Whatever the format or platform you use, every time your business communicates, you have an opportunity to strengthen your brand. Each communication is also an opportunity to further your strategic marketing objectives.

At its core, branding it isn’t about visual decoration or artistic good taste; branding has a function to perform. The fundamental purpose of branding is to support and promote your business’s strategic marketing objectives.

As a design studio specialising in branding, one of our most important considerations is to ensure that your logo and corporate image – both visual and verbal elements – are fit for this purpose. While we believe that aesthetics matter, our design work is not about artistic or cosmetic details: the creative process has a sound analytic foundation.

At a quick glance, a business can be defined and categorised by any number of simple, easily identifiable factors: sector, size, product, function… Once you look more closely, though, we believe that each business has a unique message and personality that differentiate it in the marketplace. Our work goes beyond conveying a superficial commercial message to reflect the specific company culture, ethos and individuality.

A brand is created by using words, symbols and images consistently, in careful combination, allowing customers to recognise the company products and services, and be confident of the values and approach behind them.

Brands grow and develop organically over time, but this process should not be allowed to occur in a disorganised, haphazard fashion: the brand image should be curated by using defined styles and formats in appropriate, consistent ways for all company communications.

Each time your business communicates, something is revealed about the company’s self-image.

Each time your business communicates, whether it’s with the public – existing clients, potential clients, or the world at large – or internally – with staff, collaborators and suppliers – something is revealed about the company’s self-image and its attitude to others. Each of these communications is an opportunity to strengthen – or weaken – the way others see your brand.

Every visual or verbal expression of your business, whether in print or digital format, from a business card to the sign over your office building, from pay slips to glossy printed brochures, from email signatures to social media avatars, from company website to blog, serves to define your corporate identity.

Every visual or verbal expression of your business serves to define your corporate identity.

By making sure that everyone in your organisation recognises this and is equipped with the tools and understanding to convey the agreed message, you are creating a cost-effective system to establish, consolidate and promote your brand.

Recognising the importance of a powerful logo supported by a carefully curated graphic ID and company message is not just the first step to building a strong brand: it is key to achieving your strategic marketing objectives.

We’d love to have a talk with you about your marketing challenges and see how our integrated approach to brand, design and communications can help you achieve your objectives. Drop us a line or call 0798 661 3437.

Gwyneth Box is an award-winning poet, writer and translator, with business experience in IT, language consultancy, design and publishing. Gwyneth specialises in copy writing and transcreation, particularly in the fields of lifestyle, travel and technology. As owner of Tantamount and its companion organisation, authorbranding.co.uk, Gwyneth works with freelance creatives, businesses and educators on projects that draw together the threads of publishing, technology and training.

This post was originally posted on the Tantamount blog.