to set the brand on a path of success. One way of doing this is by mapping out buyer personas which is an anonymized representation of your ideal customer based on research and data about your existing or desired customers. The more detailed this research the better because the findings will dictate several key brand design decisions.

And remember, If your branding doesn’t resonate with the buyer, you will not sell.

Consider your positioning and assess your competition

One way of establishing a benchmark for a baseline foundation for brand design is competitor research.

Start by making a list of your top competitors and the closer they are to your exact offering, the better. The benefit of zeroing in is not to emulate but to help distinguish. When you have an eye and some insight into what already exists, you can better ensure that you stand out. This process encourages creative brainstorming while providing insights into the tone and feel of the industry, and helps marry that with a unique brand design. 

Establish clear and cohesive brand elements based on research

Once you’ve knocked the market research aspect out of the way, it is never too early for a brand to start building out its guidelines. In fact, some of the most renowned brands in the world know that this document is an iterative and essential process. As you grow, as your offerings expand, your brand guidelines will serve as a north star for all sales and marketing efforts. Any business owner worth his salt knows that client retention and brand equity go hand in hand. Impactful branding can nurture a visual recall and affinity that brings inalienable benefits to any organization. 

In many situations, overdone branding can detract from the message you’re trying to get across so keep this succinct and straightforward. You don’t have to say everything you have to say through the logo, great branding stems from a narrative that is just as much a part of guidelines as brand colors. Think of all of your touchpoints and a visual, textual tone that will tie them all together.

Build out a strategy with clearly defined brand guidelines

To maintain cohesive and consistent branding you need to establish structured brand guidelines. Good branding comes with hard-set rules about how it should be used and what degree of deviation (if any) is acceptable. This ensures that as you and your team grow, as specialized divisions come into play, and as you diversify - your brand remains intact and recognizable. 

Your brand guidelines should include things like:

• Core Values, Mission Statement, and Slogan

• Color Palettes, Fonts, and their use case

• Visual Styling and Templates

• Tone and Voice

• Acceptable and unacceptable manipulations 

Other elements of guidelines may include Shapes, Illustration, Iconography, Texture, and Patterns, Animations, and even tie into Interactive Elements, Data Visualization and Web Layout. Branding is a huge investment in terms of time, energy, research, and talent so setting and maintaining clear brand guidelines allow you to dictate exactly how your branding should be used most effectively and that your investment proves worthwhile.

Don’t be afraid to revisit and rebrand over time

Some industry thought leaders suggest rebranding every five years to keep it relevant and reflective of the company's trajectory. However, clients are often hesitant if not entirely uninterested in revisiting their brand guidelines. This isn’t just a problem with veteran brands but we often find young companies unwilling to rebrand even when they are rapidly evolving.

Your branding design should portray your brand’s current message and values to your buyers. If things change, be ready to rebrand so that your creative remains relevant and you remain instantly recognizable in a crowded market landscape. 

So now that we’ve established some traditional guidelines for branding, it begs the question: what is UX-led Brand Design and why do you need it?

The simple answer to the latter is that it can prove to be the defining edge you have over your competitors but to explain what UX-led Branding is we need to revisit a few concepts. 

We have already identified research as the cornerstone of an effective brand design and branding strategy. Working with a company that realizes this when approaching a brand design project means that you are creating an intentional, strategic, and empathetic brand that is built to resonate and therefore last. 

There are some undeniable benefits of working with a UX-Led Design Agency, particularly in this day and age. Two decades ago your biggest rival was perhaps a business in your country that offered the same product as you while today it could be someone on the opposite end of the globe. 

With so many options to choose from, you never want a wasted visit to your website. If you can’t drive them towards taking some sort of action you might as well not make any effort to get them on your site in the first place. 

A UX-led design agency will be able to understand the ideal path to conversion for you by offering a streamlined user journey that makes it obvious what action people should take next. But UX-led brand design isn’t just about getting new customers to the checkout faster — it’s also about helping you keep hold of the customers you’ve already got. 

A UX-led agency can help onboard new customers more effectively. They can leverage data to understand where customers are struggling with your existing process and identify instances where key information is unavailable or difficult to find.

The consumer survey you ran two years ago is not relevant to your strategy today because user behaviors change all the time. Your customers might previously have tolerated a clunky interface, but as your competitors improve their own user experiences, you need to do the same. What ups the ante is that it’s no longer enough to deliver an excellent desktop experience — you need to offer the same level of service on mobile, too.

When a company follows a UX design philosophy, it is as concerned with user satisfaction and enjoyment during every interaction, as it is with the physical look and feel of what it is selling.

Recognizing “Delight” as  KPI means that UX-led companies strive to step up for their users time and again making it reliable and therefore ultimately profitable.

With human-centered, design-led, and UX-grounded branding efforts, you can establish “Delight as a KPI, which translates into a reliable, trusted, strategic, and profitable company that can stand the test of time. 

Curious about how UX-led brand design could transform your business? Book a free meeting with our lead designer to better understand how our UX-led approach to branding might set your business on an upwards trajectory no matter what stage of the life cycle you’re at.