Branding and design are huge investments for companies. Some branding and design agencies charge between $100 and $300 per hour for services. For more complex branding projects, a smaller company might expect to pay between $3000 and $5000 for primary branding, including:
- Ideation for the company’s name, tagline, story, and messaging.
- Development of logos and visuals that tell the story of the brand.
- Creation of other assets that the brand can use on its website, social media platforms, and print media.
Let’s look at tips for how a small business can find the right creative agency for its branding and design needs.
Take a look at the branding agency’s portfolio
Many marketing specialists tell young companies that they should choose a branding agency based on the depth and diversity of the agency’s portfolio. A diverse portfolio indicates that the agency is well-positioned to try many different tones, styles, and messages for a new brand.
Some companies might benefit from a branding agency specializing in one or a handful of industries. Branding agencies with a niché focus likely have a lot of marketing data about customers who purchase products or services within that industry. Branding agencies with a B2B focus are more likely to specialize within one or a handful of industries.
Another consideration for selecting a branding agency is the type of companies within the agency’s portfolio. For example, if you choose a branding agency like Rooted Creative Agency, you are getting an agency that has worked with a brand like Pepsi, Adidas, Red Bull, and Jurgens.
Look at the branding agency’s process
A branding campaign’s success will closely correlate with evidence-based strategies to help create a powerfully crafted message for a brand. Each agency has a different process. The process at Rooted Creative Agency will strongly match the brand’s needs. From the first day, a client gets paired with their director, who will work closely with the client and coordinate with everyone on the creative team. Depending on the client’s needs, the branding process is divided into different stages.
The research phase is the most crucial part of starting a branding campaign. This is where the agency gathers information and facts about your business, industry, and competitors. A good agency can identify success with past branding campaigns and further hone your target audience. During the research phase, a branding agency will listen to some of your challenges and help you identify a game plan that meets your vision and grows your current customer base even further.
Your branding campaign’s strategy consists of focusing the information from the research phase in a relevant way to your business. A branding campaign’s strategy answers the “how” questions in a thoughtful, focused manner. A successful branding campaign strategy will focus your team’s energy and ensure that everyone understands their role in fulfilling the expectation of your customers.
The design process of a branding campaign gives your company the creative materials it needs to bring the campaign’s efforts to bear. The design process gives your branding campaign its visual appearance, including logos, signage, packaging, video, and virtually any creative or auditory element you can think of that will serve your brand throughout its campaign.
Finally, the last step in a successful branding campaign is the implementation of the campaign. The implementation phase of a branding campaign reveals the product or service to the world for the first time. At Rooted Creative Agency, we specialize in implementing successful brand campaigns. Our experience in experiential marketing can make for an exciting brand activation event. Our history with live events and other meaningful marketing mediums will give your brand the edge it needs when it comes to your brand’s revealing moment.
What other services can a branding agency provide?
When you work with a world-class branding agency, you will need a wealth of experience on your side to deliver premium content. A creative agency can be an excellent choice for a branding agency. You will need a wealth of video content for your website, social media, and other platforms where customers might encounter your business. You will also require different types of photography, ranging from product photos to lifestyle shots of your product or service in action. Additionally, you will need some experiential marketing to help bring your branding campaign to life. Rooted Creative Agency has all these assets available in-house to help your brand grow, even after launching your product or service.
Why does your company need a branding agency?
Customers depend upon branding to choose products and services that they can trust. On average, a customer requires 5-7 impressions, or exposures, to remember a particular brand. Those impressions can come in a wide variety of different media. For example, a customer might see a social ad for a brand, encounter that brand’s television or radio advertising, or see a billboard sign. However, a customer develops a first impression or overall experience of a brand within their very first interaction.
One of your potential customers will develop an opinion of your brand within ten seconds. New companies will often spend a significant budget on their branding campaigns for this very reason. When interacting with a new brand, customers will spend a considerable amount of time researching that brand. 97% of customers will develop an opinion of a brand based upon reading that brand’s reviews and interacting with a website. Something as small as catchy packaging or a well-designed logo will help a new customer connect better with a brand.
Logo design is critical as part of a branding campaign. Companies like Nike and Twitter respectfully spent between $15 and $35 on their logos. Most small businesses spend about $500 to $1,000 on their logo. Some companies have spent as much as $200 million designing their logo. The point of a well-designed logo isn’t the money spent but how well the logo stands out from the competition.
Customer service is also an essential consideration in a branding campaign. Your company’s customer service approach will be based on your brand’s value proposition and messaging. Since 97% of customers read reviews before they develop an affinity for a brand, it is crucial to get the customer service component right. The majority of a company’s business comes from repeat customers. Additionally, 1/3 of customers will consider switching brands just because they had a bad experience with a brand.
Content is another way that brands reach customers. About 3/4 of people become loyal to a brand through its content. Video content is one of the most widely consumed media types online. More than 85% of Internet consumer traffic is through video content consumption. Developing strong content and the correct type of content for your brand will help you attract new customers as your brand grows.
How do you deliver a premium experience for your customers?
Nearly 90% of people are willing to pay more for a premium customer service experience. That’s right; people are willing to pay more for a product or service because of their experience. Therefore, your customer service will be stellar if your company has spent considerable time on its branding. Here are the five components of what makes an outstanding customer service experience:
- How good was the communication? If a customer has friendly, thoughtful, and polite interactions with a company, the customer service experience tends to be better.
- How competent was the customer service? When customers have all their questions and concerns addressed, they are more likely to be satisfied.
- How personalized was the customer service? If a brand treats a customer like a human being, not a number, customers are more likely to return in the future.
- Did the customer service experience end with a favorable resolution? Customers want a unique, tailored solution to solve their concerns.
- How accessible is the customer service? Customers don’t like to wait longer than 24 hours for a resolution to their problem. Your brand has succeeded if you meet your customer’s needs at the first touch.
There are several ways that your customer service team, informed by good branding, can help deliver the best experience possible. First, everyone in your company should know the product to the core, maintain a great attitude, and have a mindset for problem-solving. Responding quickly, personalizing your service, and focusing on the customer will also help raise your customer service scores. Lastly, giving customers all the resources they need to help them solve the problem will result in world-class customer service.
Why do some brands fail?
According to Harvard Business School, over 30,000 new products or brands are launched yearly. But, ultimately, 95% of these fail. Brands fail for a wide variety of different reasons. Sometimes, the branding agency didn’t produce an authentic branding campaign. Many brands fail because they do not live up to their brand promise. Your brand is more likely to succeed if you deliver outstanding customer service. Some brands fail because they lose touch with customers’ wants or needs.
One reason brands fail is that they fail to differentiate themselves from the competition. A branding agency can help your company find radical points of departure from your competition and exploit them. Brands also fail because they become stagnant over time. When a brand becomes stagnant, it fails to produce new products or services for the ever-changing needs of its customers.
What are the elements of a successful branding campaign?
There are several ways to make a successful branding campaign, and Rooted Creative Agency brings all of these other elements to the table. First and foremost, audience research is crucial and critical to a campaign. A successful branding campaign will capitalize on past marketing efforts and develop a unique customer persona for each new product and service.
Many companies are not aware of the sales funnel for their product or service. Making new customers aware of a product or service leads to consideration and, ultimately, the decision to purchase. Unfortunately, some branding campaigns do not do enough to move customers to the consideration phase of the purchase funnel. For example, a social media campaign must create more value for a potential customer. If a customer doesn’t purchase on the first interaction with a website, a retargeting ad with a discount will lead to an eventual purchase.
Another mistake companies make is that they don’t take advantage of an omnichannel marketing approach. Good marketers, part of any branding campaign, know that a campaign hinges on reaching a potential customer through many customers. For example, suppose a customer attends one of your live events, such as a brand activation. In that case, an omnichannel approach might include reaching out to these people on social media or through an email campaign to let them continue to gain more exposure to your brand.
Data and analytics are part of any successful branding campaign. You will want to gauge the performance of your campaign, both online and offline, to determine the efficacy of your marketing dollars. Analytics on a website will help you understand who your customers are and how they convert. Specific measurements, such as a Net Promoter Score, can help you gauge how loyal customers are to your brand. Measuring the success of your branding endeavors will help you duplicate that type of success in the future.
Work with Rooted Creative Agency for all your branding needs
Rooted Creative Agency is the best option if your company needs branding. Our portfolio includes big names like Red Bull, Adidas, and Jurgens. However, we are the correct type of agency for many different types of small businesses. We also offer a full suite of creative services, including design, video production, photography, and even drones, to help your brand get the coverage it needs. Lastly, our agency also specializes in experiential marketing. Not only can we strategize and research your brand’s needs, but we can also implement these into a full, live brand activation to take you to the next level.
