Marketing isn’t that different between business-to business companies and business-to-customer companies. Both types are trying to sell products or services; both types are trying to gain attention and spread awareness; and both types benefit from having fantastic visuals in their marketing campaigns. Visual branding is the practice of uniting everything your company stands for with a recognizable logo and visual theme. If you’re just starting out at developing your company logo, or if your old logo is tired and needs some updating, here are our top tips for breathing life into your visual brand.
Consistency Is Less Important
Most companies are hoping to stay in business for the long hall, which means they need to stay afloat during many changes in public taste. Fashion changes frequently — just think about what you wore just five years ago and that fact is easy to see — and styles of graphic design go in and out of fashion like anything else. You want your visual brand to be recognizable and iconic, but you also want it to be able to change with the times.
Fear Shouldn’t Guide Your Brand
If you have an old logo you’ve used for years, you probably feel comfortable inside that visual brand. But, if your sales have been stagnating, and you know your visual advertisements aren’t attracting you clients like they used to, it’s time for an update. It may feel like a big risk to go in a certain direction with your visual branding, but the biggest risks often lead to the biggest rewards. As long as you aren’t controversial or incomprehensible in the logo that represents your company, you can stand to take a risk on a new design.
Logos Aren’t Just Rubber-Stamp Shapes
A logo is much more important than a silly symbol you put next to your company name. Your logo should represent everything the company stands for, from its mission statement to its actual products and services. While all this may seem impossible to incorporate into a simple, memorable design, remember everything that your logo is going to go on: everything from your letterhead to your social media to your advertisement car stickers. A change in logo is more than a simple design switch — it represents to your clients that you are taking a bold step into the future.
People Comprise Companies
You may be a B2B company, but you are still advertising your products and services to individual people. Whether it’s the front desk assistant or the CEO, you’re targeting someone with your logo, so you need to make your visual brand accessible by flesh-and-blood humans. If your logo isn’t appealing to a person — who has opinions and emotions, unlike companies — you aren’t likely to gain any traction with your design.
Inspiration Comes From Within
Your logo should speak about your company, so you can’t try to impose an unrelated and outside design on your visual brand strategy. Instead of hiring outside help to slap a new logo onto your products, consider the themes that really apply to your company. Brainstorm colors, seasons, animals and more that remind you of your company, and you’re more likely to create a design that your ideal clients will accept and understand.
