Hints and Tips on... Business Branding

[Jigsaw CCS]

Why Invest in Branding?

• Branding is a professional interest and, just like you would invest in a professional to build your house, you should invest in a qualified company to build your branding.

• A brand is ultimately a tool for communicating all your company’s services and qualities. Trained individuals know how to use this tool effectively.

• A business survives on its ability to gain interest from new customers. Your brand should be effective in doing this.

Stand Out from the Crowd

• You have less than three seconds to convince a potential client that you’re a business worth looking at.

• Your brand is a visual representation of your business. Consider what you want it to say and how you want to say it.

• Look at current trends and reflect these in your branding. People subconsciously follow brand evolution and will quickly discard anything that looks outdated.

Printing Logistics

• Consider printing when forming your brand guidelines. Orange and black might look great for your business but can be difficult to achieve consistently.

• Think about cost; printing all your marketing materials in two colours may reduce printing costs, but is this suitable for your target audience?

• Design the logo with a vector line to ensure it looks the same at all sizes.

Application

• A logo mark needs to work effectively on all applications and be legible at all sizes. Think about where your logo will be going primarily in relation to your business.

• Will the logo be stitched into clothing, embossed into physical products, applied to just print, just web or a mix of all of these?

• Study your competitors and see how they have branded themselves – does their logo work in all situations and if not, what can you do to avoid the same mistake?

Audience Reception

• Your customers will be your toughest critic when it comes to your branding.

• Take time to understand everything about your target market – their values, expectations, beliefs and geographical location all build a picture that needs to be mirrored in your brand.

• Finally, carry out market research on initial ideas to see if your customers will accept your brand. Their comments should greatly affect its evolution.

I hope you find these tips helpful!
If anyone has anymore quick tips they'd like to add please feel free to add them in your reply.


Dan

 

[Happy Dayz 4U]

We think it is very important to keep the same colour scheme across the board!

Sounds obvious, but you wouldn't believe the amount of websites that miss this point!

Regards.

Happy Dayz 4U

 

[Direct Print Int]

Hi Dan,

I like your post.

One small point, Printing your logo in two colours can Workout more expensive than four colour printing.

http://www.dpilimited.com

 

[Jigsaw CCS]

Hi Dan,
One small point, Printing your logo in two colours can Workout more expensive than four colour printing.

Thank you, for your reply kind Sir!

I made a point of saying 'may reduce printing costs' because I realise it's not always the case.

I am curious as to which instances, such as using Pantones, it would turn out more expensive.

Thank you for your input in advance!

Dan

 

[Direct Print Int]

Hi Dan,

Can I just say that I think that your post is one of the most well presented and informative posts I have seen in this forum.

Sorry for being a printing know it all !!

I will explain about the Pantone versus four colour pricing later on, without getting to technical for the others in the forum.

 

[Jigsaw CCS]

If anyone would like a FREE tips booklet based on these tips, visit the website and send us a message!

Dan

 

[Direct Print Int]

Hi Dan,

The cost of four colour printing can be cheaper for several reasons.

The first reason is press time.
A small Four colour printing press usually has five 'units' each unit can print a seperate coloured ink. The first four units are usually kept in the four inks that go into making up the four colour printing spectrum - CYMK, (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black). With a four colour job all the Pressman has to do is mount the plates, that takes two and a half minutes and then 'make ready' then print the job. This takes a good Pressman from plates on to printed job about 10 - 15 minutes. With Jobs that involve two or more Pantone colours, the press needs to be 'washed up' twice (inks removed from 'units' and inking rollers cleaned) once at the start of the job and again at the end. The specified Pantone inks need to be mixed and then precisely matched to either a previous colour sample or the Pantone reference guide. Printing in Pantone colours takes at least twice as long as the same job produced in Four colour process.

The next reason is the cost of plates.
On an SRA3 Sheet of board or paper you are able to fit up to 25 different business cards. With four colour process, each business card can be for a completely different business and printers can 'gang up' up to 25 different jobs, vastly reducing the cost of plates per job. (this is a good way of saving printing costs if you could get together with other businesses you know to share plate space). With two colour Pantone work it's unlikely that two jobs have the same 'spot', 'special' or Pantone colours, so ganging up jobs is not an option.

So in the time that it takes to print one set of stationery in Pantone colours, a skilled pressman could potentially print 100 completely different four colour jobs!

In terms of printing quality, 'spot' or Pantone colours are best, followed closely by Lithographic four colour process. But if your on a budget and not to bothered about quality go for digital printing.

 

[Jigsaw CCS]

Thanks for pointers, I can see you know your stuff!

Naturally budgets will be discussed with the printers whilst going through printing logistics, but I think our tips might need making more clear for business familiarised with the printing process.

 

[Direct Print Int]

There are some things printers keep quiet about but I am happy to swap knowledge with you.

http://www.dpilimited.com