New year, new trends. Strengthen your branding endeavor through the researched ideas we have right here.
Motivate yourself and spark your creativity. Check out the Branding Trends of 2023 right here.
Marketing and Branding, What’s the Connection?
As a business owner, can you differentiate between marketing and branding?
We hope so, but if not, that’s okay too. Let’s define both together and learn why marketing and branding go hand in hand when running your business and planning your brand identity.
Branding is who you are as a business—your values, products, services, and all that are you. But how you’ll tell your market about you is marketing.
That’s where graphic and logo design comes in and solidifies your branding and marketing. When people notice you and what you can offer them, your business will start to gain patrons, and your market will widen.
Also, in that discussion, we can’t leave out emotional design. It’s another way to market yourself as a caring and humanized brand.
Ensure that all aspects of your design meld together. From your color palette to typography and iconography, these will help determine how your business will stand in front of your customers.
Now that we’ve identified the connection between these two terms let’s get into branding ideas to boost your brand this 2023.
10 Innovative Branding Ideas
Ready to boost your branding scheme? From your graphic design to your marketing strategy, they all work hand-in-hand to help you create a lasting impression on your customers.
Let’s help your brand better and check out branding ideas encompassing your business’s design and personality.Â
Adapting Elements
As a business, you think about your brand’s visibility in the physical or digital plane. So you need to create a design that fits wherever you’ll appear as a business.
It could be a primary logo design in your building, to a secondary logo plastered on your packaging and merchandise design.
Or an idea of where to subtly put your logo in an advertisement. Once your design appears in various varieties of media, building your brand visibility and recognition starts to get easier.
Add Humour
Next on the list, try adding a flare of whimsy to your design. From witty images to statements, creating a smile on your market’s face is one way for your business to become memorable.
According to MarketingDive, consumers love it when brands make them smile. 41% said they would walk away from a brand that didn’t make them smile or laugh regularly.
Whether graphic design or a skit for ads, make sure to add a positive message, and don’t forget to smile.
Bring Out Your Brand’s Ideas
The third idea on the list may be obvious, but how you do it matters. From the visual hierarchy you choose to the digestible language, it needs to be plain and simple yet creative and hit your market where they can understand it.
It could be in the form of ads on flyers that fly in the streets or a Facebook post that tells others about how you see yourself moving forward—tell your market about your ideas through your overall aesthetic.
Color Barrage
Next, make sure your color scheme works well with other parts of your brand. From saturation to color psychology and color wheel, knowing these theories that affect color helps you choose the best one for your business.
You could incorporate blue, green, and orange colors into your overall color scheme. Blue gives off a cooling effect and calms your market.
Green gives a refreshing feel that revitalizes their mood. And orange is a warm color that comes in various color shades.
Don’t be afraid to mix and match colors; it allows you to create a color scheme exclusively yours.
Humanize the Brand, a.k.a. Mascots
For the fifth branding idea, have you tried using a mascot logo? Representation matters in this day and age.
A mascot does that by becoming single or having multiple characters associated with your business. Look at food chains like Wendy’s, KFC, and Mcdonald’s.
Each food establishment above has a human-like mascot that allows them to represent people. Universities also have mascots, but they’re animals that emulate the school spirit that the institution wants to spread to their students.
A specific instance that shows the strength of mascots and their representative power is back in 2017. Criticism surrounded Kellogg’s release of their new cereal box because of one corn pop depicted as a janitor in a mall filled with other corn pops. They released an apology later through Twitter.
Choose your mascot designs wisely and become a business representing and connecting with your market.
Include the Unexpected, a.k.a. Anti-Design
Next, add a WOW factor that makes your branding stand out. This branding idea allows you to create stunning designs by pushing the boundaries.
The idea isn’t for everyone, but if you want to use it, the technique is called Anti-design. It’s a contemporary method that goes against any design standard.
In a way, it’s an unexpected take on the design norm. The ugly and bad are seen as excellent and allow you to experiment and stand out amongst the competition.
Remember again, this branding idea isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Just Typography
We know branding is usually a mix of images and typography. But your brand can purely be about the font you use.
From serifs to sans serifs, try having your brand’s personality wholly dependent on words. Ensure it’s readable, though, since you could risk the impression of tackiness for illegible words.
Lastly, for this design to work, you must pair it with an interesting color scheme. You could use it with a seasonal scheme, like a Fall color palette.
Or 2023’s trend of muted color and viva magenta. But if you want to meld colors together, use a gradient color scheme for your websites, posts, and logo.
Minimalist Vibe
Minimalism has been a common trope in the branding realm for a while now. And it will continue to do so because of its clean, sleek look.
This technique utilizes negative space to emphasize particular aspects of your design, like a phrase you want them to read or your logo in a post. The space is a practical design that forces the person looking at it to feel something.
New Rendition of Eco-Friendly
We know the eco-friendly design has been a priority because of the state of our plant. But how do you revitalize the cause through your branding?
Match it with the minimalist trend above. Choose a monochromatic palette and go simple. This technique allows you to tell your market that less waste is the way to go when it comes to becoming an eco-friendly ally.
Reference Pop Culture
Lastly, we have branding and pop culture. Adding themes from trending tv series, movies, or music helps get your business noticed.
It could be the Wednesday and Enid comparison in employees or the Stranger Things hype of showing your staff in Upside Down. You could also try challenges that build your brand’s personality and connects you to your customers.
Lastly, you can also try selling limited-time items with the trending movie to promote your new products, like when Avengers: Infinity War and End Game came out.
Various merchandise paired with labels and packaging designs featured at least one, two, or more of the characters from the movie.
Ride the bandwagon and grab the attention of your market.Â
Create Engaging Branding with Us!
Did ya get a better idea of how to brand your business? Don’t forget that you must apply the ideas above in all aspects of your design to improve your brand consistency.
You can have that in two ways, hire a freelance designer or customize a template. Collaborate with a Designer here at DesignCrowd or Personalize templates like business cards, invoices, Instagram posts, and more at BrandCrowd.
Either way, brand better with the branding ideas above today!
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Written by DesignCrowd on Wednesday, February 8, 2023
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.