Sure, you’ve heard that having a strong brand is crucial in today’s business market and that your business might be lost without it, but how do you effectively build brand recognition? More importantly, how do you ensure your potential customers trust your brand above the competition, providing them with the solutions they need to be successful?

These five essential steps will help to build recognition with your brand and trust within your market:

1. Provide a Clear message

Who are you and what service or product do you provide? What makes you more than just an echo and sets you apart from the crowd?

If customers aren’t able to quickly determine who you are and what you can do for them, there is no reason for them to remember you.

Consumers are bombarded with information, constantly and from every direction. If you expect your message to stick it must be clear, concise and directly address their needs with a simple, effective solution.

2. Establish Credibility

Your potential customers are subconsciously searching for cues that your brand is trustworthy and reliable from the second they first see you. Without these clues, it will be far easier to dismiss your business.

Some characters of credibility, longevity for example, will take time to establish. Yet there are many things you can do right from the start that will send potential customers the right message.

Pay attention to details, even the smallest ones matter.

Do you have a logo that presents a strong, professional image?

Do you double check to make sure your copy and correspondence are well-written and free from errors?

Are your marketing materials properly aimed directly at the values of your target audience?

Pay attention to these credibility cues and your potential pool of customers will both spread farther and run deeper.

3. Make a Connection

People are most loyal to brands when they feel a connection. The best way to establish these connections is to identify and then quickly meet your customer’s needs in a way that makes them feel personally valued.

This shows them that you both want and are willing to listen to their feedback. Pay attention to what your customers are saying and you will find ways to exceed their expectations. Go beyond providing a simple product or service; position yourself as the brand that fulfills your market’s need for belonging, status, excitement, security etc.

Provide that and you will forge a connection between you and your customers that keeps the register ringing and PayPal dinging.

4. Consistency is Key

Change is good, yet your customers have an existing set of expectations about who you are and what you deliver. It can be confusing and off-putting if your message yo-yos around.

If people see your brand as being conservative, solid and mainstream, then what will they think if your next marketing campaign suddenly features sex, extreme games and rebellion?

Once you have established a connection with your customers, it’s important to honor that bond, while continuing to deliver the experience they expect when doing business with you.

Of course, you might decide that it’s in your best interest to reposition your brand and make a radical change, but these decisions should never be made lightly and is is always best to conduct a thorough evaluation of the risks and benefits prior to making such a shift.

5. Reward Your Customers

A loyal customer is immeasurably valuable to your business and it’s important to recognize and reward them whenever possible. Show your customers that you appreciate their continued support and they will continue to support you in turn.

There are many ways to reward customers, from offering special discounts or points that can be redeemed for goods and services to a simple thank you in the mail.

Some of the best ways won’t even cost much at all.

You could spotlight loyal customers in your monthly newsletter, or remember to send them a note or card on their birthday or other special occasion. Just remember, it is always less expensive and more profitable to keep a customer than it is to make a new one.

Building brand recognition and trust takes time and effort, yet it reaps long term benefits. Though it is highly profitable to have a solid base of loyal customers, feeling a connection and commitment to those customers is infinitely rewarding in both dollars and sense.

But your clients, prospective clients, friends, colleagues, employees etc. do not know about your logo and they have hardly seen it. Is this good as well? Ofcourse NOT!

If you got a logo designed, then you must have had an objective, as to what purpose the logo design will serve for you. So, now that the logo is ready, it is time to use it effectively, to ensure that your brand awareness objective is met.

You must ensure that your logo is being viewed on a regular basis. Your brand identity has to be developed – actually hammered in people’s mind.

How do you do this?

Very simple. Start using the logo.

• Use it on your Business Card, Letterhead and Envelopes.
• Use it in your Posters, Flyers, Brochures.
• Use it on employee T-Shirts.
• Use it in your Email Signatures.
• Use it as your Forum Avataars.
• Use it in your Newspaper, Yellow Pages and other Advertisements.
• Use it in your Outdoor Advertising like hoardings etc.
• Use it as your Mobile Wallpaper.
• Use it in your Company Presentations.
• Use it as the Wallpaper of your company workstations.
• Use it on the Corporate Gifts that you present to your clients or employees.
• Use it on the Mouse Pads that you use in your Office.
• Use it on your Company Vehicles.

and the list goes on…

There are SO MANY ways to make your logo visible all around. Let the world see it. This will surely help you in your overall branding and generate instant recall for better credibility, thereby boosting your sales and profits.

Hang on! Did I hear you say “All this is nice but I don’t have a logo yet”? What are you waiting for? Just click over to the Logo Design Team website and get yourself a dazzling new logo. It is simpler and cheaper than you thought.

Colours are powerful! They can influence opinion in less time than it takes to blink an eye. They create a sublimal effect. And one should have a very good understanding of the colour psychology to create great logos for one’s clients.

A logo is the most repeated and frequently displayed symbol of your business. It’s on your letterhead, your website, business cards, products and more. It’s your “brand” and it’s an inseparable part of your business identity. In fact, your logo is you.

Does your logo create a bonding with the clients or turns them off? Using colour psychology to your advantage isn’t easy. You can look at a simple chart that lists common colours and explains what they tend to represent. Here are some colours and their significance:

• BLACK: Mystery, secrecy, tradition.
• BLUE: Power, calmness, success, trustworthiness.
• BROWN: Earth and nature, simplicity, seriousness.
• GREEN: Harmony, health and healing, nature and animals, money.
• ORANGE: Affordability, fun, youth, creativity, celebration.
• PURPLE: Fantasy and dreams, justice, royalty.
• RED: Excitement, action, adventure, love, passion, food.
• WHITE: Simplicity, cleanliness, innocence.
• YELLOW: Cheerfulness, playfulness, curiosity, amusement.

However this only scratches the surface of what impact colours can have. We go beyond those simple colour connections. We combine that information and with knowledge of negative colour connotations. We also understand how people react to different combinations of colours. We can create the right colour scheme and merge the messages of colour psychology with great design skills.

If you are in the market for a rocking logo designed and create a memorable identity, consult with us and watch us use the science of colour psychology to your advantage!