How important is Branding to your website?
We all know and recognise the major brands such as Nike or Coca Cola and the impact they have on our daily lives. We believe it is just as important for smaller organisations to develop a strong set of brand values in order to enhance the perception in the eyes of customers, employees, investors and suppliers.
Brand identity is an extension of your organisation’s personality which is moulded by various factors such as:
Brand is born out of the user experience
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design of the logo,
- website design and layout,
- the language of your content and how you converse with your users
- print materials and stationery,
- signage,
- even the way its staff answers the telephone.
All these factors contribute to a customer’s perception and first impression of your company or organisation.
In order to develop a strong set of brand values, it is vitally important to analyse and understand your business, its strengths and weaknesses, your competitors and the market you are in (or intending to break into). The developed brand should be consistent with your company’s objectives and core values of your company expressing a unique vision and identity. It should also be cohesive across the different media - your print materials must be consistent with the website.
A Brand is born out of the user experience and service
Branding on a website is determined by the type of experience a user has on that site. In other words, it is not simply the design of a site that determines brand, but rather whether or not overall high quality service is provided.
This arises from the fact that users visit a website with a goal in mind.
Television commercials or posters on the street must first catch a user’s attention in order to build awareness. This requires some sort of unusual design or other tactic. However, since with websites there is a high likelihood that users will visit a site they already have an interest in, what is important is providing information and services that meet the user’s demands.
If you forget this fact and needlessly focus on getting noticed, your design will prevent users from obtaining information and end up providing lowering quality of service overall.
Keep your brand simple
Think about the most popular brands in the world. Who springs to mind? Now try and recall their logos. Chances are that golden arches, red cans, perhaps even a shell spring to mind - all very simple concepts. Note: as modern business evolves, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to develop very simple logos - a few lines and shading might seem like a simple task, but chances are that the logo you settle on may look like someone else’s, so it’s important to research well.
Test your new web site logo on associates, even total strangers if you can. “Flash” your logo at them, a quarter of a second at most - then ask them what they remember about it, better still, get them to draw it. If they can’t reproduce the essence of the logo, you’re probably on the wrong track.
Your Target Market
Branding needs to concentrate on the target market you are aiming to attract. Market research and some competitor analysis will usually garner you with relevant information regarding the people you are aiming to attract. What products and services are they looking for? What information do they want access to? Do they expect to be able to interact with you or other members of your online community? These are all important questions that you not only need to ask but answer as well.
The most effective branding will also consider the demographics of a target market. Age, sex, nationality, religion, and disposable income bracket are important factors. Again, the savvy online business owner should have at least a reasonable understanding of their target market demographics. Knowing this information ensures that you not only create a brand, but that you create a relevant and powerful brand that is attractive to the right people.
To succeed your website needs:
- A well-branded design that has clear hierarchy to communicate your message clearly.
- Well-thought-out architecture and navigation.
- Graphics/images that load quickly and are used only when words would not have the same impact.
- The correct choice of programming languages for the back-end; for example, a database for future growth and updating of the site.
- If it is an e-commerce site, a shopping cart system that is secure and easy to use.
- The markup of (HTML) is standards complient.
- User-friendliness that is tested and proven to work with your audience, user testing is the best way to move forward with a design, thius ensures that users can use the new site much better then previously.
- Optimization for search engines for content, images as well as other media content.
- To be automatically printable with CSS media type linked files.
- Compliance with current web standards.
The points above are just a start, but without them your brand will not get recognition.