Brand
Creating Memorable Brands Via Visual Design & Delightful Experiences
February 6, 2021
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5-Min Read
Memorable brands tend to do two things very well:
They attract attention with powerful visual design and they delight with meaningful brand experiences.
Have you ever noticed how some brands are so recognisable that even before you see the logo or the name of the company, you already know the identity of the brand? Perhaps, for your birthday, you receive a gift in a distinct blue package. Before you open it up, you already know it’s something from Tiffany & Co because of the unique blue package. If you love jewellery, the sight of the box alone causes your excitement to skyrocket.
Why has a particular shade of the colour blue become synonymous with an American luxury jewellery brand? Because of their strategic visual design. Brands like Tiffany & Co, Target, Apple, and more have so tapped into the power of their branding and visual design that certain colours and shapes immediately bring their brands to mind. These brands could do this because they understood early on that human are visual beings.
All primates, including humans, are visual creatures. We rely on visual cues to find food, mates, and shelter. As human beings have evolved, our dependence on visual cues has increased. This has resulted in an increased demand on our brains for greater and more efficient processing of visual information. Over time, our brains have learned to absorb, manipulate, and react to visual information in increasingly effective ways. Some people are so adept at doing this that visual learning has become the way they learn best.
That’s why it’s not surprising when studies show that people keep information much longer when it is paired with an image. In fact, people can many times retain up to 65% of information coupled with an image, three days later. On average, people keep only about 10% of the information when they just hear it. Another study by BuzzSumo, where over one million articles were analysed, found that articles that had an image every 75-100 words received twice as many social media shares as those with fewer images. Evolution has wired our brains to absorb visual information easily and more efficiently. So, naturally, we gravitate to it more. Pinterest, a social media platform that is heavy on visual imagery, is an excellent example of this, as it has over 169 million people that advertisers can access by tapping into their preferred method of engagement.
Brands have started to capitalise on the preference of their audience for visual imagery. In the last four years, B2B marketers have increased their use of infographics to 67%. This has proved to be a wise decision as it has been revealed that people who are given directions in text and illustrations do 323% better than people given directions without illustrations.
Seeing as the impact of great visual design cannot be overstated, how can brands go about creating a strong visual identity for themselves?
Before we delve into the impact of visual design, we must first understand what it means. Visual design is not just about a pretty website, an edgy brand logo, or clever typography. It’s all of that and so much more.
Visual design communicates a brand’s strategy through the use of orienting illustrations and photography, meaningful typography, evocative iconography, persuasive colour, comforting spacing and layout execution, and so much more.
Simply put, it uses your visual identity to (attempt to) create a strong emotional connection between your brand and your customers. Through the effective use of visual design, you are better able to attract your target audience, communicate the purpose of your brand, and illustrate the value of your business.
When a user finds his/her way to your website for the first time, it takes about 50 milliseconds for them to form an impression of your brand and this impression is heavily influenced by your website design. Good design has the power to grab attention and influence the next action your users take. If the first impression they have of your brand is not a good one, chances are, you’d be unsuccessful in holding the interest of your users and driving them to take the desired action.
Visual design can also sometimes have a big impact on whether users can trust your brand and encourage others to patronise your business since small and subtle details affects how users think and feel about your brand,. People create thoughts about your brand based on what they see. If what they see causes them to doubt your integrity, they will take their business elsewhere.
For example, something as little as the use of white space on a website can cause users to make assumptions as to the level of a brand’s professionalism or the level of customer service they can expect to receive. They get a sense of a brand’s personality from how a brand conveys information to the type of photography/stock imagery and typography being used. For example, won’t many people would trust a law firm that uses Comic Sans font style on its marketing material? Possibly, but probably not. Litigation is not a trivial matter.
With good visual design, you make it easy for your customers to keep your brand top of mind. Over time and when design elements are used consistently, your audience can associate certain colours, behaviours, and even an atmosphere with your brand. That’s the power in visual design that brands like Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung have all been able to harness.
When creating a strong visual identity for your brand, do the following:
Visual design, which creates your visual identity, must feed back into the overall brand strategy. The brand strategy helps you understand and better convey the purpose of the visual identity. If the visual design and brand strategy are not in sync, your messaging will be muddled and inconsistent.
Who are your customers? What are their wants? Needs? Expectations? Find out what their pain points are. This will help you create a visual identity that offers solutions to what matters. It will also enable to you create a consistent identity across different platforms.
Knowing who your audience are is also a crucial step in incorporating emotion into your visual design to connect with your audience. Which segues nicely into the 3rd imperative.
According to Motista, emotionally connected customers have a 306% higher lifetime value (LTV), stay with a brand for an average of 5.1 years vs. 3.4 years, and will recommend brands at a much higher rate (71% vs. 45%). So use, emotion to connect with your customers as this will help you build a relationship with your audience that will have them coming back and referring others to your brand.
Brand experience makes a promise to customers that visual design and every other aspect of the business must work hard to deliver. This is the second crucial aspect of creating a memorable brand. Brand experience covers everything concerning your users' interactions with your brand. It is the sum of all the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and reactions that individuals have in response to your brand. I would argue that visual design is more than just a catchy design, but also a subset of your overall brand experience because it supports the promise that your brand makes to users. Visual design and brand experience work hand in hand to create a memorable brand.
If the brand promises an inclusive experience, then the visual design must show inclusion. But if the brand is about exclusivity and prestige, the visual design must fall in line. If the visual design and brand experience do not align, users are likely to feel disconnected and distrustful and the bottom line of the business feels the brunt of it.
In a largely digital world, there are many ways brands can go about creating meaningful experiences that delight users and can turn prospects into customers and customers into loyal fans and advocates. Below I have outlined some that I find particularly useful:
“Make your brand memorable!” Is what any brand expert would tell you, the how cannot always be so neatly captured in a cute 4 word catch phrase. But by paying some attention to your brand visual design and your brand experience you’re sure to be one step ahead in the race to building a brand that sets you apart from others.