05/05/2009
Often, people think of brand as being their logo and their company colors; or a collection of all of the print material they have; or even a corporate style guide that defines what fonts can be used on official company letters. In truth, brand is a lot more than that. Brand is the sum experience of every interaction anyone has with your organization. If someone eats at a restaurant and their meal is excellent, that experience becomes part of the restaurant's brand. Likewise if the food is late or undercooked, that becomes part of the brand.
Ask yourself: when someone has contact with my organization, are they impressed because of how friendly or how knowledgeable everyone is? Are they impressed because of our technical savvy, or because of our traditional values?
Why is Brand Important?
It's been said that when you meet someone new, within the first 7 seconds you are making dozens of value judgments about that person. You pass judgment about how friendly they are, about how much money they make, about how educated they are, along with dozens of other judgments. That initial impression stays with you, and is nearly impossible to change. The same applies to the Internet. In the first 7 seconds of viewing your site, users are deciding if you are a trustworthy business, if your staff is friendly and personable, and if you are the type of company they want to do business with. As designers, our goal is to ensure that we're conveying the right emotions and impressions to your site's visitors and that we're positioning your brand in the best possible light.
Example: UMass Amherst Admissions
We worked with the UMass Amherst Admissions department to reinvent themselves. UMass is a state school and is actively engaged in attracting more out-of-state students. In order to do this they needed to update their brand and their presence in the market. As we talked we came up with the idea that UMass is currently the Old Navy of education and in order to get where they need to be they need to be perceived as Bloomingdales.
Contact us so we can help you identify and communicate your brand.
~ Jason Mark
President, Branding Consultant