The importance of brand design for an E-commerce online business

 
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It is certainly not the simplest task to create a visual identity for your brand that will make it familiar, recognizable and overall, easy to remember. While the colors and logo are a large part of creating an effective and successful brand design, they are not the only factors associated with developing a compelling brand. We briefly discussed this topic in our blog “Social Media, Web Design, Digital Marketing, SEO and their roles in creating an online brand”. Today we take a closer look at what an effective brand design is all about and what exactly needs to be done to have a successful and effective visual identity about your E-commerce online store.

Brand design like a lot of other marketing terms is commonly used and often mixed up with other terminologies like brand identity and brand marketing. We agree that there is an overlap between all these three terms however, each of them has a very specific and separate role in establishing your brand at the top of its game. So, before we understand why brand design is important or even how it can be made effective, let's first understand what brand design truly is and the many different characteristics that constitute a viable and effective brand design.  

What is Brand Design

Brand visuals or design are the visible symbols that people immediately associate with your E-commerce online business. Your logo, font, and typography used, specific visuals, even brand ambassadors are what identifies your brand and de-clutters it compared to other companies that are also selling their products and services online. It’s not surprising that getting the look and visuals of your brand correct is such an important step to establishing and running a successful E-commerce entity.

According to a Nielson survey, 59% of consumers prefer to buy new products from brands that they have already had some sort of familiarity with. This means that nearly 60% of your possible and current target market want to come back to your E-commerce online store for either a repeat purchase or then the purchase of another product if you can manage to get your branding and design correct and on point. This is an incredible statistic that shows you just how much more successful your online store can be when it has been branded with effective design characteristics.  

As a new entrepreneur or business owner or even a promoter, the only way your online store can sustain and compete with larger and similar competition is for it to have a unique branding and design look of its own and one that your prospective end consumer can relate to. While there are an estimated twelve to twenty-four million E-commerce sites across the globe, with more and more being created every single day, less than one million of these sites sell more than $1,000 a year. This statistic tells you two things; how poor branding can affect your E-commerce vision and that there is plenty of room for growth in the E-commerce online store space if you can crack the branding.

But what are these many characteristics that help an E-commerce online store come up with an effective look and branding for itself? To put it simply, there are several. However, the ones that we should focus on are essentially the important ones that are always upfront in the “yes” of the end consumer. The logo, the typography styles of any baseline or the company name, the colors that your brand is associated with, any symbols that are a part of the overall logo, and of course also the overall design language. These 5 elements are what form the foundation of an effective branding design and this is what we will look into in greater detail now.

Logo

A logo is what differentiates your brand from all the other competition in your prospective target market. It is the visual face of your brand and one that is most commonly used to recognize your brand by your prospective end consumer. A logo is usually a combination of text and imagery that informs your prospective end consumer about the name of your E-commerce online store, while also creating a visual symbol that represents the greater vision of your business. It’s a big part of your brand identity because it is usually the first thing that people see or notice about your online store apart from the products and services being sold.

An effectively designed and created logo has several characteristics. It tends to be memorable; it also differentiates your brand from everyone else's, and it fosters brand loyalty. It does so by being a visual representation of your businesses' belief system, core values, purpose, mission, and vision, and what your brand is built around.

If the brand logo itself looks unprofessional or clumsily put together in any way, consumers may start questioning how well you’re able to deliver your brand value and promise through the products and services you offer. Cultivating a strong logo that helps your brand to stand out to its consumers, helps ensure that not only do they remember your brand, but also create positive associations with you.

A logo can generate deep, symbolic associations connected to people’s memories and emotions. The biggest and best brands in the world are immediately recognized because of their distinctive logos that have withstood the test of time and all sorts of design innovation to continue to be relevant even after several years. Some brands that immediately come to the forefront when we think of memorable brand identities include companies likes Adidas, Pepsi, and McDonald's, just to name a few.

Typography

72% of the best brand names are made up of words or acronyms. Yes, you read that right. This is why getting the font; font style and the clarity of the font correct for a logo can be an important consideration when you are looking to have an effective branding design for your E-commerce business or your online store. Typography is everything to do with the appearance and style of the written word. Fonts affect people’s perception and behavior and help change their mindset towards your brand and its identity.

When we think of typography, the use of fonts becomes the next consideration. As we have read before in our blog “Social Media, Web Design, Digital Marketing, SEO and their roles in creating an online brand” there are essentially 5 types of fonts that a brand could go with to display how it showcases its written terminologies.

Almost all fonts can be described as Serif, Sans Serif, Script, Display, and Handwritten fonts and each of these play important roles in the overall brand design. While Serif and Sans Serif fonts generate a business-minded demeanor, script and display fonts are more suited to increasing attention spans and levels. In an age where everything customized and bespoke generates a ton of interest, it is a handwritten script that tends to demonstrate both personalization and creativity that your brand is considered to be capable of.

Good typography however is not just about selecting and using a particular font. All the other typographic elements will also ideally need correct arranging in the overall design. Apart from this, the visual arrangement, the color contrasts, the blank space, the fonts selected, and the size of the font all play important roles in achieving good typography-led branding for your business. Every typographic element impacts your design on both macro and micro levels and hence its importance in creating a context and adding some much-needed personality and tonality to the brand.

Colors

Color improves brand recognition by up to 80% and 1/3 of the world’s top 100 brands include the color blue in their logos. Color tends to play a vital role in the overall marketing and branding strategy of an E-commerce business. When designing the branding and logo of your company, the choice of color helps it to stand out from the prospective competition.

Using myriad colors in design is primarily known for evoking various emotional responses from the eventual target end user. Most experts would agree that associating the right color with the brand design has the potential to increase brand recognition by up to 80% with your target audience. Colors are a form of non-verbal communication, but they have a mysterious ability to affect our moods and feelings. This is why choosing bright, attractive colors which are also appropriate for the E-commerce business and the brand will have a positive underlying effect on your brand.

Many of the world's most recognizable brands use bright colors as a part of their visual identity and brand recognition. Just think of the bright yellow arches from McDonald’s, the bright red from Coca-Cola, or the stark dark green from Starbucks. These are colors that the consumer tends to instantly identify with and start associating with as well. Colors act as a great brand identifier which is why identifying a correct shade in the creative process becomes an important factor in creating an effective visual design.

It has been noted that brands that use intense colors are often chosen to make the target audience feel more energetic. While brands with sedate colors often signify the nature of their business. Bright colors tend to induce a purchase while duller more sedate colors tend to signify gravitas and a sense of professional decorum. Retail chains, especially food and beverage outlets will prefer using bright colors, while professionals and organizations such as banks, taxation, and law firms and other similar companies prefer to brand themselves with more appropriate colors. 

Design Language

On average, it takes five to seven impressions for people to remember your brand. Once you have your logo, font, colors, and visuals in place it is important to develop a sense of continuity and consistency in all your marketing campaigns going forward. The only way your customer will identify your brand regularly is when it talks the same design language for a long period. If Coca-Cola were to change its color from red regularly it would be difficult to associate it as the biggest soft drink manufacturer in the world. Similarly, if McDonald's changed the arches in their logo, and replaced it with a burger suddenly, how would it be differentiated from the several smaller restaurants that also offer burgers on their menu.

An effectively thought-out design language automatically brings some very important aspects for your online store and E-commerce business such as consistency, brand recall, clarity, and a sense of much-needed innovation. Every brand in a long journey will need to evolve to keep up with market trends, social and cultural shifts of the time, and also geopolitical and economic changes across the globe as they happen. If the design language has enough room for improvisation without it greatly altering the look, feel, and communication trends of the brand, this helps to foster a sense of familiarity even when a forced or planned shift needs to be made in terms of visual communication and messaging for the brand.

The success of any visual design tends to depend largely on how the end consumer will perceive it. Several factors influence human perception so to create an effective brand design, a brand needs to always consider the importance of a well thought out design language and the impact that it will have on the end consumer’s minds.   

In the competitive consumer-based society that we live in, target audiences are constantly bombarded with different and new products and services both virtually through E-commerce businesses and at physical offline stores.  A young company emerging in such a tough market can find it difficult to establish itself. This is when branding becomes important. Presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%. The primary purpose of branding is to help businesses stand out from their immediate competition. However, getting the branding aspect right for your online store may not be the easiest thing to achieve without professional assistance.

AmareSol Global is a digital business consultancy creating innovative change through a team of talented designers, developers, and strategists creating digital experiences for brands and companies around the world. We are continuously fueling growth across constantly changing and advancing digital landscapes, by seeking and formulating newer and better ways to service clientele on a global scale across industries. Look up more about us at www.amaresolglobal.com.

 
 
 
AmareSol GlobalSEO, Social Media, Digital Marketing, Web Design, Online Business, E-commerce, Brand Design