Why We Don’t Just “do a logo”

When Wooster Creative was born in 2016, our services ranged from $500 websites to business cards, brochures and one-off logos. We took most clients who wanted to work with us. We needed experience. However, we quickly realized what branding really is... and isn’t. Then we undertook the challenge of educating ourselves deeply in the psychology of brand communication.

We invested in our own education and took time to study:

• How do you conduct effective brand research? (IE — How do you really understand people’s motivations, needs and triggers?)
• How can you evaluate if a brand is working?
• How can you study a market and identify opportunity?
• How do you transform a brand strategy into a visual identity?
• What are clients really asking for when they ask for a brand?
• How can we effectively hand-off a brand to a client ensuring they follow the Brand Guidelines we give them?

Understanding answers to all these questions was a game changer. With a clear understanding of a client’s market, we now position businesses for a lifetime of growth. This is a very valuable service.

We also tackled creating a full brand identity for ourselves. This allowed us to resonate with the clients we wanted to work with and raise our prices. Having a powerful brand identity based on communication strategy can completely change a business. We worked hard at becoming experts in our industry, and our branding needs to convey that.

After we properly branded our own agency and honed our branding expertise, we began to attract more people for our services, and we started becoming experts in the industry. Truthfully, we’ve realized that we want our clients to experience the same dramatic success that branding brought to our own business. In order for them to experience that, clients need more than “just a logo” for their brand. They need a branded experience that’s thoughtfully created to attract their ideal clients. Your company’s branding works to promote your business even when you’re sleeping.

What is included in branding?

Your brand is your message to the world, your values, visuals, purpose, mission, and reputation. A single logo cannot convey all of these things alone. It takes a combination of the right copy, visuals, and marketing to convey your entire brand.

The visual side of your brand can’t just be a one off logo; it must include your entire brand identity backed by brand strategy, research, and branding elements to properly communicate the right message. Your brand needs to feel harmonious to inspire trust in your audiences. This means you need to have one message across multiple forms of media, all while remaining cohesive.

Marketing Efforts without Strong Branding Won’t Convert

Let’s get down to brass tacks. We find many entrepreneurs leap into their business with a quick logo and start investing thousands into their marketing. The problem is, the traffic you’re purchasing to come to your page means nothing if your message and visuals aren’t strongly communicating and connecting with your ideal customer. IE, you’re wasting your money.

Businesses without a strong brand identity can’t convert well and they end up wasting their revenue on marketing that is short lived. Purchasing traffic can not purchase a feeling of connection or belonging. It doesn’t work to invest in marketing instead of investing in their branding. The truth is, you need both.

Your Branding Needs to be Created in Multiple Variations for Different Mediums

How does a one-off logo with a small tagline look printed on a letter head? Is it still legible? Probably not. Does your one-off logo work as a logo on a mobile device at a small screen size for an iphone mini? Can you use that logo on a sticker? Does it fit on your business card?Does it work on a shirt?

One logo can not adapt instantly to every single form of media in today’s world. That’s why you need a brand identity what will give you versatility within your business. It will actually cost more later to go back and reengage your designer later to create a graphic for your signage, glasses in your restaurant, or a truck decal.

A logo design doesn’t tell the whole story and can’t translate cohesively into an entire website, social media feed, or print marketing. However, good news — a brand identity can! Having a full brand identity allows you to remain cohesive in all your marketing. Even if you move to another area, or if you hire another art director or additional designers, or just decide to create design yourself — if you stick to your brand identify, your branding will stay cohesive. By setting out a clear set of standards and rules at the outset of your branding, we’ve set the stage or a strong brand. A one-off logo just isn’t ever enough for any business to consistently attract their ideal clients and it lacks the brand direction needed to remain cohesive. Also, it makes it so much hard to then develop a cohesive website or collateral later.

Are you ready to brand your business? Reach out to us (or any brand designer you value and respect) to discuss how a full brand identify can attract your ideal clients and be a powerful tool to help you grow.