July 2015 - NADA GLOBAL

Brand Design Orange County – Find Your Brand with NADA GLOBAL

One of the hardest yet most rewarding parts of starting a new business, or re-organizing one, are the decisions that are put into branding. It’s quite important to get your branding right the first time. If not, the cost and hassle of fixing it later will be more annoying than a little bit. Because of the mish-mash of styles, cultures, and industries here in Orange County, it seems like there are a lot of different subsets within the world of branding. From the laid-back designs of the surf shops on the coast to the more “refined” styles the corporate offices display just a few miles inland, the branding around town is truly eclectic. But each has their audience and each has their purpose.

Every business, like every person, is different and has a different story to tell. Those stories are going to connect with certain types of people while, at the same time, miss connecting with others. Think about it. Most people connect with certain name brands, for whatever reason. For instance, I am an Adidas guy and not so much a Nike guy. I don’t mind Nike, in fact I would buy Nike if I found something I really liked, but it’s not the first brand I look for. I don’t know why this is, other than preference. I don’t have any history or special connection with the people at Adidas. I suppose their styles and products just speak to me better and fit within the way that I want to present myself casually. So I suppose this is where it begins. As you consider developing and designing your brand, understand that it’s not going to reach everybody. This might be business blasphemy as business owners think that their business is going to take over the world. It’s not. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s discuss a few good guidelines to focus on when designing your brand.

Know your business and your general demographic.

Are you a profit or non-profit? May sound like a silly question, but you don’t necessarily brand a for-profit company the same way you would a non-profit. Different audience with different goals…for-profits sell, non-profits serve. There’s a different mindset there. In addition, who is your main audience? Are they generally 35-45 year old soccer moms or 25-35 year old upper class bachelors? Depending on which it is effects the colors, font styles, formatting, logo design etc. To put it short, marry your branding with your company.

Think classic and simple.

The goal in branding is for the world to see your logo/mark and immediately recognize it. So less is more. Consider Apple. All they ever display is their apple logo. They never have to write out the word “apple” in their advertisement and they don’t even have a tagline. They produce a beautiful commercial showing all the aspects of their latest product then stick their apple mark against a black or white screen at the end. Obviously they have been in business for decades and are among the top in their industry, which certainly helps with recognition. But throughout all that time they have only drastically changed their mark once and it was within the first year of starting the company. Do your best to develop classic branding that has the staying power to last for decades with minimal adjustments along the way.

Limit your colors, tones, and fonts.

Ever see a company logo that is so weird and busy and full of so many different colors and elements that you feel like you’ve just entered a funhouse? Yeah, don’t do that. For some reason certain companies want to explode their free-spirit all over the page when designing their logo. While there is nothing wrong with putting a little “you” in the design, there are some general guidelines in designing that have had more success than others. First, limit your colors. Unless you’re Rainbow Bright, don’t color your logo with more than 2 or 3 colors. Trust me, after that it’s just too much and not received well by the public eye. Second, limit your tones. Select tones that best portray your company and how you want to make people feel. Warm, cool, excited, easy-going, sharp, relaxed. What you choose depends on who your general demographic is but this is where people are going to feel you first and make their decision on if they move forward with you. Last, limit your fonts. Let your fonts speak to who you are as well. It’s best not to use more than 2 font types in your branding: a main font for your company name and a secondary font for your tagline and other content. Like with color, after 2 it’s just too much and confusing.

Why NADA GLOBAL is your destination for Brand Design in Orange County.

These three suggestions are just an overview of some of the dos and don’ts of branding. It would be ideal to work with a reputable advertising agency and graphic designer to help create branding that has consistency, integrity and synergy as it reflects your company. At NADA GLOBAL, we have a full team of creatives and designers to help you do just that. We have helped many large, small, profit and non-profit businesses and personalities develop just the right branding that fit their story. Call us today to get started setting up your company for decades of brand recognition.

Orange County Promotional Printing

When I was a kid my dad owned his own business. His business model was relatively simple. He bought, refurbished, and then resold telephone systems, the kind used by medium to large businesses, hospitals, churches, etc. The name of his business was The Telephone Exchange. Pretty clever name as it was a play on words referring to the olden days when you had to hand crank the telephone to connect to the local exchange switchboard operator to place a phone call. If you still don’t know what I am talking about watch the classic television show Lassie. You’ll see an example of that antiquated form of social communication in just about every episode; along with each character’s uncanny ability to translate dog barks into actual life saving instructions. But I digress.

One of the memories I have from my father’s business was that he would order black promotional pens that had his company’s name printed on them. These pens were all over the house. Funny thing was these pens weren’t necessarily anything special, but they were trustworthy, as opposed to the seemingly inkless name brand pens sitting next to them in the drawer. Now honestly, there’s really no way to know how much actual business these pens brought my dad, maybe none. But one thing I do know is that I started to see these pens everywhere…friend’s houses, extended family’s houses, local businesses, in the pews at church, people’s cars…these things got around.

Promotional Printing and Brand Marketing

Promotional printing is meant to help disseminate your name, brand, product line, and/or business to the world around you using common items that people use everyday. It keeps you in the hands and minds of your customers and future customers. Where many businesses fail at this, specifically businesses less experienced in marketing, is not understanding how to make the most of promotional printing. For instance, unless you are a local, national or world-renowned company, simply sticking your unfamiliar logo on a pen isn’t enough. Just like in branding your promotional items need to have enough information to draw people to want to know more. You want people to be intrigued enough to investigate. This is what gets people in.

The common thought is that if a customer doesn’t investigate, look into and/or engage your brand within the first 72 hours of learning about it, they usually will not remember you or maintain ongoing interest. This is where promotional products can help. These products market your company. But don’t go overboard. It is not good marketing to flood these items with tons of information other than basic company and contact information. A good place to start would be to include your branding, your name, and your phone number/website. It also may be useful to include a short tagline that helps people identify with your brand.

Quality, Not Quantity. Get Rid of the Junk!

Color and material selection is also very important. When creating and designing tangible marketing materials, it is wise to think about how to keep these items useful to those who will be receiving them. Ever go to a trade show, conference, community happening or similar event where businesses are marketing themselves? Ever leave with a big orange foam key ring that you immediately throw away on the way out, a bright neon green shirt you’ll never wear, a cheap water bottle that leaks, a pen that doesn’t work? We all have, and it’s annoying. I love free stuff, but I don’t like junk.

What’s interesting, at least for me, is I tend to directly link the quality of the business to the quality of the promotional materials they give out. Obviously that’s not always the case, but it doesn’t help when people have something with their name on it that’s essentially just trash. I recently received a very well designed, high quality water bottle to use. It was a promotional item that has a clear tube style bottle with white end caps and a very clean, crisp lettering of the name of the company in a sleek black font. The functionality of the bottle exceeds the ones you would buy in a store. The design of the bottle makes you proud to have it in your water bottle arsenal. It’s different, well made and well designed. I’m proud to own it, and use it, and I am keeping it. But this is the goal. Hand out something that people will be proud to use, not something they can’t wait to throw away once out of your sight.

NADA GLOBAL is Your Source for Orange County Promotional Printing

At NADA GLOBAL we can assist you with all of your promotional printing needs from start to finish. From branding, font selection, content development, color schemes, unique designs, and smart marketing strategies, we can help you develop promotional ideas that are tangible and useful to your clients and potential customers. Don’t’ think that just anything goes and that this type of marketing doesn’t really matter…everything you put your name on is a reflection of you. Like my dad and his pens, whatever you hand out, make people want to keep it.

NADA GLOBAL

Monthly Archives: July 2015

Brand Design Orange County – Rewarding For the Right Reasons