Retail Branding

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the UK retail sector, forcing businesses to adapt to changing consumer behaviours and government restrictions. One major consequence of the pandemic has been the shift towards online shopping, with many consumers opting for home delivery or click-and-collect services. This trend has continued post-Covid forcing many physical stores to close their doors.

Despite this surge in online sales, many retailers have struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic. The closure of non-essential shops for extended periods has hit bricks-and-mortar retailers hard, with some unfortunately being forced into administration or bankruptcy. Even those that have managed to survive are facing new challenges such as increased costs associated Brexit and the cost of living crisis.

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A brand is really essential in today’s marketplace if you want your business or organisation to stand out and get attention. With so much competition in almost every area, nobody can thrive on a name, product or service alone.

A brand supports everything you do, providing a common visual style and message for all of your communications. It tells people something about who you are and what you do every time they interact with it. But how do you create a brand? Here we aim to break the process down into five simple steps.

1) Establish your brand values

To define your brand in words before you move onto the visual style, you need to make sure you have agreed on some basic principles. Decide what you want to achieve as a brand, who your audience is going to be, and what qualities or feelings you want them to associate with your brand. You can then find ways to incorporate these factors into your actual designs.

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A logo is one of the most basic aspects of a company’s branding. How hard can it be, since everyone does it? It might be worth considering that plenty of people get it very wrong, and the impact of this mistake shouldn’t be underestimated. Your logo could help you make sales, encourage people to put trust in your brand, and ultimately turn your business into a genuinely iconic image. Alternatively, it could create the wrong impression and raise questions about your professionalism. Which route do you want to take? Maybe there pointers will help you avoid some common mistakes.

1) Be as unique as possible

Although there are limitations here, and some people may believe it’s impossible to create a truly unique logo at this point, it’s a vital element of any successful brand’s visual appeal. Your logo doesn’t have to be a literal representation of your product or business – it’s much better to make it different from anything else on the market.

2) Reflect and introduce your brand

While we stand by the above point that you should avoid being too literal, you still need to find some way of translating what matters about your brand into image form. Think about what emotions you want people to feel when looking at your logo, and what you want them to assume about your brand from the second they see it. A tiny detail can be loaded with important meaning.

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Technology is always pulling us deeper into the “digital age” that so many businesses are still resistant to. Pressure is increasing and progress is being made, but in some areas there are still many people insisting that the new age success stories don’t apply to them, and they know the traditional methods that work in their market. A great example is the idea of getting promotional materials produced and personalised with company branding. How can this still be a relevant part of marketing in 2016?

It has been suggested that digital marketing has advanced so far that it shouldn’t even be referred to as such any more, instead simply being part of “marketing” for all businesses. For a large number of brands, traditional marketing including creating physical products to help with advertising is completely redundant, and wouldn’t even be on the radar. It’s definitely possible, and usually much cheaper, to create and shape your brand image entirely using online tools like social media. You can use e-commerce channels to make sales and distribute adverts entirely online, so where would you even have an opportunity to use promotional products? (more…)

Promotional items created by a printing service are a powerful form of advertising because people often keep useful items longer than printed ads. This makes them an effective tool for building brand recognition and demonstrating customer appreciation. Common promotional items include bags, mugs, pens, notepads, mouse mats, customised USB drives and calendars.

Digital printing technology mostly covers the production of promotional products. Images, graphics and text can appear on almost any type of product. Any design you use needs to meet the printer’s standards because this process often transpires on a wide assortment of materials, or substrates. Name badges, for example, can be printed on plastic, paper and even onto metal. Printing companies could also convert your original design into embroidery stitches if you your items are bags, hats and even t-shirts. The wide-assortment of digital techniques and available materials expands the type of promotional materials you can share with customers, but this can complicate artwork preparation and become quite costly. (more…)

You should never underestimate the importance of good retail design if you have any kind of physical shop as part of your business. A good understanding of your customers can be translated into excellent design ideas, creating an atmosphere and look that encourages people to engage with your business in the ways you need them to. A smart strategy behind your store design can transform the prospects of your business and turn an idea into a popular and successful venture.

When you think of retail design you might just be thinking about the basic design of your shop, including the layout and the arrangement of the furnishings. However, to successfully revamp your store design it’s essential to consider all the complex factors that influence customer behaviour. Visual merchandising is important across a broad range of elements, and many of the things that influence your potential customers’ decisions are not even consciously noticed. Interior design branding companies can help you form a strategy taking all these complex elements into account, which is highly recommended since professionals can really help you get to grips with the finer details, but we’ve tried to simplify the thought process into a few manageable stages to help you make a start. (more…)