Brand recognition is no fluke. It’s a combination of things which can be replicated to form semblances in people’s minds. One can stroll down any supermarket aisle and instantaneously recognize certain products over others. It’s not that they’re better; it’s that the branding has resonated so well that the instantaneous recognition occurs. In stark contrast, other products (which may even be of better quality) blend into the background, receiving no love.
It’s all from a handful of visual and strategic elements which others get right from the get-go while some foster for years without success. Understanding which elements actually matter and which ones are secondary and therefore irrelevant can save companies a lot of time and money attempting to force branding when ultimately, it’s not cohesive.
Color Creates Immediate Recognition
Color may be the most effective branding element available to businesses. Moreover, it’s one of the few elements people can immediately recall. When someone thinks of a brand, they can often think of its color before they can think of what that brand does. That’s not by chance; the brain registers color faster than words or shapes so when something is instantly accessed, it’s because a consumer is seeing it first hand.
Color only works to brand effectively when it remains consistent across platforms. If one shade appears on the packaging but a different one dominates the website, then a company is starting from scratch every time someone sees them online or in print. Therefore, a shade must be consistent across every single piece, from the marketing materials sent to something as banal as an email signature.
Yet the color itself likely does not matter as much as one would think. There’s no ideal color that sells or builds recognition; there is only the market fit or lack thereof. If Company A’s competitors are all using blue, then Company A should use green, and vice versa. Sometimes neutral colors work best; black, gold or dark jewel tones resonate with premium goods while bright shades of primary colors work well for budget offerings; unless there’s an overwhelming need to buck category coloring conventions (which could work!), there is no need to go against the grain unless there is a strong reason to support it.
Furthermore, certain industries have conventional coloring expectations that would be unwise to challenge. Premium products use black/gold/deep jewels because they present luxury while budget options utilize bright primary colors because they present value. It’s not worth challenging norms unless one has good reasoning and consistent follow through.
Typography Matters More Than You Think
Fonts can communicate personality levels before a single word is read. Serif fonts (the types with little feet on the letters) feel traditional and long standing. Sans serif fonts come across as modern and chic. Script fonts can feel elegant (cursive) or casual depending on how they’re used. These aren’t hard and fast rules; they’re patterns people pick up unconsciously over time.
However, the biggest faux pas made by companies is using too many fonts. Professional companies tend to stick to two, maximum, one for a title and one for body copy. When packaging uses one font, the website uses another, and marketing materials use something else entirely, there’s no recognition for consumers. Each touch point feels new and disconnected from the next.
Readability trumps creativity; if a font is cute but hard to read at small sizes from far away, an audience member will not work hard enough to make out a product’s name/description. They’ll simply move on.
Wine producers have figured this out better than most other industries; the labels for wine bottles often use traditional serifs for age-old wine-makers or modern sans-serifs for contemporary brands, yet within the families of product, the typography stays remarkably similar. Thus branding can be recognized even when the label changes year over year between vintages/styles of grape because everything else on the label looks different.
Consistent Packaging Builds Trust
Whether someone knows what’s different about packaging change or not, it registers on the subconscious; if a label adjustment is slightly askew, if a different hue showcases the brand color, if there’s slight adjustment in font size, people know it’s not consistent, thus it feels less trustworthy, even if what’s inside maintains its quality.
Maintaining consistency without allowing product variance is key, there may be 10 different products under one company banner, but they must all feel like they are related somehow. This means less of a design system but rather a visual system/a language to ensure cohesion re: layout, color use, typography and spacing across the board.
In fact, shape and structure provide just as much recognition value as color does: distinct bottle shapes, box dimensions, container intricacies become part of a brand identity; once they’re established it’s difficult to change them for fear people recognize products based on their silhouettes before they ever see the labels inside.
It works because it repeats; across various contexts/touch points seeing things time and time again registers in memory/reduces friction per branding efforts. Once or twice seeing something doesn’t do anything; ten times starts to register; 100 times, immediate recognition.
The Logo Fallacy
Logos get too much attention in the branding world as an element; sometimes they’re an afterthought yet more times than not they’re actually less important than other elements. And logos matter when branding materials are limited (business cards with no other notes for consumers or a social media icon); otherwise logos are just one piece in a bigger pie.
Logos that are more simplistic outperform complex brands of similar nature, at least when it comes to size variance and quick recognition. Logos that need close exposure or explanation fail as logos, their job is to render instant recognition, not artistic contemplation.
Placement consistency matters just as much as clever logos; if every logo is in a different place at different sizes from piece to piece, people will be forced to start again from scratch every time instead of developing familiarity with where an image will be since it’s always in one place at one size relatively speaking.
Material Choices Signal Value
The material used signals value before anything ever gets picked up or engaged with; cheap brands have thinner and cheaper-feeling exterior packaging/holding pieces while premium products are heavier and more substantial, this isn’t even relative to what’s inside, the perception alone signals cost associations.
Texture matters more than one would expect; matte finishes are more appealing than glossy in most categories unless effective use is made (embossing/debossing); extraneous materials become sticky because they’re unusual within most categories/wouldn’t normally apply across markets.
The mistake is applying materials that do not fit price point/positioning, cheap materials on premium offerings send mixed messages; expensive materials on something budget-friendly create confusion, materials must apply to both value proposition and personal story, not confuse customers what the story actually is.
Little Details Add Up
Most differentiating factors between professional and amateur campaigns come down to little elements that most customers won’t consciously register, but subconsciously feel. Spacing consistency, alignment, appropriate margins and spacing details all add up to sense of detail orientation.
They don’t draw people in but if they’re absent, people feel as though something’s off, bricks are missing or a roundabout could’ve been handled with more finesse, they don’t know how to articulate it; they just feel it. Thus getting these factors correct reduces friction so people can enjoy the bigger elements of branding.
Photography/image style also matters more than one would assume; utilizing similar photographic treatment and angles/cropping/composition across images fosters connection instead of stock images versus custom images or otherwise using different photography approaches for different items within one family.
It’s those who find patterns that create cohesion across every item at every interaction, and maintain those patterns over time, who succeed in transcending creativity, their simple approach fosters visual systems without excess pomp & circumstance. Recognition comes from repeat patterns, not novel ideas.
