Branding
By Dedicated Designs
The Branding Process
Your brand is a collection of elements, that together create an authentic and cohesive vision of who your company is. Branding is more than a logo and a color scheme. It’s your identity, personality, and customer experience.
Voice & Messaging
Your messaging should be intentional, strategic, and consistent.
Visuals (Identity)
How you communicate your personality and values.
Values & Purpose
Your messaging should be intentional, strategic, and consistent.
Vision
A beacon to guide your brand’s focus and direction.
Strategy
It’s more than just a pretty logo & some nice copy.
What is Branding?
Branding is how people think, feel and act in relation to your business.
Branding is something we interact with every day, and it’s so ingrained in our lives that we usually don’t notice we’re making branding choices. From the brand of shoes you slip on in the morning, to the coffee you prefer, we’re always choosing one brand over another, have you ever wondered why?
Branding creates an emotional connection between the consumer and the company and that emotional connection is based on trust. We choose brands because we trust them. We know what kind of experience to expect when we use them. A strong brand consistently delivers on the promises it makes in its messaging. This consistency is what creates brand loyalty, it’s why people love Apple, Toyota, or Coca-Cola.
We even updated our own branding!
Voice
& Messaging
Your messaging should be intentional, strategic, and consistent.
In branding, voice and messaging are the way a company communicates with its audience. The tone, style, and language used are purposefully chosen to effectively communicate with your audience and establish a strong and distinct brand identity.
Voice and messaging help to establish the personality and identity of the brand, and can have a significant impact on how the brand is perceived by consumers. For example, a company that uses a formal, professional tone in its messaging may be perceived as more serious and reliable, while a company that uses a casual, friendly tone will come off as more approachable and relatable.
Voice and messaging play a key role in how a brand differentiates itself from its competitors. By developing a unique and consistent voice and messaging style, a brand can communicate its value proposition and differentiate itself from other brands in the market.
“A brand is a voice and the product is
a souvenir“
Lisa Gansky
“A brand is a promise. A good brand is a
promise kept.“
Muhtar Kent
Visuals
(Identity)
How you communicate your personality and values.
Branding is something we interact with every day, and it’s so ingrained in our lives that we usually don’t notice we’re making branding choices. From the brand of shoes you slip on in the morning, to the coffee you prefer, we’re always choosing one brand over another, have you ever wondered why?
Branding creates an emotional connection between the consumer and the company and that emotional connection is based on trust. We choose brands because we trust them. We know what kind of experience to expect when we use them. A strong brand consistently delivers on the promises it makes in its messaging. This consistency is what creates brand loyalty, it’s why people love Apple, Toyota, or Coca-Cola.
Values
& Purpose
Your messaging should be intentional, strategic, and consistent.
Brand values are the core principles and beliefs that define your brand and guide its actions and decision-making. It’s the reason your brand exists beyond just making a profit. Your purpose should be authentic, meaningful, and aligned with your brand’s target audience. It reflects your company’s purpose, personality, and culture, and serves as a foundation for your brand’s messaging and marketing efforts.
Values are the foundation that we build all other elements of branding. establish a brand’s identity and positioning in the market. They also serve as a guide for the brand’s decision-making and communication, and they help to shape the brand’s relationships with customers, employees, and stakeholders.
Brand values can have a significant impact on consumer perceptions and behavior. Consumers are increasingly concerned about the values and practices of the brands they support, and they are more likely to choose brands that align with their own values and beliefs. By clearly communicating and consistently upholding your brand values, you can differentiate your brand from your competitors and build stronger relationships with your target audience.
“The brands that will thrive in the coming years
are the ones that have a purpose beyond profit”
Richard Branson
“Make the customer the hero of the story“
Ann Handley
Vision
A beacon to guide your brand’s focus and direction.
We’re nothing without a plan, and your brand vision is the foundation for everything your brand does and will do in the future. It’s the blueprint or guide to ensure that your company stays true to your values and purpose. It provides a clear direction and focus for your brand, and serves as a guide for your decision-making and actions.
Your brand vision will establish a clear and compelling long-term direction for your brand. It’s a source of inspiration and motivation for employees, stakeholders, and customers, and it helps to build a sense of purpose and meaning.
Your vision should be aligned with your brand’s values and target audience, and it should be authentic, achievable, and inspiring. It should be communicated consistently across all touchpoints, and it should be reflected in the brand’s messaging, products, and actions.
It’s more than just a pretty logo & some nice copy.
Brand Strategy
Branding doesn’t end with having a vision, voice, values, and visuals. You also need a strategy.
Developing a brand strategy requires a deep understanding of your target audience, the competitive landscape, and the business goals of the brand. It is an ongoing process that requires regular review and adjustment to ensure that the brand remains relevant and effective.
Positioning
Creating messaging and marketing efforts that effectively communicate the brand’s unique value proposition to its target audience.
Messaging
The communication of the values, mission, and personality of a brand to its audience, which helps shape the overall perception of a brand.
Purpose
Why do you do what you do? This will be the guiding principle for not just all of your messaging but also your business. With a clear sense of purpose, a business can communicate its message more effectively and authentically which helps build trust and credibility. Purpose also drives innovation and creativity within a company, because it provides a clear direction and focus for employees.
Flexibility
Things change. By staying flexible and open to change, businesses can better respond to shifts in the market and consumer behavior, and ensure that their brand stays relevant and successful over time.
Brand
Guidelines
A set of rules and guidelines for how to consistently communicate and present the brand across all marketing channels. Brand consistency is what builds trust in clients and customers.
Branding Case Study
Logo Redesign to Match DQM’s Innovative Software
At Dedicated Designs we are always excited to work with an organization to create a brand identity that intrigues and resonates with their target audience. Here we will share insight into an inspiring recent logo redesign for DQM Connect, a fleet management software that will revolutionize the trucking industry.
See More Branding Case Studies
Catering Box Branded Design
Building a Brand Identity for Swamp Fox Tactics
Company Logo Design for a San Francisco-based Restaurant Franchise
Ok, but how does it work?
The Branding Process
We understand that re-branding or creating a new brand can be daunting and intimidating. We’re here to be your guides, who will help create an amazing new look and feel for your company that will help you establish a positive and distinct image that will resonate with clients/customers and help build a long-term relationship with them. No big deal, right? We have a step-by-step approach to how we work with clients, and we believe in being transparent about how we do things. Below is exactly what you can expect from start to finish. We’ll keep you in the loop every step of the way.
Our Branding Timeline
Step 1:
Branding Questionnaire
We will send you our branding client questionnaire to complete. We start with a questionnaire for a few reasons:
- It quickly gets us up to speed and on the same page, so our first meeting will be as productive as possible.
- It gives you a chance to reflect on your goals, research and share possible inspiration, and get excited about this big change.
- You can share your logo, website, and current branding elements with us and what you like and dislike about them.
Step 2:
Kickoff Meeting
Once we have reviewed your answers to the branding questionnaire, we will set up a discovery meeting either in-person or virtually. The goal of this meeting is for us to ask clarifying questions based on the branding questionnaire and start discussing your intentions for your brand. We encourage you to share examples of brands/styles/logos you like so we can better visualize and understand what you have in mind. This meeting usually lasts one to two hours and should include company stakeholders.
Step 3:
Research + Strategizing
This is where we use everything you’ve shared in the questionnaire and discovery meeting to start creating rough logo ideas and taglines. These rough logo ideas will be in black and white for the first two rounds to nail down the idea and not get bogged down by “is that the right shade of blue?”
Expected Timing: 2 weeks
Expected Deliverables: Black & white logo options, rough website options, taglines, typography options, brand mood board.
Step 4:
Discuss
You will be presented with 2-3 variations of each deliverable and your feedback will be used to start step 4. We will meet in person or virtually to present, review and discuss our first round of deliverables.
Step 5:
Revise & Hone in
Revisions based on your feedback. By this point, we will narrow it down to 1-2 logos and work up revisions + add color. Often times by this point we will have a good idea of the brand font, tagline, and sometimes even the website. The logo and colors are (usually) the main focus here.
Expected Timing: 2 weeks
Expected Deliverables for our next meeting: Refined logo options + color, website layout, revised taglines, brand colors, iconography, and graphics. Tone, style, and strategy.
Step 6:
Discuss
We meet in person or virtually to discuss the latest round of revisions. By the end of this meeting, we should have a final decision on the logo, typography, website mockup, iconography, tone, style, and strategy.
Step 7:
Final Revisions
Final revisions are made. These shouldn’t require additional meetings, so, from here on out everything else can be handled over email. (Of course, if having a meeting to answer questions and discuss ideas is needed we will schedule that.)
Expected Timing: 2 weeks
Expected Deliverables for our next meeting: Brand guide with details on how to use your brand assets. Final working files of all logos, fonts, colors, and brand strategy guide. The website is in the works and will be completed in a timeline that will be shared with you. This can vary depending on website needs and complexities.
Step 8:
You have a new brand!
We share a final brand guide with you, and you sign off on it. You’ll receive a brand guide, and files of all the brand elements we’ve created over the course of the project. This is the end of the branding process and the beginning of strategizing how to roll out your new brand to your current customers or client base and get it in front of a new audience.
Graphic Design Services
If you already have an established brand and need to create marketing materials, the Dedicated Designs’ graphic design team can create assets and documents to help support your marketing campaigns
Logo Creation
Sometimes a company doesn’t need a whole brand. In those instances, we can create beautiful logos that speak for themselves. Our graphic design team are experts at designing visuals that perfect capture your message, values, and aesthetic.
Marketing Materials
If you already have an established brand and need to create marketing materials for your campaigns, the Dedicated Designs graphic design team can create assets and documents to help support your marketing campaigns.
One Time Projects
We can help you with stand alone projects, no matter the size. Our team can help create business cards, trade show booths, banners, graphics, menus, PDFs, mailers, social media assets, and much more. The sky’s the limit with our team!