As a business owner myself, I understand that every dollar counts. When considering where best to spend your money to effectively grow the business, it may seem like branding and design should take a back seat to more pressing matters of sales and product evolution. This line of thinking is a mistake, however, and one that ends up costing far more than it ever saves.
The look and feel of a company’s brand is critical to driving business. A brand is far more than just a logo or a tagline. Brand identity is woven throughout every activity and has the power to create consumer loyalty, develop trust, empower employees, increase overall awareness and build connections. Conversely, poor brand identity (or no identity at all) can erode all those elements.
Consider just some of the most recent figures around the value of a brand: 91% of consumers would rather buy from an authentic brand, and 82% of investors want the companies they invest in to have a strong brand. Moreover, brand loyalty is worth 10x more than a single purchase.
With that understanding, it becomes clear that, for most companies, branding—and the design elements behind it—need to factor into mission-critical business spending.
Quality design builds quality connections
Most entrepreneurs start a business because they feel a certain calling—to help people, to fill a hole or create something that is missing in the ecosystem, or to improve the current status quo. Design is no different.
At Reed Hill, we consider ourselves connectors. On one level we’re busy creating design—whether a logo, artwork or advertisement—but on a deeper level we’re seeking to build a connection, a relationship between the end customer and the brand itself. In order to accomplish that goal, we’re using ideas and emotions to help motivate a sense of connection and a subsequent action or behavior.
Take, for example, our work with Gates, a global provider of power transmission solutions (ie: belts and hoses). On one level, that may seem to appeal to only a very niche audience, but when you consider it from a connections point of view, you realize that the work of providing belts and hoses plays a significant role in the lives of everyday consumers. Everything from cars and trucks on the road to elevators, ATMs and even manufacturing some of our most precious commodities. We realized that without a company like Gates, the world would come to a screeching halt. And that’s the connecting emotion we chose to highlight in our design work, yielding amazing results for Gates and tapping into new customer segments and increased market share.
The hidden costs of cutting corners
The old adage is true: you get what you pay for, and never is that more clear than when you’ve spent time and money trying to develop a brand only to find it is not what you wanted or it does not have the desired impact for your intended audience.
For business leaders unfamiliar with branding and design, initial estimates can feel like sticker shock. This is why it is crucial to understand what goes into quality design work. For example, the tools required to create a bespoke look and feel for your brand are not cheap. A good design house invests in the right tools to be able to provide you custom work including fonts, images and enhancements. Those offering inexpensive design work are more than likely using inexpensive or free tools to complete that work, and it shows.
Experienced designers also work with a process, built on trust and cultivated through an ongoing relationship. It often coordinates with marketing and PR efforts, but it is also uniquely its own element. Experts in marketing and PR are quick to tell you they don’t do design or branding, just as branding experts won’t claim to understand PR or marketing, because we each recognize the nuances and expertise required in the different approaches.
We once lost a bid with a consulting firm that was looking to rebrand, as they instead opted to use their existing PR team. Unfortunately that exercise did not yield the full results they had hoped for, so instead the company tried another individual. Still, the results fell short of what they were seeking. By the time they came back to our original bid they had spent three times what we had projected and eight months had been wasted. In the end we were able to deliver on what they needed, but it was a costly lesson in trying to save both time and money.
Well-executed design yields better, measurable results
Here is where the rubber meets the road for branders. As experts, we know what beautiful design looks like and we know how to build a brand strategy that touches on every aspect of the business. But until that effort yields measurable results for your business, it is hard to justify the value.
Evaluating brand performance can take many forms, but one of the most widely used is measuring visits to a website landing page, time spent and click through activity. We know results are tied tightly to the design itself, which is why we design from the start with the end performance in mind.
We work with one of the world’s largest industrial companies, across several of their vertical sectors. After successfully creating and managing a campaign for one particular sector, we were asked to oversee the management of another campaign that a different creative group had designed. While we were able to demonstrate results on both campaigns, the one where we managed both the creative and the execution yielded performance results 4x higher.
There is a critical connection between design and performance. A cohesive branding strategy should underpin not only the business itself, but each campaign it undertakes.
If design is not your area of expertise, it may be difficult to distinguish between quality work and mediocrity. Trust the experts, and recognize that the right design aesthetic will not only resonate with your core customers, but it also yields results that help you target new audiences, build loyalty and solidify your brand experience. With all of that payoff, it’s clear that design and brand work should be one of your most carefully considered costs.
