Marketing that Doesn’t Suck: Part 6
Example #6: Graphic Design That Is a Part of Overall Brand Strategy and Identity
When you think about your company and how you present it to customers and potential customers, what stands out to you? If you’ve developed a good brand identity, this picture should develop clearly. Your brand should express what you provide to your customers, including their experience, your products or services, what makes your company unique and the values behind it. Now, think about the visual pieces you have to back this up – this is where graphic design strategy comes in. Do your presentations, your logo, your website and even your packaging fit in with that overall brand? For companies that really succeed with their branding, graphic design is an essential part of their overall strategy.
As an element of your branding, graphic design is the visual representation. Choices of colors and fonts can convey a playful image or a more serious one. A great logo can communicate so much about what you do and how you do it in an instant. Companies that appreciate this take it seriously and hire the right professionals to help produce the right designs.
An excellent graphic designer can take your brand identity and values into account and develop a visual representation that helps convey that message. You should be able to put into words what makes your company special – and a graphic designer can put that into imagery. The key distinction here? You’re not the designer, and the designer is not you. You must work together to understand each other’s knowledge base and skillset to come up with the ideal graphic design for your brand.
A professional designer who is part of your marketing team (whether in-house or part of an agency) that truly understands your brand is key to success. Hiring a freelancer for a one-off design may work in the short-term, but it’s not the best strategy for building and maintaining your brand identity. Here are a few of the main benefits of working with a great designer who understands your company:
- The right amount of push back = future brand success. In this situation, the designer is comfortable enough with who you are to tell you you’re getting it wrong and to ask the right questions in order to get it right. They make sure they’re not just giving you what you want but that their designs fit in with your overall messaging.
- Long-term cost savings. By hitting the design nail on the head early on, you won’t waste time or money on designs that don’t pay off or fit into your brand strategy.
- Consistency. By working to develop the right graphic design for your brand from the beginning, you’ll have brand consistency well into the future. Of course individual designs will evolve, but with a strong base, your graphics will always represent who you are.
So instead of just hiring someone to fire off a new graphic for your company quick and dirty, think bigger. Think about how that design fits into your brand, and find the right marketing team and team members to execute that.
