What is a Branding Package and How Can it Help Your Business be more recognizable?
The branding package will help you create a unified experience for your customer. Align logo, colors, typography, images, emails, website, etc. and you will get recognized. Airbnb use case included.
- What is a branding package?
- Why do I need a branding package?
- What does a branding package include?
- General components of a branding package
- Digital Components
- Physical Aspects of a Branding Package
- Print Aspects of a Branding Package
- Examples of a great branding package
- Using a Corporate Branding Package in Your Company
- Final Thoughts
If you’ve traveled anywhere in the last few years, you probably used Airbnb. You might have bought a plane ticket to France and started thinking of places to stay. Maybe you had signed up for their newsletter a while ago but never actually pulled the trigger on booking a place with them before. However, this time, their name came to mind when thinking of ways to find the most affordable apartment in the center of Paris.
So, you decided to navigate through their website to see what was available. You find the perfect little studio a few blocks from The Louvre and hit the reserve button. From there, you receive your confirmation email with all the necessary details for your booking. But, did you notice that Airbnb’s branding package was following you the whole way through your experience? That’s the secret of a great branding package; it’s there without being in-your-face.
What is a branding package?
A branding package is all the separate branded resources a company uses to help create a unified experience for their customer. This can include anything from print to online and physical assets, such as a logo, brand colors, and even the font you use on your website. All of these are considered an integral part of a branding package umbrella. A good branding package will take these separate pieces and tie them together with the same underlying style and concept.
Let’s look at it from the point of view of the Airbnb example we mentioned earlier. Before you signed up for their newsletter, maybe a friend told you about them. You went online and found their Instagram. Did you notice their logo? That’s part of a brand package. From there, you checked out their website. Did you notice that the way the website is set up creates a calm, soothing but inspiring feeling? Similar to the feeling you might get while taking time to go away somewhere on vacation. That’s also a brand package asset. How about the font or the colors in the confirmation email you received when completing your booking? All of these elements come together to create your branding package.
Why do I need a branding package?
Branding is a practice in marketing where a company will create its brand name and overall design to make it easier for consumers to be able to identify them. Creating a unique consumer experience that sets them apart from everyone else offering a similar product is a huge part of how brands find success. It’s important to make sure you’re consistent and clear in terms of what you’re offering in order to build trust. No matter where your customer is looking, whether that’s a brochure, social media, or a marketing email, they should be able to quickly connect it to your company and understand what the story behind the brand is.
The next step in your branding journey then would be a corporate brand package. You want to collect all the little pieces that make up your branding and make sure they’re consistent across the board. Think of Nike’s swoosh logo or its “Just Do It” slogan. They both reference the company’s background story of sports and strength and are easily identifiable as being a part of Nike. Another good example is T-Mobile’s choice of a bright magenta as their brand color. Not a common choice at all, which is exactly what makes them stand out from every other phone provider company out there.
What does a branding package include?
Let’s break down exactly what a corporate branding package includes and what each component of it is. That said, this is not an exhaustive list, and each package can vary slightly depending on your brand’s needs.
General components of a branding package
Logo
Both the creation of your brand logo as well as logo treatment. The design should be flexible enough to be used on social media, a website, in print, and in email marketing. Each platform has a different requirement for using and uploading a logo. A detailed logo treatment will make sure you’re prepared to adapt to each platform so that the logo is clear and easy to see and use across the board.
Brand Colors
Colors can convey emotions and help transmit the story and idea behind a company. Selecting a color palette is a key aspect of a brand package since it will be used across several platforms to help unify the brand’s story in the customer’s eyes.
Brand Guide
This is essentially a rule book to help everyone in the company understand how to present a unified vision of the brand to customers. Graphic designers will know what colors and font to use, web developers will understand how the website should look, and community managers will use the guide to set up a cohesive social media feed.
Typography
While you might think this just includes the main font used for your logo, typography falls under a larger umbrella. Typographic guidelines will be reflected in how you publish articles, design your blog, and even what the copy on your website looks like.
Image guidelines
This is a rule book to help understand what type of imagery should be used to represent your brand. By using specific keywords and phrases, it will help narrow down the search to what is applicable and what isn’t. For example: is the mood happy, serious, professional, casual? Should the images have a certain setting? Perhaps a white background, or maybe they should be located in nature. What should the color treatment be? Are all the pictures meant to be in black and white with a specific focus on only one element, which will be highlighted in the main brand’s color? The more specific, the easier it will be to understand.
Digital Components
Website
Brand packages can include the creation of a custom landing page, website banners, and even website pop-ups. Taking into account the aim to create a holistic concept, this would also include the use of your logo, brand palette, typography, and image guidelines.
Email Templates
A huge aspect of any e-commerce brand, email templates are another way to create brand unity in the consumer’s eyes. Whether it’s via a weekly newsletter that includes your brand’s letterhead, a media kit showcasing the correct image guidelines, and nowadays even messages aimed at influencers using the correct typography – these are all aspects to help build a holistic brand view.
Social Media Presence
Included in this can be anything from the actual social media presence set up (think grid design, a brand hashtag, the copy in your bio, and even a cover photo) to the actual management of your profiles.
Graphics
Graphics as part of a branding package are visual designs created with the idea of aligning with your business branding. They are meant to be clearly recognizable as “yours.” They should all feature elements and pieces that are unique and clearly relatable as being a part of your brand. Think logo, typography, and brand colors. This can then be used on banners, ads, social media posts, and emails.
Physical Aspects of a Branding Package
Packaging
If you’re selling a product instead of a service, the packaging your customer will receive is also part of your brand package. The box, packaging insert, branded tape, and any freebies you add in there, such as stickers or thank you cards, would all be included.
Company Merch
Anything from mugs and pens to notebooks, hoodies, and even water bottles. As with all other aspects of the brand package, it should reflect your brand story. Have a travel company? Maybe a passport holder with your logo and brand colors. Or if you’ve launched a card shop, free branded birthday cards with every purchase.
Print Aspects of a Branding Package
Brochures and Signage
Ever thought about doing a pop-up for your e-commerce site or attending a trade show? If so, you’ll likely need print assets. Anything from signage to brochures and banners would all come from your brand package.
Business cards
Depending on your brand, you might find that business cards are still a necessity. Even if you find you won’t need them on a daily basis, it’s still always good to consider them as an option. They’re a great chance to stand out from the competition and offer a window into the brand’s quality, products, and overall brand story.
Examples of a great branding package
The brands below have done an excellent job in creating their brand package and might help as inspiration to get things started with your own brand package.
Glossier
With their main concept being a brand created by Millennials for Millennials, Glossier constructed a brand story focusing on the concepts of soft, clean, and no-fuss. You can see this in their brand package when looking at their color pallet of pastel pink and white. The website is welcoming and accessible, and their font choice in a sans serif style reflects their simple and easy persona.
UPS
The United Parcel Services mainly focuses on servicing small and large companies to help them with all their shipping needs. Working in a B2B (business to business) environment requires a different kind of brand story than a direct-to-consumer shipping company might have. Their choice of muted yellows and browns as their main colors aims to convey trust, reliability, and ease of service. Their social media presence focuses on building relationships with their clients from a more human-to-human point of view, which is reflected in both their image choices and the copy for each post. Essentially, UPS is the same brand no matter what angle you’re looking at them from, thanks to their brand package work.
Spotify
Another brand aiming to target a Millennial customer base, Spotify reflects a modern, bold, and fresh feel. Their logo copies the look of sound waves, making it very clear that the underlying concept of the company is about music. Their vocabulary choices reflect the same feel from every corner of the brand. Their media kit opens with the phrase “Your audience is here to listen,” and their Instagram bio states that you can “play, discover and share.” You can feel the excitement and emotions they’re aiming for while still staying true to their message of bringing music into your life while remaining playful and open to all.
Using a Corporate Branding Package in Your Company
One of the most important aspects of your brand’s journey is making sure you can stand out from your competition. One way to achieve that is by taking ownership of how your customers experience your brand and by creating a relationship with them based on trust. People are certainly willing to pay more when it comes to good branding because it makes them feel like the company is serious about their product or service. This means that if a customer is trying to choose between your product and someone else’s, proper branding can be the tipping point. The aim is to stay in the back of their mind until they’re ready to purchase. And when they are, your brand should show up front-and-center.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to building a memorable brand, it’s about telling a compelling story and staying consistent. The most unforgettable brands never leave your brain because their presence is defined by the same logo, fonts, colors, and images all repeated over and over anywhere you see the company. Your brand package should be a clear reflection of your brand’s identity – similar to a signature. A branding package can make that process as easy and as clear as possible regardless of if you’re just launching a new company or if you’re looking to rebrand your existing one. Throughout your brand’s journey, you’ll want to keep an eye on your branding package and ensure it grows to meet you and your customers’ ever-changing needs.
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