Visual branding is one of the most important components of digital marketing. It determines how consumers perceive a business on the internet and is key to a good user experience.
But what exactly is visual branding? All the visual aspects of what identify a firm: the logo, color schemes, typefaces, and imagery. It is these very elements that actually convey a business’s brand personality, values, and promises to its audience.
Imagine scrolling through your newsfeeds on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok one day and a negative review from a disgruntled customers pops up.
Or worse — you search for your company’s brand (or your own name) on Google and a negative article appears on page one!
Courtesy of The Liquid Agency
Your customers are no longer responding to your efforts. And that’s freaking you out.
In the past, customers are known as “consumers”. They are considered “segments” to be “targeted” through a military-like process of “strategic” marketing.
I’m No Angel (#ImNoAngel) by Lane Bryant is a good example of Movement Marketing
In today’s “hyperconnected, ultra-competitive, and supercluttered marketplace,” doing more of the same big idea advertising on mostly mainstream media channels isn’t going to work anymore.
Consumers are getting jaded and overloaded with information – much of which has little or no relevance to their lives nor their interests.
Dorie Clark wants to reinvent you (image via HBR Facebook)
You’ve slogged hard for years. Maybe even decades. Somewhere along the way, you lost your mojo.
Maybe work isn’t as fulfilling or meaningful as before. Or you realise that you haven’t made any progress in years.
What should you do under these circumstances?
Katy Perry’s Prism isn’t getting off to a colourful start (courtesy of The Katy Perry Wiki)
Katy Perry is a global mega-star.
Her music videos on YouTube generate hundreds of million views (over 201 million for “Roar”). Her Facebook fan page has almost 60 million “likes”. Over 47 million followers worship her on Twitter. Her hits (like “Fireworks” and “Teenage Dream”) are so well known that anybody from school kids to grandparents are humming along to their melodies.
Coke, Starbucks and Subway are leading social brands (courtesy of Slashfood)
How do you create a social brand? Are there any differences between a traditional brand and a social brand?
In the age of social and digital media, traditional methods of branding are not enough. The process of building and implementing a brand needs to consider the unique characteristics of the social ecosystem.
Lady Gaga‘s little Japanese Monsters show lots of brand love (courtesy of Tokyofashion.com)
No brand is an island. Especially in the age of the mobile social web.
Going it alone is foolish when competitors are hot on your heels. It can also be extremely expensive to invest continually in new product development, mass advertising, and promotions to drive sales. What’s more, there will always be a bigger fish in the ocean.
TOMS shoes has one of the most best brand stories ever (source of image)
Logos. Taglines. Company names. Mastheads. Mascots. Jingles. More logos.
Every single day, we’re exposed to hundreds of different brands. These cover the entire spectrum of the consumption experience – from F&B to fashion, tuition services to toiletries.
A picture often paints a thousand words. A great comic or cartoon, on the other hand, paints tens of thousands.
“Marketoonist” Tom Fishburne recently created a wonderful graphical depiction of 5 different types of social media strategies as depicted below:
Courtesy of Tom Fishburne