6 Steps to Designing a Commercial Brand

Commercial brands are any brands that you see on the market place, that sell products on a large scale to their customers. The branding of any company is one of the most important factors for success. It is a combination of the company's identity, packaged and presented in a way that is attractive, familiar and captivating to their target audience.

Creating a brand for your business is a fun and creative process, which must embody what you would like your audience to perceive when they see your brand with strong commercial appeal. Having a structure plan will be great for you and your business when working on your branding.

Do Your Research.

Look at other brands and businesses in your industry, what traits do they most have in common? Look for commonality in logotypes, styles, lettering and designing.

This will be a general starting point for designing a brand. There are also a few more things you need to consider when working on your branding.

• Distinctive: It needs to stand out from your competition, catch your audience's attention and relate to them.

• Memorable: It must make an impact and stick in the customer's mind. for example Coca-Cola have special lettering, Apple's logo is so unique it can be recognised everywhere, and Cadbury have that specific shade of purple that makes their brand unique, Nike have the swoosh, once you find something that works for your brand and target audience stick to it.

• Scalable and flexible: Over time your target audience will grow, change and develop and so should your brand. Their needs and demands will not be the same at every stage of their life and you need to relate to that.

• Cohesive: Everything that you create complements the brand identity. Everything needs to work in unity or your brand is not working at all. 

• Clear to apply: Your brand's message and identity should be so clear that everything you create around it should be a clear process to follow. 

Know Your Niche.

A niche is where your business focuses on one specific area of the industry you are from or focuses on the needs and demands of one target audience. This will make up your unique selling point (USP), in other words, what makes your business different from the rest. Looking at sports brand Nike and Adidas.

Both offer sportswear to their target audience. However one focuses more on athletic and sports use ( Nike), the other focuses a lot more on athleisure which is sportswear worn on a day to day basis without actually doing physical activities.

Whilst the difference is almost minimal on paper, take a look at their advertising and who they choose as brand ambassadors. Nike has Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Cristiano Ronaldo to name a few. Whilst Adidas has Beyonce, Kanye, Pharrell Williams and Rita Ora.

Put Pencil to Paper.

When a consumer comes into contact with a brand for the first time, the first visual thing they are likely to encounter is the brand’s logo. Logos are everywhere, on storefronts, coffee cups and even the phone (or laptop) that you're reading this on has one. This is how customers differentiate one brand from another.

For brands, the logo is an interpretation of everything they stand for without words. You can interpret a lot of information about a business from their logo alone. For example, British Airways and Easy Jet do exactly the same thing, however, they spend a lot of money to have their logo look the way they look so that the right target audience comes along.

So think about this one very carefully, from font to colour schemes.

Apply Your Brand.

You’ve got a brand image, niche, message, logo and fonts sorted out, now it’s time to start applying your brand to everything you create, from leaflets to websites. Prioritise the media that your business uses on a daily basis to communicate with customers. If you freelance or have an e-commerce, it’s best to prioritise your website, and don’t forget to add your logo to your email signature too. If you attend a lot of networking events or conferences, a branded business card will put you in good stead. 

Keep Your Brand Identity Strong.

A strong visual language should always reflect your brand. Whether you’re rebranding or you’re just starting out, strive for consistency and look for ways to apply good design at every level of your organisation.

Review your brand.

This is a good thing to do if you feel that your message is not getting across to your target audience. You first need to analyse how the customers are responding to your brand. If you have a physical store, conducting surveys about your brand in person is helpful. Online you can use surveys or social media (try and use discounts and offers as incentives to bring in more people).

If your brand isn’t quite working, you shouldn’t feel disheartened. This is really common as businesses try to find their visual identity and unique place in the market. Your reaction to that is more important.

Designing brand identity isn’t a precise science, but with a methodical, measured approach, you can take a really good shot at creating something that connects with your target audience be commercially viable. 

Are you ready to start making money from your business? Are you ready to learn skills and habits that will turn your business into a money-making machine?

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