Lessons on Branding from the School Playground

Branding is important for businesses in order to stand out and have a unique image that customers can relate to and develop a familiarity with. Aside from certain rules that always apply to corporate branding, your marketing team is free to experiment with the company’s image until they arrive at the ideal slogan, boilerplate text, logo, and other key marketing copy. While branding a newly-founded company, you must keep in mind what kind of image your organization wants to portray to your target consumers and whether it synchronizes with the type of products/services you currently offer.

Though there are entire marketing and advertising teams behind the creation of a brand’s public image, observe them at a distance and they start resembling familiar personas. More specifically, most brands adopt behaviors that mimic students belonging to various cliques and are now battling it out in their school’s playground. The playground, carrying this example further, would be a marketplace where brands vie for your attention and hard-earned dollars.

The Geeks Vs. The Cool Kids

Certain businesses prefer cultivating niche audiences who have prior know-how about the products or services they have to offer. In this case, their ‘geeky’, ‘non-mainstream’ image works wonders for their respective brands! This curious phenomenon of brands reaching cult-like status due to a small yet loyal band of consumers has transformed some technology companies into global giants.

In other cases, a highly-renowned fashion magazine would rather reach a wide range of readers. With their noted preference for a high volume of readership, celebrity gossip, cutting-edge fashion, and global acclaim, a thick glossy mag gives off a vibe similar to a troupe of cool kids that thrive on fame and popularity.

Lead with a Stellar Logo

Take a leaf out of the book of successful multinational corporations and invest time in developing a memorable logo. Sit down with your team, print out your organization’s mission, vision, and values, and begin a brainstorming session. What color comes to mind when you think of the word ‘trust’? Is there an image you can borrow from nature, such as a majestic lion or a delicate daffodil that represents your products or services? Will something simple like the initials of the founders morphed into an attractive design suffice for now? Much like the ‘teacher’s pet’, the brands that survive in the ultra-competitive marketplace are known for their ability to learn fast in the ‘classroom’.

 Typography Matters

Believe it or not, despite being surrounded by thousands of disruptive ads and messages all the time, we can still easily recognize our favorite brands by their distinct typefaces. Choose a regal, Times New Romanesque typeface in your branding material if you are offering etiquette lessons or selling fine china tea sets. Go for a bold, no-nonsense Arial typeface if your company’s leading products are technology-based. Though we no longer need to have flawless handwriting, unlike the 3rd grade, how we communicate with potential customers through branding creates a ‘signature’ of sorts.

Delve into Meaningful Dialogue

Quality, personalized branding campaigns are an utmost necessity for an organization to stand out in a sea of competitors.  Marketing is basically a conversation between a service or product provider and their potential customer. If your competition is initiating a conversation with your target consumer, why should your brand be left behind? Integrate live chat software on your website, app, and social media pages to reach out to your online customers and get your message across to them. Take the initiative to ‘own the conversation’ from the very start, regularly engage with customers via social media, and build an online reputation management strategy that will protect the brand against any negative feedback.