The Basics Of Creating A Brand

Before you can create a business website, you must first create a brand. That’s because your brand – which is the sum of your company name, your design language, your logo and other recognizable elements – should be present throughout your website’s design. For instance, most websites will have their logo at the top of every page, while the color of said logo will probably inform the color palette used throughout the site. You can’t even choose a URL before you have a company name, so for these reasons, brand must come first.

Your brand will also help your business in general. Without a strong brand, it will be difficult to promote you won’t be able to market as easily and customers may not recognize when they’re dealing with your business. So with that said, how do you go about creating a strong brand for your company?

Decide What Your Message Is

Every company should have a mission statement. Hopefully, you are not so cynical as to have no goal other than to make money, so think about what it is that’s most important to your business and what you hope to achieve. From there, you then have a message to communicate which you can do through your company name, through your logo and through your use of color. What emotions are you trying to evoke? What industry or niche are you operating in?

Create Your Company Name

If you are in the very early stages and you don’t already have a company name, then try writing down synonyms or using a thesaurus. Look at words in your mission statement and then look for words that work well as titles. Before you settle on anything though, always double check that there are no double meanings or translations that could be bad for your business. Brand blunders may be funny sometimes, but not when they happen to you!

When picking a company name, consider too whether that name will make a good URL, whether it’s original and whether it will be easy to remember. Choose something practical as well as evocative.

Design Your Logo

Once you have a word, you should design your logo. This should be something that catches the eye, but that once again evokes your business aims. It might be your company name in a fancy font, it might be your company name with a fancy font and a symbol, or the symbol may even take center stage.

This logo is going to inform the color scheme of your website and marketing material (so pink and yellow might not be the best shout-out) and it’s going to be used on its own as a banner or even on products – is it versatile enough for that? Of course you can ask your designer to create your logo, and this will often result in a better outcome.

Remember, now you have a mission statement, a logo and a brand, you need to ensure that everything you do is consistent with that branding. Your company’s ‘voice’, the style and quality of your products and more should all help to sell the main idea behind your business.