With more businesses shifting online, a seamless customer experience has become a poignant marker of success. Clancy Clarke writes about how businesses can utilise design and the principles of branding to boost customer experience.

In the absence of face-to-face interactions, consider what you can tell your customers with your brand alone. As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. 

So, how can you use branding to tap into consumer psychology, improve the customer journey and grow your business? 

Upgrade your logo 

A logo is one of the most important branding decisions when building a business, so you need to get right. Don’t overlook the power of colour. You can create a mood and evoke emotion with colour. The colours you choose depend entirely on the message you want to convey and the emotions you’d like to invoke.

For example, did you know that colours can actually provoke a physical response from consumers? There are studies devoted to colour psychology, considering colour as a determinate of human behaviour. Yellow and red are known to stimulate appetite, which is why leading food and beverage conglomerates like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, KFC, Kellogg’s and Subway all use them in their logos.

It’s not just the food industry that’s capitalising on the psychology of colour association – all industries do it in some way or another. The health-conscious, eco-friendly connotations of the colour green are widely acknowledged and have been adopted by the likes of Tropicana, Whole Foods and even BP to mirror this message to their target markets. However, some of the lesser-known colour triggers like purple used by Hallmark and Cadbury to invoke creativity, or blue adopted by Facebook, HP and American Express to conjure feelings of trust demonstrates the clear semantics of logo composition. 

Create a seamless brand experience 

When creating a positive experience for your audience, it is important to create flow across all platforms so customers can easily recognise your brand. Before you expand your branding across multiple channels however, you must ensure you have a clear and defined brand identity. 

When you can answer all of the below questions, you will be well on your way to ticking off that check point:

• What colours will be used for the logo and what feelings do they evoke?
• Can the colours be inverted for different purposes?
• How can your logo be used – for example, just the icon, or just the text? 
• Is there a smaller version of your logo – for example, just the first letter, that can be leveraged?

Once you have finalised your logo, you can use consistent branding (colours, layout, logo positioning) across platforms, whether that’s Facebook posts, Instagram stories or even TikTok videos. A great example of this is Telstra. The pink, orange and purple gradient is used across all of their platforms and has become almost as recognisable as the logo itself.

Your next step should be to define your tone. Tone is tangential to design, but the wording and imagery that you use across platforms should be consistent. If your brand is playful and energetic, ensure you replicate this same tone on all owned platforms, including your website and social channels. Reuse and be consistent with other branding elements –  think Telstra with the pink/orange/purple gradient you see.

Embrace a catchy slogan

Customers will remember a great slogan. It completes the branding trifecta alongside imagery and tone. Having a slogan associated with a brand increases recognition and awareness. It also builds a connection between you and your customer. 

A slogan, motto or tagline usually consists of a short piece of text that you can consider your company catchphrase. Slogans that work the best consist of three to seven memorable, easy to repeat words.

Some of the most famous from the world’s best-loved brands include McDonald’s ‘I’m Lovin’ It’, Weetbix’s ‘Aussie kids are Weetbix kids’ and Woolworths’ ‘The Fresh Food People’. Think of it as an advertising jingle, this additional text works in unison with your chosen imagery to further associate your design with your brand. 

Once you have carefully curated a logo and colour scheme that aligns with your brand’s purpose, perfected your tone of voice across your channels, and curated a catchy slogan, you’re well on your way to becoming a memorable brand. What’s more, you’ll have built a brand that sticks in the memories of those you want to target most, making a mark that’s recognisable for years or even generations to come. 

Clancy Clarke is the head of marketing and analytics at DesignCrowd and BrandCrowd.

Photo by alleksana from Pexels.

Found this article interesting? Read this interview with design agency Hulsbosch, who is renowned for branding some of Australia’s most recognisable businesses.