How to Build a Brand from Scratch in 2024 (Brand Manual)
January 5th, 2024
- The benefits of branding
- What is brand development?
- Building a brand from scratch
- How to create a brand name
- Create a cohesive visual identity
- Creating a brand manual for consistent messaging
- Build your brand online
- Brand ideas and successful examples
- What makes a good brand?
Starting a new business and want to stand out from the competition? This comprehensive guide will take you through the process of building a brand from scratch, providing you with the essentials for creating an unforgettable identity. Check out our downloadable brand manual, which is ready to be applied to your journey.
1. The benefits of branding
Branding allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition and catch the attention of your target audience. A well-established brand builds trust and reliability, which is why customers tend to choose well-known and reputable companies over unknown ones.
Branding also facilitates expansion into new markets, as a strong brand name can serve as a foundation for growth. Ultimately, branding contributes to long-term business success by increasing brand equity and enabling higher perceived value.
As you produce more and more content, print new business cards for new employees, or create packaging for new products, all of these items should look consistent. Consistent branding is essential, whether you’re generating additional content, designing new business cards for fresh hires, or crafting packaging for new products, all in support of fostering a culture of employee recognition. Everyone should immediately know they belong to your company, just like everyone recognizes Coca-Cola bottles.
2. What is brand development?
Brand development is the strategic process of creating and cultivating a unique identity for a product, service, or organization. It involves forming the reputation of the company among the target audience, making a strong emotional connection, and fostering loyalty.
Important steps in your brand development strategy:
- Identify your target clients
- Establish your company’s brand positioning. What sets your company apart from the competition, and why should potential customers choose to work with you?
- Create your name, logo design, and tagline
- Prepare your content marketing strategy
- Launch your website
3. Building a brand from scratch
Now, let’s dive deeper into the art of building a brand from scratch. Start by imagining your brand as a unique entity in need of a clear identity. Consider what image it should project, the emotions it should evoke, and how it can captivate the public’s attention.
To connect with your target audience effectively, identify the personality traits that resonate with them. Summarize these traits with three to five adjectives that represent the kind of brand your audience will connect with.
Remember, people will engage with your company more if it has a personality, just like they do with real people. Stick to your persona in all your promotional materials and marketing channels to build credibility and consistency.
3.1. Write your story and a mission statement
Every business has a unique story to tell, a narrative that defines its journey and purpose. Share your company’s story, and let it serve as a powerful tool in building trust with your customers. Share what inspired the launch of your business and how it’s making a positive impact on the world.
Back up your story with your mission statement, as this serves as a guiding compass, outlining the organization’s core objectives. It should communicate the brand’s identity, vision, and long-term goals, providing clarity on what the brand aspires to achieve and how it intends to make a positive impact on the world.
3.2. Define your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
A Unique Value Proposition is a concise and compelling statement that defines the benefits and advantages a product or service offers to its target audience. By articulating its unique attributes, a well-crafted UVP helps to attract and retain customers.
4. How to create a brand name
A brand name needs to be distinctive and clear. Ideally, it should also be short and easy to remember. Keep in mind that the name will also impact the domain name or URL of your website.
5. Create a cohesive visual identity
In the world of branding, the choice of colors, fonts, and typography is far from arbitrary. These elements play a pivotal role in shaping your brand’s identity and are instrumental in company recognition.
5.1. Design Your Logo
Your logo serves as the public face of your business, which will appear across various platforms. Therefore, it should be versatile, easily scalable to different sizes, and suitable for both online and print media. Use it on your website, favicon, social media profile, print and online ads, YouTube banners, and product packaging or generate a free dynamic QR code with it.
Whether you choose to hire a designer or create the logo yourself, you can start generating ideas by exploring sources like Seeklogo for logo inspiration. A well-designed logo is an investment that will resonate with your audience and reinforce your brand’s identity.
Pro Tip: In the Webnode CMS, you can create a logo by combining font types and icons directly in the project. It’s a great and easy way to start.
Also, check out the following helpful tools:
- Figma: a collaborative web-based design and prototyping tool that enables teams to share user interfaces in real-time
- Adobe Creative Cloud Express: Create a stunning logo within minutes
- Visme: allows users to design and share engaging presentations, infographics, charts, and other multimedia content
- Snappa: an online graphic design tool that simplifies the process of creating and customizing visuals for social media and other digital content
- Venngage: an excellent infographics tool that enables users to easily form visually appealing statistical infographics.
- Canva: A popular online graphic tool that features a simple logo maker, too
Smashing logo maker lets you pick your attributes while designing the logo
5.2. Choose a matching color palette
According to color and brand study, between 62 and 90% of brand evaluations are based solely on color. Your selection of colors isn’t just about aesthetics; it also expresses the emotions you wish to convey and serves as a powerful identifier.
- Red is a color packed with vibrancy and strong emotion. It can trigger impulse buys, and it can also make you drink more and eat more. Think Coca-Cola.
- Yellow: think of IKEA and McDonald’s. Yellow suggests something affordable and playful.
- Green resonates with sustainable and environmentally friendly industries. Check out Starbucks or Spotify.
- Blue symbolizes trust and professionalism. It’s commonly used by corporates such as Visa or Paypal.
And what about black and white? Black stands for power, sophistication, and elegance. White stands for health, purity, and sincerity.
Pro Tip: See what each color represents at https://www.color-meanings.com/.
5.3. Select the right fonts
When it comes to fonts, keep it simple. Choose no more than two fonts: one for headings and one for body copy. Whatever you pick, make sure it is clear and consistent across all devices.
Webnode templates come equipped with font pairings carefully curated by our designers, ensuring a harmonious visual presentation. All that’s left for you to do is choose the combination that resonates most with your business.
For additional font inspiration, consider these resources:
- Typespiration: This lets you see how different types of fonts and color palettes go together.
- Mixfont: A fun and simple generator that makes it possible to see different pairings in real time.
6. Creating a brand manual for consistent messaging
Creating a brand manual is essential for maintaining consistent brand messaging. A brand manual serves as a comprehensive guide that outlines the key elements of a brand’s identity, tone of voice, and visual presentation. Additionally, it provides specific instructions for how to consistently use the logo, color palette, typography, and imagery.
The tone of voice ensures that no matter who is delivering the message, the brand remains cohesive and distinct, strengthening its recognition, trust, and ultimately the overall identity.
The Webnode brand manual stands ready to be your guiding light. It offers invaluable insights into logo design, color palette creation, typography, images, illustrations, and iconography, equipping you with helpful tools.
7. Build your brand online
By effectively building your brand online, you can amplify your reach, engage with your audience, and create lasting brand awareness.
- Start by establishing a strong online presence through a well-designed website that reflects your identity and provides valuable content for visitors.
- Actively manage your online reputation
- Share relevant and engaging content on social media and build a community.
- Utilize call center software and respond to customer feedback and reviews.
- Implement search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to improve your website’s visibility in search engine results.
- Leverage email marketing campaigns to nurture relationships and keep your audience informed about updates.
Collaborate with influencers or industry experts to expand your company’s reach and credibility.
8. Brand ideas and successful branding examples
Take a look at some examples of successful branding and get inspired.
- Amazon, an e-commerce giant that revolutionized online shopping and diversified into various industries, offers a wide range of products and services, along with efficient delivery and customer service.
Their brand positioning precisely defines the connection between the brand and the target group. As a potential customer, you simply know why to choose Amazon.
- Tesla, as an electric car manufacturer, has captivated consumers with its cutting-edge technology, sleek designs, and commitment to sustainable transportation.
Tesla’s mission statement is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy through innovative electric vehicles and renewable energy solutions.
- As a diverse conglomerate, Samsung has excelled in electronics, from smartphones and TVs to appliances and semiconductors, becoming a global leader in innovation and technology.
Samsung’s Unique Value Proposition lies in offering cutting-edge, technologically innovative products at different price points for various customer segments.
9. What makes a good brand?
In a nutshell, effective branding hinges on several crucial elements:
- Brand Positioning: Where does your brand stand in the market and what sets it apart?
- Brand Personality: What distinctive traits and characteristics define your business?
- Brand Story: What narrative underpins your journey and evolution?
- Mission Statement: Your brand’s guiding compass, elucidating its core objectives.
- Unique Value Proposition: A concise statement that showcases the distinct advantages your company offers.
- Brand Visual Identity: The visual elements that form your unique identity.
- Brand Voice: The tone and language used in your communication.
As we have seen in the examples above, a good brand prides itself on some key characteristics:
1. Putting the Customer Promise First
Apple, the top brand this year, routinely keeps its pledge to protect customer privacy. Like this, Amazon provides the greatest variety of items while keeping to its promise to streamline the shopping experience.
2. The capability of expressing authenticity and gaining trust
Take a second look at Amazon, which guarantees two-day shipping. It appeared like an insurmountable task at the time of its initial launch, but the firm succeeded in doing so, earning the consumers’ deep trust and strengthening their perception of the brand’s genuineness.
3. Building Customer Relationships
Do not undervalue the importance of creating a brand community. Big, devoted communities have sprung up around Jeep and Harley-Davidson’s goods.
4. Keeping Agility
Agility enables companies to launch novel goods, create ground-breaking services, and improve the client experience. It is important to keep in mind that a good brand is adaptable and can evolve over time.
Final Takeaways
To create a successful brand:
- Define a clear and compelling purpose through a well-crafted mission statement.
- Build the brand’s identity, values, and long-term goals based on this statement.
- Do the research and understand your target audience to tailor message and tone of voice.
- Be flexible and adaptable so the brand can evolve with changing market trends and consumer demands.
Remember, when building a memorable brand, consistency is the key.
Read also the guide on how to create a business website