colour in branding

Power of Colour in Branding

A brand’s logo and visual identity will comprise a number of visual cues, such as shapes, symbols, number, and words. But the number one visual component that people remember most is colour.

When it comes to branding, the power of colour is both emotional and practical. On an emotional level, colour can affect how consumers feel when they look at a brand, while on a practical level it can help a brand stand out in the crowd.

Whether you’re a designer or a business owner, it’s helpful to know colour meanings and symbolism so you can make informed decisions. If you choose a colour meaning ‘tranquility’ for your extreme sports brand, you might be sending the wrong message.

01. Red – danger, passion, excitement, energy

02. Orange – fresh, youthful, creative, adventurous

03. Yellow – optimistic, cheerful, playful, happy

04. Green – natural, vitality, prestige, wealth

05. Blue – communicative, trustworthy, calming, depressed

06. Purple – royalty, majesty, spiritual, mysterious

07. Brown – organic, wholesome, simple, honest

08. Pink – feminine, sentimental, romantic, exciting

09. Black – sophisticated, formal, luxurious, sorrowful

10. White – purity, simplicity, innocence, minimalism

Some handy tools from Canva that will help you find which colours look good together, which colours match your images and colour pallete ideas that are guaranteed to look good together

Colour Wheel

Colour Palette Generator

Colour Palette Ideas

Absolute Creative work with entrepreneurs just like you, designing beautiful responsive websites, increasing your brands visibility, producing your marketing materials, and much more besides. Call us for a chat on 01707 386 107 today, or email hello@absolutecreative.co.uk and we’ll get back to you right away.

June 8, 2019 / No Comments / 

3 reasons why branding your vehicle is great for your business

If you run a business and you don’t have your branding on your vehicle or vehicles, you’re missing out on a valuable and cost-effective way of promoting your company. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why vehicle branding is a no-brainer.

1. Potential customers will see it every day on the road

Recent research stated that in high-traffic areas like London, your vehicle will be seen by 3000 potential customers every hour! If you are a tradesperson like a plumber, electrician, builder, or another business that works with domestic customers, how valuable could that be to you? Eye-catching design on your van, with a prominent telephone number or email address to make it easy for someone to write down on the move, makes you stand out from the ‘white van men’, and shows you as a professional who cares about your business. Here’s a quick tip though – keep it clean, and use a ‘proper’ email address – info@pipesandplumbing.co.uk for example, looks much more professional than pipesandplumbing@hotmail.co.uk – and we can help you with that.

2. It looks good outside your premises, or a customer’s home

Carrying on from the last reason, if you’re working on someone’s home and doing a great job, parking your van outside every day is a large and visible advertisement – and you’re getting paid to have it there! It also looks great outside your premises or office, proudly advertising your company and showing customers you mean business.

3. It’s can be a cost-effective way to reach customers

Establishing a return on investment from print ads or radio ads is extremely difficult. For one they’re expensive, and secondly you never really know how many of the listeners or readers are your target market. Depending on the designs you choose, adding vinyl graphics to your vehicle can be a much cheaper way to reach your customers. A recent article in The Telegraph stated ‘The stats suggest that the cost per 100 impressions for van branding can be as low as just 4p. By comparison, a radio advertising slot is likely to set you back £1.20 per 100 impressions’ – and that’s a massive difference!

If you’ve been thinking about branding your car or van, we can help. We are Absolute Creative, an innovative, award winning design agency based in Hertfordshire. We work with businesses like yours all over the UK, creating strikingly effective vinyl graphics and vehicle wraps to help those businesses become more visible to their customers. We also provide a range of other print services, as well as website design SEO, and a whole lot more. If you’re still driving a white van or a car with no branding, you’re missing a trick. Don’t delay any longer, call us today on 01707 386 107, or email hello@absolutecreative.co.uk and we’ll make sure you get noticed.

February 21, 2019 / No Comments / 

Do you have the right branding for your business?

A Brand. What is it exactly? Well first off don’t make the mistake of thinking your product and your brand are the same thing. Lots of companies may offer the same or similar products, but people will buy it from one of those companies over and over because of a sense of loyalty to the brand – think Coke and Pepsi, Chevrolet and Ford, iPhone and Galaxy.

 

It’s all about the feeling…

 

So if ‘branding’ might start with the company colours, uniforms, and logo etc, the brand includes the feeling people develop towards the company and its products. It’s an image, an idea, an emotional attachment – the whole experience of the customer to the full package – logo, products, website, social media engagement, advertising – everything. Their experience means buying and wearing or using a certain brand makes them feel a certain way. Maybe it’s the sense of style and fashion, or maybe it’s the ethics and values… or maybe it’s both. Whatever it is, there’s no denying that if you develop a strong brand your business can experience huge success, and the brand name itself can be worth a fortune.

 

Where do you start?

 

You know those pub quiz questions where they pass around a sheet of A4 with a load of logos printed on it, and you have to name as many as you can? It’s not so difficult in most cases is it? There’s the instantly recognisable Golden Arches of MacDonalds, the Nike swoosh, and of course the Apple with a bite out of it. There will be others too, but in each case, they have strong, memorable branding. We know the logo, we know the company, we know the product, and we know exactly what to expect from each of them. But these are big companies and they’ve been around a while. For the rest of us… we’d all love to have great branding like that because strong branding is key to being recognised – but where do we start?

 

It starts with the logo…

 

When it comes to customer service, telephone answering, engaging on social media platforms, advertising, and winning the loyalty of your target market, that’ll be down to you to put systems in place that build your brand the right way. When it comes to design and your branding, the best place to start is with your logo. If you can come up with a logo that represents your business well, you can then use it as a starting point to create consistent branding across your clothing, vehicle graphics, advertising, and your marketing materials –  website, social media – the lot. Of course, we’d recommend you use a professional design company to make your ideas come to life, and to assist you with the creation of your logo and other tools and materials. Getting it right from the start gets you off on the right foot and saves you money in the future. If you’re starting your business and you have loads of ideas in your head, or you’re already established but feel your business branding needs a ‘freshen up’, why not let Absolute Creative help?

 

We are an innovative design agency based in Hertfordshire, and we work with businesses all over the UK designing company branding, marketing materials, and websites. You can read all about our award winning design on this page, and see some of our work in our portfolio.

 

To chat to us just call us on 01707 386 107 or email hello@absolutecreative.co.uk and we’ll get back to you asap.

January 7, 2019 / No Comments / 

Marketing vs Branding

Sometimes we find clients are confused with the terms ‘marketing’ and ‘branding’, and how they’re different. Both are important, often difficult to master and incredibly rewarding for your business. Each requires different planning, research and execution. Read on to find out the basics of approaching each.

 

Creating an emotional response

Everything your company does on the surface should be aiming to get some kind of emotional reaction from your audience. Whether it’s marketing or branding, the response you’re looking for should be in line with your product and market. Research is essential for discovering how you should be approaching your target audience, so it’s important that you have a good idea of what you’re doing before you start.

 

Marketing

As an example, take an ad campaign including a countdown clock or CTAs to act on an expiring deal. It aims to get a stressful response from the audience, and this will push them to buy your product sooner rather than later. However, creating a stressful response through branding works for only a few companies. These tend to be exclusive and high-end companies who are selling an image, not just products.

 

Branding

Your branding should be aiming to get one or two responses from your audience and convey one main image overall. It’s the difference between a fun little flower shop in a small village and a high-end high street florist. Your branding should align with both your product and your target market.

There’s no point trying to sell wedding packages if you’re a florist in an area with no wedding venues, so you shouldn’t market yourself as a wedding specialist. However, you can brand yourself as an affordable place to buy seeds, bulbs and fresh cut flowers and have your staff, signage and website reflect this.

 

Marketing your brand

Every marketing effort of your company should be in line with your brand values and goals. You should aim to create campaigns which show your business off in the best way and compliment your existing branding.

Take our example of a local flower shop. Yes, their ‘high-end’ wedding package might be marketed differently to their regular packages. But that doesn’t mean that their brand values are lost in the messages.

One of their values might be ‘providing high-quality flowers at an affordable price’. Marketing this wedding package can be done in such a way that your message isn’t lost on the customer. Continuing to convey exactly what your brand values are while switching up how people view your business through one advert is a great way to target specific groups of people.

There’s always a bit of wiggle room in the way you can market your business. Align your marketing and branding to keep it consistent, but don’t be afraid of switching up your advertising to keep things fresh and try out new ideas.

 

Marketing Tools

At its most basic, marketing is every tool you use to get your brand out there. This extends to:

  • Websites
  • Blogs
  • SEO
  • Social media
  • Email marketing
  • Print ads
  • Pay Per Click campaigns
  • TV and radio ads

These can change constantly. How you advertise is should always be changing to keep up with trends, competitors and the needs of your audience.

The tools and how you use them for your business will be unique to you, and you should do the appropriate research to justify them. This is how you gain and retain customers, sell product and increase brand awareness.

 

Branding Tools

Branding tools shouldn’t be confused with marketing tools. Different branding tools include:

  • Corporate colours
  • Logo
  • Staff uniform
  • Font and style guide
  • Promises, values and goals
  • Customer service

Of course, all of these branding tools can (and should) be used in your marketing. They should be as unique to your business as your advertising is, so it’s important to think carefully when branding or rebranding your business.

 

If you need help with branding or rebranding, don’t hesitate to contact our friendly team. We’re always happy to help. Alternatively, check out some of our other blogs on branding 

September 12, 2018 / No Comments / 
Branding

Telling Your Brand’s Story

Everything moves so quickly these days. You may wonder why your prospects would even consider looking into your company history or what your logo really means. How can you guide them into spending their time on learning your brand story when there are so many more things for them to see?
Your brand should be so streamlined and coherent that it conveys what you’re all about at a glance. However, creating a brand isn’t just about designing a logo and producing a colour pallet. Your brand will become the biggest representation of your company that you own. Every aspect of it must benefit your company and drive sales.

It’s not about you

Your customers want to know your story. This doesn’t mean that they want to know where you grew up or about your life, or even about the company itself. Not right away, at least. Centre your story around the customer and what you can do for them. For example, your ‘About Us’ section of your website should start with the customer. Tell the reader all about how you spotted an issue and made a product to fix it. Tell them about how hard you work to come up with solutions just for them. Make the customer the main character in the story, not you or your company.

If it fits in with your company, product or branding, the classic approach of retelling the company’s milestones might work well. For example, if your company focuses on family, talk about the company as a family. If your product is all about being all natural, ethically sourced, cruelty-free, tell the story of the people who made it possible. Creating a timeline as an infographic can work well for certain industries, like design and IT. Use your USPs to your advantage, if you have an appropriate one. If not, stick to making it about the customer.

Apptopia’s ‘About’ section on their website clearly starts with the problem that the customer has, as well as how they’ve worked hard to provide a solution. They then emotionally connect with the audience by describing some issues they’ve probably come across, making them the subject of the story. Finally, they describe their initiatives and what they’re doing to help, providing a solution. This structure is effective as it cycles the audience through several emotions such as stress, relief and gratitude.

Apptopia

 

Build Relationships

Telling your story is a great way to build better relationships. Your customers will trust your business once they know why you do what you do. A great way to establish trust if you’re a small, friendly business is to be honest with them. If you choose to provide a timeline of your company or the story of how you were founded, it’s great to include places where you fell short. Maybe you struggled to get funding or find affordable offices. If you balance this out with you coming out on top, it makes your business look human and friendly. Making mistakes is something everyone does, so be prepared to let your customers know.

However, if you’re looking to create a more professional or upscale brand, it’s best to omit anything that makes you look even slightly bad. Use your best judgement here and think about your clients when crafting your story. What do they want to hear? What will establish trust with them? Each of these will be different depending on the nature of your industry.

Telling your story also motivates your employees. Make your story known to them, including every humbling moment. This is how you will get your story known to your customers. How are your staff meant to deliver what you stand for if they have no idea what it is? Your employees should be beaming with your brand’s message and demonstrate your brand values at every opportunity.

It’s important for your staff to see that you’re human too. This builds trust, and trust means you have a reliable staff at your disposal, who are fully motivated and know your business inside and out. They can successfully convey all this to your clients which helps with customer relations.

 

Make a good impression

By becoming a story-first brand, you can control how customers see you right from the start. A home baking company may have a focus on the history and roots of their business and highlight the family side of it. A high-end brand may want to mention the years of experience at prestigious institutes that the employees have. Or a company might go for something more in the middle. Shape the experience you want your customers to have right from the start and let them know your story at every stage of the buying journey.
This allows your customers to start developing an emotional connection to your business before they’ve even seen your products. 

Make it easy

A great way to make a great first impression is by using user-generated content. This can tie all the elements of your story together in a customer-centred way. A gallery of your product being used by normal people doing normal things has so many benefits.

  1. It allows your customer to be the centre of the story. We already know that making the customer the main character is best practice. Why not provide a visual aid to help them imagine themselves in that role? Make it simple and natural for them to do this. Airbnb does this perfectly, and the title of their ‘Stories’ page is ‘Imagine yourself there’. AirBnB
  2. Fit it around your brand. Taking the example of the home baking company again, how fitting would it be to include some ‘real’ families using your products? Encouraging users to share photos of themselves would also make them feel more connected to your product. A high-end jewellery brand might make more of an effort to include editorial or professional photos, perhaps using beauty bloggers and influencers to simulate candid shots. Again, the visual imagery makes it very easy to imagine themselves as part of your story.
  3. Include your staff in this initiative. They’re the face of your brand, after all. Your customers will love behind the scenes footage of your office and see a human side to your business. Images of your staff can fit in with both family branding and high-end branding, and everything in between.

Telling your story cements your brand as a ‘real’ business that customers want to buy from. It pulls every aspect of your mission together and lets customers know that they’re at the centre of what you do.

July 19, 2018 / No Comments /