Why should I invest in my brand? 10 great reasons to do so

Why should I invest in my brand? I think my business is ready to go.

Why should I invest in my brand as a small or medium sized business or charity? Surely once I have a logo and some colours I’m all set to win in the marketplace?

The short answer is No! The longer answer is below.

A short answer

Investing in your brand is way to build a long term path to success. Your brand is the foundation on which trust, customer loyalty, staff loyalty and business growth is built.

By investing in your brand you create a unique identity that engages your prospective customers, staff and existing customers in a way which inspires and motivates them.

But this isn’t easy. Creating the visuals and a compelling brand story takes commitment and time to get right. You need to understand your audience, and consider their perception of your business. Story telling doesn’t come naturally to business owners, but allowing a gifted copywriter to help translate your vision will work.

If your brand is replaceable and generic, then so is your organisation. Don’t be an also ran, be a leader, become a strong market presence for now and the future.

Why should I invest in my brand: Your logo

Everyone has one so why bother? It’s sort of obvious that for most of us with eyesight, a business or charity needs a visual image to be the ‘face’ of the entity. We humans have actual faces, so an organisation needs an equivalent.

Designing a logo ought to be a component of a Brand Strategy and input from research into what you’re trying to express about your organisation. With thought a logo can express your business in one image, in a way that will last over time and support business growth.

Can there be implied value in that logo? I think it can, and here’s why:

How to evaluate your logo

1. Attention: Ask your friends and family: Would you look twice at this logo? Is it interesting to see?
2. Recognition: Ask your friends: Would you know the name of this business from the logo?
3. Appropriate: Does the logo mislead people into expecting something from your business which isn’t true?
4. Magic touch: Is there a visual trick, clever design element, or something special that makes your logo standout
5. Trade mark ®: Is your logo distinct enough to be accepted as a trade mark? Plain descriptive words and company names can’t be trade marked
6. Could it be sold? Ask another business owner how much they’d pay to have your logo (what value they’d invest to have one like yours)
7. Coupling: How likely is it that your logo could be used for any other business?

All the above are useful discussion points and illustrate ways to consider how to go about investing in a logo.

Ask your friends and family to give their views on your logo and whether they see it as valuable or not.

Why should I invest in my brand: Colours

In another article I show a chart which maps well known logos to their primary colours. I’m pretty sure that most people have an amount of intuitive response to colours like red, blue, yellow and green and could assign perceptions to them.

The difficult part is that you need a set of colour shades which express the character of your brand. The colours need to be distinctive, appropriate, and usable on-screen and in print. I once worked for a firm which chose a shade of luminous orange, only printable on expensive lithographic printing machines. You could not get that shade of orange on cards from moo.com (for instance), or print it using a laser printer, which was a surprise to me.

Can you choose colours which have intrinsic value?

Use a good designer and take your time to find a set of colours that fits your needs. Ask your friends and family to provide feedback. Try not to spend an hour on Zoom debating what “forest green” looks like, as I once did.

How to evaluate your colour palette

Ask your friends and family what your brand colours say to them. Ask them if they are distinctive or generic. Ask them if they are easily replaceable.

Why should I invest in my brand: Story

We live in an environment where choice has exploded – almost anything comes in all sizes, shapes, prices and colours. Why should anyone choose your business over others?

Choosing products and services tends to lead to different criteria:

• For products, being fit for your purpose (size, shape, functions), and price are high on the list
• For services, the criteria are more abstract: reputation, trustworthiness, friendliness, recommendations and value would be part of a decision

Your brand story sets out:

• What you are
• What you do / what you sell
• The way you provide a service
• Why someone should choose you as their supplier or service provider
• The culture and values of your firm
• Your pricing and value proposition
• Your brand position

All these things steer people towards their choices. You can’t be sure which criteria will make the difference.

If you don’t invest in explaining why people should choose your firm, you will certainly lose out to those competitors that do.

How to evaluate your brand story

There are three groups that matter and maybe a fourth. Ask them all what they think your brand stands for:

• Your staff
• Your existing customers
• Prospective customers
• Your friends and family

You can easily imagine the converse: people don’t want to be associated with a badly done brand or business, which appears to have little thought for their own image and identity.

Why should I invest in my brand: People

Often overlooked is the effect your brand has on people. A strong brand will:

• Get the attention of new customers
• Motivate your staff towards the higher goals of your business
• Reward existing customers through loyalty and pride

How to evaluate your brand perceptions

Simply ask people, what they think of your business. Do their perceptions reflect your aspirations and expectations? Are they positive, negative or indifferent.

Why should I invest in my brand: Further reading

Here’s what other people think about a brand investment:

• https://blank.uk.com/the-power-of-branding-why-investing-in-your-brand-pays-off/
• https://360growthpartners.co.uk/news/why-you-should-invest-in-your-brand/
• https://www.huddlecreative.com/blog/branding-benefits-why-branding-matters

Why should I invest in my brand: Summary

It seems common sense to invest to make a strong brand:

• Show the public and your prospective customers you are serious about engaging them
• Show your staff how you want your business to be perceived
• Drive staff behaviour towards positive outcomes and bring the business to life
• Lead your competitors, don’t let then dominate your business space