Branding is something that I am very passionate about. I believe that it is one of the most influential factors as to whether a business survives or thrives.
Too often people start a business taking short cuts – especially when it comes to the creative side of their business. For some reason they don’t see value in it, yet when you think about it, it should be their highest priority.
5 reasons why start ups should invest in professional design and branding
1. First impressions count
Your collateral is the first touch point that your client usually has with your business. Before they do business with you they might pick up a brochure, find you online, or see your vehicle signage as you drive by. If this is poorly designed and executed, the result will be that it looks like an unprofessional home job, produced by a business owner who clearly doesn’t take their business seriously enough to invest in it.
2. Show customers that you’re serious
Which leads me to my next point. If you, as a business owner don’t take our business seriously enough to develop the brand properly, then how can you expect your clients to want to do business with you? Think about it.
3. Create a rock solid foundation
To be blunt, if your cousins, friends daughter is good at art, that is not a reason to allow her to design your logo. She is not trained in branding and will not do your business image justice. Your business is your livelihood – it deserves to have solid foundations. Would you allow a teenager without a drivers licence to drive your kids to school? Of course not, so why would you let someone untrained create an image for your business. Designers have been professionally trained in colour, fonts, shapes, balance, understanding your market, conceptual thinking, strategy and more. Trust them. They know their stuff and they will take your business from ordinary to extraordinary.
4. Look bigger and more established than you are
Ever hear of those businesses that have gone from zero to hero in a matter of years? Well, trust me when I say that they didn’t bypass branding as an important factor in their business. A few years ago we designed a logo, website, stationery, brochures and vehicle signage for a startup business. He had a number of competitors that we looked at, and being in the trade industry, none of them had focused on decent design. This was an immediate point of difference when he launched. People could see his brightly coloured van from a mile off. They could find him online and his site looked so much better than his competitors. People immediately thought that he had been in business for a lot longer than he had and his his business has gone from strength to strength.
5. Save $$$
If none of the above reasons convince you to invest in branding, then perhaps the cost of rebranding a few years down the track will. We do many rebrands for businesses that are 2-3 years old. This is because people cut costs at the start, however they land up having to spend thousands later on when they realise that they have an actual business that requires a professionally crafted brand. When you take into account the new logo, business stationery, website, collateral, uniforms, signage etc, it is a very expensive business mistake not to get your brand strategy created from the beginning.
