What Sort of Assets Get People Noticing Your Brand?
When it comes to getting your brand noticed, there is no wrong approach to it. Regardless of where your investment goes, be it visual, content or marketing, all of it will be beneficial to getting your brand noticed.
Not everyone will see these as assets, but each part of these go together to build a larger ‘brand pyramid’.
At Embryo, we take branding and branded assets very seriously and it forms an important part of our digital marketing strategy. To learn more about that strategy feel free to get in touch with our team after you’ve read this blog by phone at 0161 327 2635 or email [email protected].
8 Types of Assets that Get You Noticed
1. Logo
For many companies, this is where the brand starts. A strong logo can immediately show your ethos, values and mission as a company. Take Amazon, for example, the subtle arrow pointing from A-Z showcasing their range. Toblerone, with their secret bear, hidden within the Matterhorn, celebrates their Swiss heritage. Or take our very own logo, elements hidden to show how we see what others don’t.
For many though, a logo is where they stop with the brand, they think that is enough to carry their company, and products and engage their audience. A logo is at the top of the brand pyramid. It will take you a certain distance, but will quickly be unsupported if you don’t have these other assets in place.
2. High-Quality Imagery / Video
High-quality imagery, video, and graphics are hugely important assets for your brand. As the age-old adage goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, and a bad image can represent a thousand bad words. No asset more than a low-resolution image can make your brand look unprofessional and turn your customer away instantly. This applies everywhere, on your website, Meta adverts, or printed in a brochure, you need the best images you can use.
Not only should imagery be as high quality as possible, but it should also be consistent and cohesive. Your imagery should reflect your brand and its ethos, so much so that by removing a logo your audience can recognise your brand from a photograph.
Not only does this strengthen your brand but it will make collating a cohesive social media presence MUCH easier.
3. Product
Starting with a beautiful product can make many of the other steps such as imagery and marketing a whole lot easier. Take Apple for example. I always claim that Apple is as much a fashion accessory as it is a technology company. I lose count of the clients that have come to us, wanting to be more Apple and have a website look more like Apple’s.
When you drill down into it, Apple’s website is a showcase of beautiful product mockups and renders. If you don’t have a beautiful product, it’s very hard to make it beautiful.
4. Packaging
Another key point when selling a product is packaging. Unboxing a new product nowadays should be an experience in my eyes. It’s a chance to show your commitment to sustainability. It’s a chance to create an exciting experience as the film is peeled from the screen. YouTubers make careers out of unboxing products, so make your product something that could be showcased on their channels. Also, having clear, simple-to-understand instructions within your package can go a huge way. IKEA, for example, would not be where it is without its monochrome, isometric instructions; an asset that has been integral to their success.
5. Content
Content can carry your brand as much as any other asset. A strong tone of voice document is integral to how your audience reacts to the words you use. Your content can be playful and light, but it should be consistently so. Your content can create emotion as much as an image can, more so as your content creates an idea in your audience’s head.
I have previously worked for a University where they had a team checking every piece of content released. We had a huge glossary of do’s and don’ts for what could be written, and how it had to be written. I used to snuff it off when I was younger but now I see the importance of having that content guidelines set in stone, for everyone to abide by and especially so to be policed.
6. Blogs and Articles
At Embryo, we post a blog every day, from a wide range of our experts. Not only are these especially great assets for the Google bots to crawl around and promote your brand but having a wide range of articles appeals to a large audience.
When writing blogs and articles, this is where Tone of Voice comes in especially. If you read any of Embryo’s blogs you’ll find they’re all approachably written with a key focus on transferring professional knowledge.
7. Social Media
Social media content brings all the above assets together. Perfect imagery, engaging video, and the ideal caption to encapsulate the content. Any social media will be your most engaged assets, and typically, they’re there for the world to see. The other thing to bear in mind with social media, how open to commentary you are and how long your assets will be available to be viewed (and judged).
That being said, social media is a great sounding board for trying out new concepts. With any branded asset, complacency can be a killer. Take any big brand and you will see the range of campaigns that they produce, using social media as a great tool to measure effectiveness and engagement.
8. Creative Campaigns
With all this in place, all that has been learnt through your logo, imagery, (packaging), content, and measure engagement from your blogs and socials: Creative campaigns. My absolute favourite assets to work on are the big creative campaigns. It’s a juggling act of trying new ideas, yet making sure they still are a puzzle piece of your wider brand.
Conclusion
My suggestion for people noticing your brand is to saturate the market with your brand. Start small and manageable initially, be that getting your logo spot on or a small, measurable creative campaign. The important thing is to always make sure your brand is controlled by whatever you do. With any of your branded work, you should be able to pin it to a wall, remove the logo and it still looks on theme and consistent with each other.
When it comes to branded assets, there is no pinnacle piece. The most important piece is making sure all your assets work together, and in isolation still represent all the pillars of your brand. You should champion your brand and be proud to showcase any graphic, video, or asset that is produced under it.