Web Designers and Your Brand

Branding is many things to many people, but in a nutshell it is consistent messaging about ‘who’ your company is. Your brand, when communicated properly, is expressed in everything the business does. From the on hold music to the color of the office walls to font you use on your logo to way your staff dresses for work – it is all your brand. Your brand is communicated by how you treat your prospect, your clients and your employees.

Most small businesses miss the mark on branding. They order a new logo, if they like the way it looks the branding exercise is complete. Your small business can do better at making a consistent brand by following a few tips from our website designers.

The questions our website designers ask about a client ‘brand’ when we begin a new project are;

1. What’s the personality of the company or the owner? Practical example of why it matters in branding.  If the company is fun loving and casual we need to reflect that in the design. For example Southwest Airlines has a long history of letting the employees have fun with in-flight announcements. Flight attendants are very engaging with the passengers and chummy. This is normal when you fly Southwest. If you were flying British Airlines to Heathrow, they take a different approach. They are very PROPER, the flight attendants to act more like an over starched shirt. If the BA flight attendants were to sing during the PA announcement you might head for the exit thinking you got on the wrong plane. That is Branding personality.
2. What are the customer demographics? Practical example from this past week. We were doing an online meeting with a home services company that focuses on high end homes. They have millions of dollars of high-end equipment a deep knowledge in the science of what they do. While do the meeting we went to the gallery of their work. Five of the 16 pictures were of work they have done on houses that cost less than their target markets vehicles. This sends the wrong brand message. This is brand positioning. High-end clients expect to see high-end examples.
3. What is the business objective of the website? The objective should be tied to the brand. If you brand is high end, service and quality focused your website should seek to attract and covert that type of client.
4. Most importantly, What is your unique selling proposition? This defines the brand more than anything. You can’t be the low cost leader and have the best customer service. What is your brands USP (unique selling proposition)?

Answer these 4 not so simple questions will help you better define your brand, who your client should be and just as critical, who your client is not.