Social media is an essential part of any brand-building effort. No matter what business you’re in. Consumers expect a way to learn about your products and share their experiences with others online. Social media is a powerful way to communicate your value proposition and enhance your brand. The most valuable and respected brands in the world use digital channels for brand building. Coca Cola, for example, uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and other channels. And these are all integrated around its main social platform, a website called coke journey. According to Coke, Its mission is to inspire moments of optimism and happiness and build our brands. To use digital channels effectively follow these guidelines.
Make sure all the sites have a common look and feel
They don’t have to be identical in their design, but they must adhere to the standards defined in your brand style guide or brand book. To understand how graphic design ties into branding, you can visit Zurek Designs.
This means all logos, trademarks, colours, font styles, and typographic are exactly per standard. Otherwise, you may confuse customers if a social media site doesn’t look like the brand.
Be sure all sites use the same voice of the brand
The tone and style of writing should be consistent with the brand’s personality. Third, be sure to define who can and cannot post things to the various social media sites. It’s essential they are properly trained on the brand, and how to communicate the brand’s values and how to comply with the company’s social media policies.
Specify the role of each social media site
Overall, they exist to support the core brand promise, but individually, they might each have a different role. And for that, you need to refer to your list of brand drivers. Social media sites are another way to get a touchpoint in the customer. And just as you do with your other touchpoints, you can link each social media touchpoint to a different brand driver.
How could we use different social media channels – example
Let’s do an example with a hypothetical product. The parent ring. Our overall brand promise is the parent ring celebrates parenthood by helping moms and dads be the very best they can be. But I’m going to create my brands Facebook page to be all about this brand driver. How busy parents do the impossible. By balancing tasks and getting it all done in a day. It’ll be full of helpful tips on all the things parents do. The brand’s Twitter feed will be about high profile moms and dads and their successes. The Pinterest board, on the other hand, will be full of inspirational quotes about parents and how important they are to their families. I’ll also create a mobile campaign where moms and dads can opt-in to receive helpful tips on teaching their kids important life lessons. Pretty cool. So take a look at your digital channels. Make sure they adhere to the brand book/brand style guide that they have a specific role tied to a brand driver and that they are properly managed. Taken together social media sites create a community of brand loyal customers who interact with each other and with your company. That’s the foundation for a strong customer relationship.
How you package your product – whether digital or physical – its about the experience
The packaging around your product is another great way to communicate your brand and build equity. It’s one touch point within the total customer experience. But packaging is such an important touchpoint because it may be the first physical encounter your customer has with the brand. It may also be the last physical encounter they have right before they buy the product. It’s that last 10 seconds right before the consumer decides to buy that makes it so important to get the design of your packaging right. As a brand builder, you’ll want to work closely with your internal or external design team. And you’ll need to give them guidance on these three factors.
What is the functional role of the packaging?
The products packaging can do a lot of work. It can protect the product that’s inside while it’s in the store or warehouse while it’s being shipped, as well as when the products in your customer’s home or work location. The packaging can explain important information about how to use the product or any warnings that might apply. It could explain how to store or care for the product, what ingredients are inside, or the price of the product. The packaging might have other roles such as making the product easy to find in a store, serving as a gift box or being easy to dispose of, or recycle.
You need to decide the key brand and promotional messages to go on the packaging.
Take a look at your value proposition and reasons to believe. Also take a look at your list of brand drivers and review the functional, economic and emotional benefits that the packaging may be able to convey. Use the packaging to reinforce your positioning and the brand promise.
Here’s an example from Coca Cola again
Look at the various images on the can a beach ball, Sunglasses surfboard barbecue grill, I get it. Coke means fun at the beach. That brand driver is communicated very nicely by this simple and clever design.
Give guidance around the design of the packaging
And for this, take a look at your brand book/brand style guide. The packaging most likely will have the brand name and tagline. It should have the brand’s visual identity including logos and color schemes, but also look at the brand persona. What are the personality traits of the brand? And how can the packaging be designed to embody these traits. For example, take a look at this packaging from Gatorade. Even the bottle itself looks like the distinctive G and the word Gatorade. Very clever. Take a look at your current product packaging and compare it to the guidelines in your brand book is the packaging living up to all the expectations of the brand to your packaging take on more responsibility in the customer experience. Great packaging is much more than a slick protective wrapper around your product. packaging design offers a unique opportunity in both the consumer and business to business markets to influence customers and brand perceptions. leverage to its fullest, it can work hard to create and maintain long term brand loyalty.
