The cost of creating a brand depends on the mass market you are entering and the number of sales you are aiming for. Therefore, it is cheaper to create a vodka brand for bedroom communities than a vodka brand for export. If you are starting a business or targeting a low-competition market, don’t invest in all known marketing strategies at once – choose only the necessary ones. To protect you from unnecessary spending and to help you with your choice, we will tell you about 7 factors that affect the value of a brand.
If you don’t already have a brand, read up on building one.
1. Desk research
That’s where brand development begins. We look through open sources, flip through economic publications, search for insights. When the collection of secondary information is complete – structured into reports and graphs, the market and target audience are analyzed. Desk research will tell you who your competitors are and how their business is going – what strategies they have chosen and what mistakes they have made. Thanks to the research, designers will draw a red label, because the others have a blue one, and marketers will plan an advertising campaign for the first year and a development strategy for three.
Everything we do at this stage will not yet increase the capitalization of the brand, but it will show the right way to do it. Article about desk research at KOLORO.
2. Brand positioning
You’ve created a product or service, so you know what you’re offering. You have spent hundreds of hours on it, but to explain to the customer what you know, you have maximum 2 minutes. Order brand positioning from KOLORO and we will put your brand’s selling image in the consumer’s mind.
For example, you are developing an energy drink. Your audience is definitely indifferent to “incredible taste, a group of multivitamins, usefulness for children and the whole family”. A label with the message “cool, trendy, super” won’t increase sales, even “cool” won’t help, because this slang lost its relevance 15 years ago. To create a workable positioning for an energy drink, the KOLORO agency sends its copywriter to a rave party. There he will find out how much energy drinks are bought, in metal or plastic, what qualities young people prefer one brand over another. He will note the slang of today’s street and tell it to our analysts.
In the end, we will understand the desires of a potential customer who will buy an energy drink in an acid blue can because traditionally they are black. He will buy an energy drink with the name “kek”, because “kek” is a buzzword from the Internet, where all the potential target audience sits. In this example, the acidic “kek” turned out to be a unique selling proposition.
KOLORO’s positioning sells because it’s not 5 years late.
3. Creation of logo and corporate identity
Any logo will set your brand apart from brands without a logo. A logo is a clear way to state that this brand, these products, these services are offered by you and not someone else. It’s a signpost and a message you are addressing to customers – “I exist, I sell”. Vodka, knives or vape accessories are similar up close and indistinguishable from 5 meters away if laid out in the same department. The logo indicates what you are selling, it identifies your offer as unique among others.
Corporate identity tells more about your company. It visualizes the brand idea, gives products a shape, cover art a color, services a character. This deep self-identification of the firm in the market is memorable and makes customers loyal. In KOLORO’s understanding, a corporate identity consists of:
- color scheme. Minimum of 2 colors;
- background textures. The absence of a texture is also a texture;
- of accessory design. Business cards, packages, banners, prints on corporate vehicles – you’ll fill the information space for all the volume you’ve invested in;
- accompanying elements. Applied in special or holiday offers.
This list is short so that you are not afraid to add to it – we are open to customer suggestions. KOLORO does not advise to paint office walls in company colors to increase sales, so you can trust us.
Development of KOLORO’s logo and corporate identity
4. Creating fonts
A font that matches your corporate identity complements your company’s visual message. A good and unique font makes it easier for your brand to take root in the upper price segment, communicating your budget and sense of beauty to your customers.
Almost all companies enter the market with ready-made fonts – they buy them or download free ones. And that’s the right thing to do. Newly opened companies are better off investing in retail strategy or specialists than in fonts.
Just remember that Arial font is the best way to communicate that you don’t care. Adver Gothic is the best way to reproduce the design of stalls in the CIS. There is a perception in the marketplace that the use of such fonts unmistakably defines the bad taste of the head of the company. The problem is that there are many more “bad” fonts than just two.
KOLORO’s designers keep up with typographic hygiene.
5. Naming
To claim a product, you need to name what you’re selling. When you sell a table called a desk, you give the customer a description of the object, but you don’t associate it with your brand. You are a maker and a seller, so you have earned the right to give your products a unique name that customers will remember
At KOLORO, naming is done by the creative department – five people get an assignment that is made up from your words. If only a name that starts with “K” suits you, we will not change your mind, but find a “K” word that you like. KOLORO will screen 3 out of 40 variants, make a visual style for them and offer you a choice.
Naming works, otherwise we wouldn’t call each other by name. Order naming at KOLORO.
6. Brand legend
An engaging story embeds the brand image into the customer’s everyday life, evokes associations or explains “on the fingers”. It is an informal communication with the customer outside the format of market relations.
A legend sets your product apart from products as similar as Pepsi and Coca-Cola, like Bread Dar and Nemiroff. Yes, thanks to naming, they have sound names, but there’s a story built behind those names. It doesn’t matter if it’s real or just based on real events – in the world of the customer, these brands are different. Because Bread Gift is true to tradition, Nemiroff is for boxing matches, Pepsi is for fashionable parties, Coca-Cola is a secret recipe and Santa drinks it. Writing a legend is a logical extension of positioning, but at this stage of brand building, it’s not you who sells – it’s the story that sells.
At KOLORO, they write legends that create a second added value to your products.
7. Advertising campaign
Your brand has an ingenious positioning, a catchy logo and a captivating legend. But these alone will not bring your product to the top of the sales charts or even to the market.
Think of an advertising campaign as placing your brand on sites that are relevant to your CA.
The market entry strategy consists of individual tactical elements. KOLORO calculates the campaign according to the client’s budget and goals. When money is tight, we guerrillaize – we take your brand on board and make seasonal forays into competitors’ sites or probe new markets. When a promoted brand needs an advertising campaign, advertising specialists work with focus groups, media promotion and viral marketing.
The benefit is that these actions are not a one-time action, but a cunning plan. Successful advertising campaigns are as memorable as successful songs, creating a positive image for the brand. They don’t just attract an audience, they recruit an army of loyal customers. Thanks to advertising campaigns, brands sometimes turn into “memes” – they are inscribed in the cultural code, become legends, and become symbols of subcultures, eras and entire countries.
At KOLORO we create a brand and bring it to the market – how we do it and how much it costs, read in the article Brand Strategy.
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