A branding strategy is the only thing that sets a business apart from its competitors.

Irrespective of the number of hours spent perfecting the quality of the products in your business, you must invest in a good branding strategy that will ensure that your products receive the right recognition and revenue from the target market.

In the era of digital distractions, your branding strategy is no longer confined to a good logo. There are plenty of Indian branding trends that keep changing every year. Following the right branding trends relevant to your Indian business is the only way to stay relevant in the constantly changing market.

Even though no branding trend can guarantee success, staying updated with the changing trends every year is always advised to capture your target customer’s attention.

Here is a compiled list of the top 8 brilliant branding trends of 2023 that can boost your branding strategy while making your brand relevant and thriving in the changing market.

What is branding, and why is it essential for businesses in 2023?

Your branding communicates the vision, mission, and personality of your brand. Your branding consists of various processes, including researching, developing, creating and iterating a particular perception about your brand.

There is so much that comes under successful brandings, such as brand messaging and tone of voice, brand ideas and more, that distinguishes your brand from the rest. It indicates your brand’s visual identity and design to the target consumers.

Since your branding strategy determines your brand’s personality, it affects how your consumers perceive your brand. You must never undermine the value of a good branding strategy.

Your branding makes the unique selling point of your brand shine while bringing top attraction to your product range. When done right, branding can eventually promote your business to a great extent, elevate your product recognition in the Indian market, and successfully retain more customers for your brand.

8 Brilliant Branding Trends for 2023

Whether creating a new brand or revamping your existing branding, these new handpicked brand design trends will help you stand out in your target market while making your true brand personality shine!

• Simplify

2023 is all about minimalist and simplified branding. Since branding is a combination of multiple aspects of your brand, less is always more in portraying the quality and personality of your brand.

A simplistic aesthetic is a great way to portray and convey your brand personality. Using essential elements such as shapes, pain text, limited colour palettes, and white space is the ideal way to create a basic aesthetic with organic elements that best fit your brand personality.

This way, you can focus on all your branding elements equally without overwhelming your consumers with too much information about your brand.

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: https://in.pinterest.com/

Source:https://in.pinterest.com/

Source: https://in.pinterest.com/

Source:https://in.pinterest.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

• Adaptive Brand Design

Gone are the days when your branding was only dedicated to advertisement flyers and some television ads.

With advancing digitisation, brands must deploy various strategies that require your branding elements to be up and front for your consumers! This needs your logo and other branding elements in multiple sizes, complexity and colour depending on the usage.

For example, if your website has a master logo, you can create a shorter one for your brand stationeries such as business cards, ad flyers, letterheads, envelopes and more. However, ensure that it is equally consistent and compatible with your original logo.

Alternatively, most Indian brands create one-time branding elements for every stationary or marketing strategy for their brand.

This way, you can make your brand recognisable in every medium regardless of the layout used. It also allows your customers to recognise your brand differently, resulting in higher brand recall.

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://justcreative.com

Source:https://justcreative.com/

Source: https://justcreative.com/

Source:https://justcreative.com/

Source: https://justcreative.com/

Source:https://justcreative.com/

• Unusual Design Brand

With the growing number of startups in India, it can get slightly daunting to stand out in a saturated market. This is where you need your creative flow to take the lead.

There are various creative ways to spice up your branding design, such as overlapping elements, asymmetry, chaotic design and more that are way above the traditional rulebook for a sense of fun and individuality.

Hence, it’s the year to unleash your creative mind and leverage fun typography, illustrations, colliding elements, bright clashing colours and distorted shapes that can help your brands make a statement! Such fun and eye-catching brand design can also be a great way to capture consumers’ attention from the retail shelves.

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://justcreative.com

Source:https://justcreative.com/

• Personal brand monograms

Monograms are an increasingly popular branding element that contributes to higher brand recognition and recalls among consumers. Monograms are simply short and snappy logos that bring consumers a premium feel, similar to purchasing from a luxury brand.

Unite two or more initials within a single symbol with a mix of specific fonts and colours, and you can elevate the look and feel of your monograms to the next level! This makes a strong and versatile symbol that can be used in various business strategies flexing the elegance of your brand.

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

• Bold Typo Branding

Communicating your brand’s values and culture is essential for your business’s successful branding. This is where choosing bold fonts or typefaces can be a great choice. By wrapping your words with powerful fonts, you can transform the entire tone of your brand and strengthen it.

It also includes complex design styles such as 3D fonts, animated letters, kinetic typography, shapeshifting sentences and more. Such bold lettering, playful shapes, colours and design elements can have a positive and long-lasting impact on consumers.

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

• Neon Vs Pastel Branding

Most brands need clarification about choosing the overall colour of their branding. However, all of it depends on the vibe and personality of your brand.

There are so many Indian brands that are successfully sporting both neon and pastel branding depending on the brand personality and products. Unconventional text alignment, funky colours and dancing figures are great for fun and quirky brands.

On the other hand, pastel gradients are excellent for bringing a dreamy and calm aesthetic feel to your brand. Dreamy and flowy gradient shifts in the pastel spectrum combined with slight grain texture over the top are just the right way to soothe your consumers with your brand aesthetic.

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

Source: https://99designs.com/

Source:https://99designs.com/

• Interactive Branding

Interactive branding is another common tactic that uses engaging visuals or videos to creatively present your products to consumers. Interactive branding can boost conversion rates and increase audience engagement by bringing a unique experience to your brand.

There are various strategies for interactive branding, such as interactive videos to explain or entertain viewers or hosting surveys and polls to know the interests and preferences of your brand from the consumers. You can also create personalised content as a part of your branding strategy to target individual needs or choose interactive storytelling to keep readers engaged with your brand for a long time!

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

Source: pinterest.com

Source:pinterest.com

• Honest Branding

The key to having a successful Indian brand is to be honest. Else, all your branding ideas and efforts would go in vain if you are being disloyal to your consumers.

Consumers always refer to previous reviews and testimonials before purchasing a product. Hence, when you put your brand out there, show the most authentic picture of it. Refrain from hiding any restrictions or weaknesses of your brand from your customers. Being 100% authentic will make your brand unique and build consumer trust and loyalty. Else, once you break their trust, you may never be able to regain them any time soon.

Conclusion

Countless business branding ideas keep changing every year. The key to successful branding is to create a well-defined plan using these top branding trends of 2023 and execute them strategically in your business. Remember. The most successful branding will leave a long-lasting mark in your consumer’s hearts.

Ensure you clearly and practically understand your branding endeavours while deploying these trending branding ideas in your business in 2023. In no time, you can witness your consumers’ increasing love and revenue for your brand!

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.

Sure, you have acquired the lead for your business, but what if the customer didn’t sign up in the first instance? How do you plan on making the same customer return to your brand?

If there was one thing consistent across branding over the past few decades, it has to be your brand manual.

The right branding gives your business identity and separates you from the competitive environment, resulting in more confirmed sales for your business.

Customers prefer consistency with creativeness in brands. Your brand manual will keep your brand consistent and recognisable to your target audiences.

Similarly, when you approach a third-party agency to run an ad campaign for your brand, your brand manual will act as the guidance to present your brand accurately in the campaign.

As we said, your brand manual typically represents the most authentic essence of your brand; that’s why you can’t go wrong while creating your first brand manual!

You need to consider particular elements when crafting your first brand manual. Here is a comprehensive Brand Design Guidelines that will walk you through the complete process of creating your brand manual and successfully executing it for your brand. Let’s get started.

What is a brand manual or brand style guide?

A brand manual or style guide is a document that contains your brand information such as the brand’s purpose, vision, mission, positioning, proposition, values, background, story, culture, architecture, customer personas and more.

Your brand manual defines how your brand can be used and deployed on various relevant communication channels or touch points.

With a consistent brand theme across all the parts in the brand manual, you can drive more brand recognition and preference among your customers using the brand manual.

It is precisely how you want your brand to be presented to the world through your logo, font, colour palette, and more.

Fundamental Elements of a brand manual guide

A brand manual or style guide consists of different components that create the right kind of brand recognition within your target audiences. We will explore each of the sections below for your reference.

• Table of contents and the cover page

For every brand manual or style guide, you need to set up a consistent and straightforward context, tone of voice and narrative, which will be covered in your cover page, and table of contents.

Start with a distinct and beautiful layout of your primary logo design on the inner page and build a contrast of colours using another colour that would make your logo pop on that background.

Next, create a complete table of contents with page numbers about the elements you will include in your brand manual or style guide. Break down everything into minor sections possible and number accordingly for a simplified understanding of the reader.

Source:https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/

Source:https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/

Source:https://zippypixels.com/

Source:https://in.pinterest.com

• Background and Introduction

Every brand has a unique story which needs to be represented by a brand manual. Talk about a fresh, exciting brand story that connects well with your stakeholders and other team members.

77% of consumers globally prefer shopping from brands that share the same values as they do. Hence, sharing your brand background and introduction in your brand manual is absolutely necessary!

Introduce with a simple summary and discuss the heart and soul of your company. The five points you need to include in your brand story are:

Source:https://www.spellbrand.com/

Source:https://www.digital.ink/

Source:https://az.design/

Source:http://in.pinterest.com/

● Vision
● Mission
● Audience
● Personality
● Values

Ensure that you add the most valuable elements in your brand introduction, which can be helpful as a reference point for others.

• Primary Specifications for Logo Design

The following essential aspect of your brand manual is your logo design. Ensure that your logo has the right icons, typography and other elements suitable for your brand. Try using the logo in different backgrounds of the brand manual to analyse it well.

Avoid stretching, condensing, re-aligning, or altering your logo, as this may send the wrong brand message. Stay consistent with your logo’s optimum size, space, colours and other elements.

Source:https://fiverr-res.cloudinary.com/

Source:https://venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com/

Source:pinterest.in

Source:https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/

• Color Wheel & Tints

Consistency with a specific colour palette in the brand manual is one of the most crucial aspects of any successful brand or startup. If you analyse other brands out there, you will notice all of them follow a specific colour palette across every channel, especially their brand manual.

A signature brand colour can increase your brand recognition efforts to more than 80%.

Thus, picking the right colour palette and being consistent with it across every branding strategy is the key to successful brand recall.

Source:https://meandyou.co.uk/

Source:https://d2ksis2z2ke2jq.cloudfront.net/

Source:https://zippypixels.com/

Source:https://zippypixels.com/

• Type and typography Hierarchy

The value of typography and its hierarchy is the next important element in your brand manual that effectively communicates your message to the audience.

Choose the best lettering style for the design process and simple and easy-to-decipher fonts.

Being consistent with your brand fonts and other elements has proven to increase brand revenue by at least 33%.

Have a specific type hierarchy, as it will help you show how the font and text look at different sizes and headings of various weights.

Source:https://elements-preview-images-0.imgix.net/

Source:http://in.pinterest.com/

Source:https://zippypixels.com/

Source:https://laurensimonsen.com/

• Corporate Iconography

Iconography is all about the identification, description and interpretation of the content of the images and the subjects in an artistic style.

To make your brand manual presentable and practical, you must create icons always consistent with the primary brand identity and add value to your manual’s overall visual system that helps convey the brand information well to the target audiences.

Ensure that the coins you create look good across every branding strategy. Resist the temptation of simply buying off the clip art icons to represent your brand. Instead, choose to customise it based on your brand identity.

Source:https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/

Source:https://www.adamreed.net/

Source:https://flagandmountains.com/

Source:https://glantz.net/

• Grid Systems

A grid is a structure(usually two-dimensional) built with a series of intersecting straight or curved guide lines to structure the content and the images in your brand manual.

Your branding grid system is an essential element in laying out a consistent architecture for your brand manual. Even being invisible, the grid systems of your manual play a significant role in making your brand manual look aesthetically pleasing and enhancing the brand language.

Source:https://www.spellbrand.com/

Source:https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/

• Images styling

The images and illustrations used for your brand manual are the next paramount elements that steer the audience in the right direction.

Ensure that the images aren’t too overwhelming by including multiple colours and shapes. Keep it simple and accurate to your brand voice and colour palette. Find the right images representing the particular segment or mood in your brand manual, as this can help interact with the audience well through the brand manual.

Source:https://www.spellbrand.com/

Source:https://www.digital.ink/

Source:https://az.design/

Source:http://in.pinterest.com/

• Brand voice

Since we are focusing on the brand identity here, you need to ensure that your brand voice is unique, loud, clear and consistent again.

Your brand voice strongly affects how your target audiences feel about you.

Make your brand personality do all the talking. Pick words that align with your brand well and are easy to recall. Include the right adjectives that genuinely describe your brand to its core, and try to connect well with your audience for maximum efficacy.

Source:https://www.columnfivemedia.com/

Source:https://media.coschedule.com/

Source:https://in.pinterest.com/

Source:https://www.campaignmonitor.com/

Conclusion

Your brand is so much more than just the products and services you sell. A strong and successful brand tells the world why they should choose your business over the other options in the market. This is precisely where a brand manual or style guide can work at your rescue.

Some brand manuals can go as thick as a novel, while some may stick to only one-page references. All of it depends on how well you can represent your brand in the manual in the most authentic and lucid way.

Ensure that you include all the brand elements discussed above and share all the references and other components that will direct the reader to the next step. With the right steps and strategies, you can quickly build an impactful and well-crafted brand manual that streamlines your future brand communications and marketing strategies.

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.

No matter in which segment you are, you can’t exist in a vacuum as a company. You might have wide competitors that offer a similar type of your products or services. And as an entrepreneur, I’m sure you have wondered how you could differentiate your brand from the competitors.

In the current era of intensified competition in almost every industry, the necessity of branding has increased like never. The market has become saturated, and brands are looking for fresh and inventive methods to stand out from the sea, thus becoming unique from the competitors.

In such a middle, a professional branding agency can help you with the right messaging and place you in the correct position. Thus, developing a competitive advantage from competitors also helps achieve rapid, constant and scalable growth.

What is Brand Differentiation?

Before getting into brand differentiation, we can understand the definition of brand. A brand is simply a business or selling concept that helps users to identify your product or services from other existing entities in the market.

Brand differentiation is the central aspect of a brand marketing strategy. In simple terms, it is the process of showcasing to the world how your business is special or unique from other similar brands. It empowers companies to disclose their fruitful qualities that help generate a unique selling proposition.

For example, just look into the reality; when you go to a supermarket or search on Amazon for face wash products, you can see thousands of brands in the same criteria. Thus, differentiating your unique qualities and implementing strategies can help you gain a competitive advantage over your rivals.

Also Read: Design Agency Process for Successful Creative Workflow

How Branding Agency Stand out Your Brand

Now let’s discuss how a branding agency helps stand out your brand in the market:

1. Strong Brand Naming:

Your business name is the foundation of your brand identity. Selecting the right name for your business can be one of the most critical elements of developing a solid brand. To avoid such naming mistakes, you can approach a professional brand naming agency that guides you to choose the perfect business name.

You’ll get random, collective, clichéd names from online business name generators, but as a naming agency, DesignerPeople have an expert team who will help in generating unique & innovative names that meet your company’s purpose.

When choosing a brand name, your name should indicate who you are, your purpose and the brand message. Always make the name short, easy to pronounce and memorable. Also, while considering the brand name and if your goal is to build a global brand, make sure that the name isn’t related with any negative undertone across all regions.

2. Meaningful Brand Story:

A brand story is a form of cohesive narration that includes facts, feelings, and emotions built by your business. The central focus of the story is on telling than showing. Your brand should be something that has an emotional and positive reaction.

We all have sweet memories of our parents or grandparents telling stories about our childhood, and when we look back now, there’s a cherished remembrance of those memories.

The only thing we frequently recall by both current and next-generation is stories. Similarly, stories have the potential to create lasting impressions on business. As humans, emotions are the heart of any business; connecting a customer’s mindset through your story results in long-term commitment towards the brand.

3. Create Visual Identity:

Creating a visual identity is one of the significant elements of branding. An excellent visual identity design improvises the recognised quality, value, and impression of a brand and heavily impacts customers’ buying decisions. It reinforces brand recognition and remembrance in the customer’s mindset.

Analysing the importance of branding, almost 80% of businesses started their marketing strategies and embraced a brand identity strategy that diverged on a design focus approach like never before. Seeing the tremendous result, companies make decisions to make massive investments in designing their visual identity hugely.

Strong brand identity design engages clients by displaying who you are and why your products or services are better than competitors.

4. Unique Product Design:

Do you think a unique product design can expand the future of your business? Yes, the design of the product is an outline of a product that will be developed. It is vital to mould the product engaging to the audience in product design marketing.

Suppose, when an individual gets into a store, they face a wide variety of products or services, but what prompts their decision to choose one product over another is “product differentiation”.

Product design is one of the best methods you can go for – it’s both an art and a science. Product differentiation is not just about the inner elements, and it can also be how you make it different from the external components. Even if you don’t have a solid brand USP, differentiating products help you gain market share.

5. Brand Communication (Internal & External Branding):

The first phase of your brand communication needs to be done internally. Effective brand communication leads to setting up a dominant connection between the employees and brand, especially the products or services you sell. Your employees are the representatives who put life into your brand by approaching the target customers.

Unless the internal team gets this connection, they won’t meet the expectations set by your marketing plan. So, it’s the first aspect you need to implement once you establish the brand.

The second phase is external communication, i.e. telling who you are to the target audience. Consumers hold the success of your brand, and you can achieve them only through effective communication. If the total brand communication is definitive and hits the target users at the proper time, you win the race.

6. Strong Marketing Design:

As one of the most distinctive and critical types of graphic design, marketing design is becoming important in the current scenario. The soul of branding and marketing is visual design. Yeah, it’s not an easy task, but no matter how good and innovative your idea is, it won’t be mostly successful if it doesn’t catch the customer’s attention at first sight.

So, to make your brand distinct from competitors, you need to have a solid marketing design and material that is innovative, creative and stand out. Though a solid marketing design aims to grab customers’ attention, it reinforces the brand identity through constant messaging and visual language. An effective marketing design improves a brand’s perception, visibility, and, eventually, commercial success.

Conclusion

In an era where new ventures pop up daily, finding strategies to differentiate your brand is significantly important. If customers don’t find your product unique, they’ll leave your brand and for an alternative option.

If you achieve the goal of brand differentiation, you will start to shine, and consumers will rapidly take notice. If you give attention to branding and follow the tips mentioned above, it will give a world-class experience for the target audience.

Achieving more customer satisfaction will lead to more retention and sustainable business growth. If you want to know more about us, you can visit our website and tell us your queries. Also, feel free to put your views in the comment box given below!

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.Posted in Bottle Label Design, Label DesignTagged best wine bottle label design, best wine label design, Bottle label design, creative wine label design, die cut wine label design, wine bottle label design, wine bottle label design ideas, wine bottle packaging design, wine illustration design, wine label design, wine label design company

Did you know India has over 61,400 startups recognized by the Department for Promotion Industry and Internal Trade(DPIIT) that raised $3.5 billion in 2022, which is six times since 2021? According to the Economic Survey 2021-2022, around 14,000 startups were just recognized by DPIIT during the fiscal year of 2022. 

Launching a new startup is challenging nowadays. To stand out in the crowded market, not only your product & services should be unique, but your presentation should also be very professional.

Your target customer judges your product & services from your branding & packaging, and so as your investors. Your branding and packaging determine the ultimate face of the brand, which you cannot afford to go wrong. So to attract investors, your branding and packaging should be very professional.

Some startups may overlook this aspect as a meagre requirement, but they will lose out on many sales and potential benefits without making this wise investment.

On that note, let’s discuss a series of reasons and pointers to elaborate on the importance of branding and packaging design to stand out among thousands of startups in India and rule the market. Let’s get started.

Why do Most Startups fail in India?

Did you know hundreds of startups emerge every day in India and fail to get the recognition they deserve, resulting in shutting down their business within the first few years of launching? Here are the most common reasons why most startups fail and how to avoid this in your startup.

1. Lack of Market Research

Many startups fail for the most straightforward reason – lack of market research.

-If your product is not required in the market, how will your business profit from it?

-If your products have better alternatives in the market, you can’t attract your target customers?

-If your startup is developing products that are not in demand, eventually, you will run under a loss. 

Market research is vital even before you launch your startup. You need to conduct market research right during the first stages of building your startup. When you conduct market research, you will know about products that already exist in the market and are similar to yours. You will also get an insightful understanding of the type of challenges your target audiences face, which your upcoming product will solve.

Conducting market research ensures that you are building a relevant and required startup in the market for your customers. It also helps create a more robust brand portfolio in your business that will attract customers in the long run.

Also Read: What Are Brand Guidelines? Why Should Every Indian Brand Have One?

2. Lack of Funds

In 2018, a bike rental startup, Tazzo, shut their business due to running out of funds after creating a business that was not a good market fit. In the initial years, the startup did raise a considerable amount of funds, but the business model was not profitable enough in the long run.

Your startup needs a constant flow of funding. If your startup cannot consistently seed enough financing, your business will eventually fail. It would be best to create startups with practical business and revenue models that are bound to generate both immediate and long term profit. Just like building a relevant product in a market is essential for your business to succeed, so is your consistent revenue and profit generation. Furthermore, you need to spend your funding strategically and make smart investments in your industry.

3. Lack of Customer Knowledge

Market research and customer research go hand in hand. The world is changing at a relatively faster rate. To keep up with the emerging trends and make your business relevant, you need to have consistently updated knowledge of your target customers. If customer research is not a part of your daily to-do list, you will have a big problem.

Make your startup customer-centric. Address customer queries, grievances and feedback to learn more about their everyday challenges, requirements, and interests. Only then can you build a product required by your customers and succeed in your startup.

4. Expansion without Establishment

Last but not least, often startups scale way too fast and expand without any solid foundation. Sure, you need to aim higher and scale your business rapidly. However, suppose you scale without any previous profits in the industry. In that case, you will not be able to endure the necessities and requirements of the updated business model, which can lead to shutting down your startup anytime. Thus, take calculated risks and have a solid establishment before you consider scaling your business any further.

How does your Brand Design and Product Design Safeguard your Startup by 40%?

Your brand design and product packaging design can literally save your startup from shutting off by 40%. Yes. You heard it right. Like we said, if you consider it to be a very minor or irrelevant investment compared to building a fruitful product in the market, you are indeed in the wrong direction. Here are a few ways an excellent customized brand design and product packaging design can help you reap more profits for your startup.

1. Attract online sales and Distributor Networks

One of the significant advantages of investing in your product packaging and labelling is sales growth. The better your packaging is, the more it attracts customers on the retail shelves. All of it comes down to the first impression. When your product packaging and brand image aligns with your brand’s values and is attractive to your customers, there is no way your startup will fail irrespective of the existing players in the industry.

Creating attractive and unique packaging for your products and the overall brand will transform the customer experience and position your brand to higher ranks in the industry. 

To ensure that you are doing it right, you can always work with packaging designing and branding companies to create the most captivating brand and packaging designs that will help with your customer acquisition and retention rates.

2. Attract Investors for your startup and Raise funding

Raising funds for a business is a tough nut to crack. Not every business idea has the potential to attract funds to grow from an investor. Every investor notices one of the top aspects is the brand value and image.

If your packaging and brand designs are shabby, your startup will not likely attract customers and take off. Why would an investor spend their money on such a startup that does not have the potential to attract adequate customers and generate profit?

This investment can ultimately make or break your deal with your investors to raise your business capital, and it could be the ultimate thing that may turn them down from giving you the funds in starting off your business and scale it. Thus, it would be best to focus adequately on improving the brand and packaging design to attract the best investors interested in your startup and invest in it.

3. Build Trust and a Stronger Brand Image

According to a recent study, 74% of the consumers mentioned how a product’s label conveys honesty and transparency has more chances of being their next purchase. 76% of the same consumers also said that they consider the brand and product packaging to ensure that they are choosing the best quality materials and ingredients for their families. 

Strong branding is important to build trust within consumers for choosing your brand over others. A standard packaging may not have the same punch as a custom packaging, which aligns with the brand values. By investing in packaging designs and branding, you can control your products’ look and feel, which are significant contributing factors to the final purchasing decisions. You can also create a better unboxing experience for your customers. Lastly, you can save millions on customer retention when you have a loyal customer base that trusts your business.

4. Cost-effective marketing strategy

Often, startups do not have adequate funding to use the latest marketing strategies and promote their newly launched business. This is when brand designs and product packaging designs can do wonders.

Custom product packaging designs and brand designs are efficient, budget-friendly marketing strategies that work in every industry. Depending on the designs and the other parameters, you invest a minimum sum on designing the packaging and the brand that becomes negligible when compared to the final profits. Good quality designs are way more economically friendly and make your brand stand out from the rest, which is why it is called one of the smartest business investments ever.

5. Show Sincerity to stay in the market

Customers want to shop with a business that shares similar values and cares about the relevant issues. As more and more customers gradually become aware of the environmental footprint and its impacts, they look out for brands that offer environmentally friendly packaging and are committed to the environment.

Investing in packaging and brand design is worth the investment as you can communicate your brand value by making them as economical as possible. This helps to build authority in the market and assures the customers that your brand is their best investment.

When the investors know that you are doing something good in the market and will be needed in the upcoming years, your startup can easily attract more investors.

Wrapping Up

Before you throw your entire budget only into advertising, take some time to think about how you can build a better brand and packaging design for your business. Your brand and packaging designs influence how your customers perceive your brand and their final purchasing decisions. However, it also plays a significant role in attracting investors to your startup. Ensure to demonstrate the same whenever you approach the investors with a deal of investing in your business, and you can easily witness the positive impact it makes on them.

If you are unsure of how to build and improve your brand and packaging designs before you visit the shark tanks. Connect to DesignerPeople for professional packaging design and branding.

With the best branding professionals in our team, we have worked with many renowned brands and have helped them achieve their funding targets and rule the market in no time. Visit our official website today and sign up for a free consultation for your brand and packaging design requirements.

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.

Branding is a word thrown around too much, often used without understanding. According to the survey, 86% of people prefer to buy products from an authentic brand.

What does it mean to create a brand? Is there a sure-shot formula to it? What makes up your brand personality, and how do you ensure it’s authentic to you?

Your brand is not only the logo on your website or product. Your brand is who you are, what you do, and how people feel about it. I like what Jeff Bezos says: Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.

Brand Guide: What is it?

A brand guide is a documented guide that describes a brand and provides guidelines on how to use the brand in different contexts.

A brand is the identity of a product, service, or company. And the guideline is a blueprint of how the brand presents in all its marketing materials.

A brand manual includes an instruction to use all the aspects of the brand, including logo, typography, colour palette, design elements, tone, and voice. (source)

Having a brand guide ensures consistency across all mediums of communication. It also serves as an inspiration & reference point for the brand-building process.

Why Is A Brand Guide Must for Indian Business?

Indian companies like Amul, with its famous girl character or Paperboat’s excellent visual storytelling “life is still beautiful”, have put branding at the forefront of how business is now done in India. Companies have started investing in brand guides because it is challenging to create consistent and effective marketing campaigns without them.

Also Read: How Branding Company Help Business Growth

4 more reasons why and how you can leverage brand guides to give a facelift to your small business.

1. It’s your business identity. You may think you can create all the designs from a freelancer. But, creating a brand identity needs more than just design skills. You need to keep track of the brand tone and voice, colour scheme, logo usage rules, and more. Inconsistent branding confuses your customers as to what they should expect from you.

2. It helps your audience remember the brand. Brand Guidelines promote familiarity. Customers prefer to buy products and services from companies they can quickly identify. A strong brand increases people’s awareness of your business, encouraging them to choose you over your competitors.

3. Your brand can help you get referrals from customers. How often have you bought a product because your friend or co-worker recommended it? Customer psychology works on word of mouth. A brand guide helps you get referrals from customers based on loyalty points and other offers.

4. It is also your business’s net worth. Solid brand identity provides value to your business beyond its physical assets. The price tag on a Sabyasachi Lehenga is justified because of the brand value and identity that the company has created.

Difference between Brand Guidelines and Brand Identity

Brand Guidelines are rules that dictate how a brand is visually communicating.

They establish the proper use of your logo, typography, colour palette, and other brand elements. This document tells you how to apply your brand elements in different scenarios to ensure a consistent look and feel.

Brand Guidelines differ from Brand Identity, the overarching strategy behind your business: what you stand for and how you want to be perceived. Brand guidelines are the visual representation of that strategy.

Most brands don’t bother having guidelines because they think it is too time-consuming to develop them.

However, creating brand guidelines will save you more time than you realize in the long run. It’s much easier to create one set of rules than constantly making decisions on how your brand should look every time.

Types Of Brand Manuals 

1. Basic

A basic guideline would include instructions for using your logo, colours, and typography/typestyle. You may also want to specify which colour (s) you want as a background and which colours are not allowed as backgrounds.

2. Extended

An extended guideline would include additional information about audience personas, brand positioning, values, missions, and touchpoints. This gives more context so designers can make better design choices to communicate with customers at each stage of their journey.

Basic Brand Guidelines Elements

1. Logo Design 

Logo identifies as a business in its simplest form via a mark or icon. Symbols are used to identify companies and organizations. They are designed to be the perfect visual expression of a company’s core brand value, capturing the essence of your business in an iconic symbol that separates you from competitors.

2. Logo Variations 

There are many variations within logo design alone. Usage of color, white & black versions, monotone versions; the minimum size at which the logo can be used; using a logo with or without the tag line; using with or without trademark; usage with or without a weblink.

Ist: Single Colour Logo: Comprised of shape and negative space, it makes for a design that is not too busy or visually disappearing. Easy to scale and solid and single-colour logos look good in almost all settings.

IInd: Responsive Logo: Responsive Logos change in shape, size, and colour to accommodate and adapt as per placement.

3. Logo Spacing

The space around your logo makes or breaks a design. A logo cramped in a box looks unprofessional and visually cluttered. Keeping breathing space gives your logo room to breathe.

4. Brand Typography

Brand typography includes font shape, size, headlines, subheadlines, text placement, etc.

5. Brand Colours

Brand colours make up the majority of the brand’s visual identity. With a colour palette of 3-5 complementary colours, we try to incorporate the brand personality and values into its visual design.

There are various types of brand colours

1. Primary brand colours
2. Secondary brand colours
3. RGB (web) colors
4. CMYK (print) colours
5. Brand Imagery

It comprises a set of images shapes that visually depict the core messaging of a business. This imagery is aimed at drawing a response from your audience and making them feel a certain way.

6. Brand Story

A brand story is a tight-knit narrative of the values you embody and the emotions you evoke in your consumer. A brand story is different from advertising campaigns because it shows the conversations happening about the brand outside its CMO’s office.

7. Brand Voice

The distinct tone and personality that a brand takes on in its communications at various stages of a buyer’s journey. The language tone, the words chosen, and the writing style make up most of the brand voice.

Some Basic Brand Guideline Examples

source: behance.net/gallery/yelo-spa-02/4918409

source: behance.net/gallery/Deichmanske-Library/546722

source: red-stone.com/projects/big-lottery-fund-bpr-identity

source: iancul.com/project/calgary-chamber/

Extended Brand Guidelines

Fast-growing startups and big companies tend to add more detailed and extended guidelines for creating a brand manual. Some of those aspects are mentioned below :

1. Audience Personas

Who is the target audience you’re trying to reach with your marketing efforts? The audience persona is created to keep your messaging aligned with your audience’s wants, needs, and anxieties. Most businesses focus on two or three audience personas because it’s challenging to design communication campaigns for too many people at once.

2. Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is all about differentiating your product or service from the competition. It would help if you established a strong position within your market that allows you to stand out in the crowded market, resonate with your target audience and drive conversions.

3. Brand values & Mission 

A set of brand values sets out what matters most to the business/brand. It will help determine what tone of voice to use and what content to create.

On the other hand, the mission statement helps you define your goals in business or marketing and build a roadmap to achieve those goals.

4. Brand Touchpoints 

Brand touchpoints are the places where consumers come in contact with your brand. These could be your website to customer service, applications, retail stores, and more.

The goal is to clearly define what your brand stands for, what it means to customers, and how best to represent it across different mediums.

Takeaway: Having a proper brand identity will allow you to become an industry leader.

Once you have a brand identity, it becomes easier for people to recognize you as an expert in your field. With a more established image, you become a trusted resource and authority in that field, which will make clients and market share much easier to come by. That’s why your brand needs rules. A brand that can’t present itself effectively isn’t going to be taken seriously, period.

Brands are not created once, especially in the digital age. Customer expectations and competitors are constantly changing, primarily online. That’s why your brand identity needs to be always on and engaging. That’s what DesignerPeople is all about. We help you manage your online identity and community by creating, maintaining, and updating a comprehensive brand manual and guide that enables you to build stronger emotional bonds with your buyers.

Now that you know what to do get started with your branding today. Visit DesignerPeople for more details.

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.

The brand discourse grows substantial and more indistinct every day in our current, modern world. It’s not just branding anymore – it’s product branding, service branding, and even individualised branding. Whether you’re a big giant, marketing professional, or just a layman having your regular tea before a long day in the actual routine, branding is woven throughout every aspect of our lives.

Whether you’re aware or not, every company and product already has a brand. The work of perceiving, defining and shaping these brands is the main task also an ongoing process. It is the primary reason companies approach professional brand design companies and invest in developing strong brands as they understand the importance of solid branding in this competitive world.

Why Hire a Branding Company?

Companies always tend to assume that branding is something that their internal marketing team can manage. How stiff can it be to design a logo and put down some critical messaging, after all?

The reality is, even the best marketing team isn’t furnished to make the objective, whole picture strategic decisions a brand requires.

A branding company offers an indispensable objective perspective, but it gives you proven proficiency over a range of industries also the insight you need to make sure your brand experience is compatible, adhesive, and captivating.

Also Read: Brand Design Complete Guide – Principles, Process, Case Studies and Inspiration

Roles & Responsibilities of a Branding Company

A branding company’s roles and responsibilities vary on the needs or requirements of people. They might be your strategist, your creative group, etc. However, ultimately the part of a branding company is to generate, plan, control, and measure your branding strategy.

It’s their potentiality to become an additional part of your company; they have to perceive and understand each minute detail about you. They have to cover all the central parts and discover what really makes your brand mark. What are your goals, values, promises, target audiences and employees?

Understanding your market and competitors’ level gives them more clarity on what strategies needs to be implemented to get the pitch in the market. Once they pull all these together, growth regulation can be accomplished. (source)

Hiring Branding Company in the Next Normal for Every Business

As we have discussed the meaning of owning a brand and its importance, we have to admit that you can’t do this alone and that expert help is welcome at times.

Your brand is what allows you to obtain a competitive advantage, explain a robust brand communications strategy and dominantly enlarge your reach and broaden your target audience.

Choosing a professional branding company to work on behalf of helps you achieve all of these aspects in the best mannner.

Some of the significant points you need to consider while choosing a branding agency are:

• Their total experience, clients and previous works
• Their branding process
• Their services and mode of interaction
• Their commercials

Choosing the Perfect Branding Company

Let’s discuss the 6 major points that we need to take care of when choosing a branding company:

1. Diverse Branding Portfolio:

A diverse branding portfolio is one of the primary elements to look for when selecting a branding company. Every branding company will showcase they provide the best designs in your industry; however, a diverse portfolio is the live evidence of the particular company’s level of expertise, thus understanding their expectations.

Without those presumptions, it is impossible to decide if a branding company’s proficiency aligns with your business needs. As a professional branding company, it is not common to focus on a particular industry. So, ask them to provide the design works done in your specific sector.

2. Excellent Branding Reputation:

While researching and encountering branding companies, you have to ensure whether they have the proper expertise to race a branding service in your industry. Remember, the ultimate goal is to choose a branding company that has the potential to create distinctive, usable content that enhances the voice, design and perspective of your business.

Therefore, consider an agency that challenges and proves its expertise in a niche industry. It also develops your confidence level and the keen to work with that branding company for a more extended period.

3. Regular Communication:

If your agency has a diverse portfolio, the proper expertise, and the potentiality to convey through the pitching process, such a team can definitely showcase they can communicate over the long term.

Communication might come in a frame of status calls, updates, or regular check-ups but should always be collective, informative, and proactive. Company communication should also include a detailed explanation of long term goals, short term presumptions, and a breakdown of how their team schemes to meet them.

4. Well-defined Branding Process:

A fortunate branding strategy depends on a manifest, experience-based approach to compelling messaging and substantiating your brand. Without a distinctly segmented process, a branding company is only as relevant as they are fortune and has no way of repeating their triumph on past branding strategies.

The best method to find a brand company with a clear-cut process and research-based approach is to ask the team how they help brands like yours differentiate themselves from competitors.

5. Proof of Brand Success:

A branding company always loves to exhibit their success and detail on their expertise. Look into their measurable results like data measures, reports and analytics. Indeed, ask for case studies that feature the return on investment (ROI) a client experienced and the overall benefit of their branding strategies.

Case studies also give awareness into what methods the agency values most based upon the metrics they measure. Remove those companies that essentially focus on metrics that are deliberately irrelevant to your brand.

6. Total Investment over Initial Cost:

An agency’s cost is a good mark of the type of association you can accept. After all, you get what you pay for. Though economic agencies are valuable, a branding company that understands your brand and has the skill to meet your branding requirements is an investment in the success of your brand.

However, don’t let price be the only factor influencing your decision. You’re developing a long-term relationship, and the minor prospect might not always be the best option. Scrutinise the big picture, and be precise about the return you expect from your investment.

Conclusion

Thus, I assume you got the importance of a branding company to develop your brand. Perhaps, the essential guidance we can give you as a company is that while choosing a branding company, approach multiple agencies, compare them and select the best out of it by looking into each aspect.

Give each branding company the same project scope so you can understand the differences in proposals, procedures, and costs for the same project. Honestly, we truly respect everyone’s work and never want to be the single agency reflecting a project.

We love the opportunity to exhibit our abilities against other companies because we’re assured that our proposals project even stronger in context. We put maximum effort into our proposals and realise that picking up a branding agency is not a simple task. We understand with companies in your situation.

If you want to know us more and understand our procedures, you are most welcome to visit our DesignerPeople office at Delhi NCR. Please put up your queries; our team will connect with you and guide you in developing your brand.

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.

Managing a creative design agency includes a lot of fun… but it’s full of challenges in practice.

Nearly every venture requires creative help at some stages of their development process – often like enhancing into a new market, up-leveling your growth, or initially as the first when they launch in the competitive world.

However, you get many options while you research in this sector, from DIY to freelancer to the best designing agency in India – ultimately, the choice is yours on how to give the best for your brand.

These creative groups will always be there for you as an extra pair of supports; they can assist you as strategic thought associates, guiding you to develop new creativity or strategies that are the core for your business.

However, nowadays, the number of creative agencies in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and other urban cities are increasing excessively, so before choosing a perfect team for your purpose, research their level of experience and ensure that they’ll meet your needs and requirements.

Now let’s start in; this blog mainly focuses on understanding what a creative agency is? Its types, importance, and some of the challenges agencies face.

What is Creative Agency?

In simple terms, a creative agency is a term for an agency which provides a collection of services that comes under one umbrella of design, marketing and promoting. Above all, if you require any creative strategy, promotion, or branding, they are appropriate to get it done.

While some creative agencies are specialized in one of the other elements, in common, they usually provide services like:

1. Branding:

Branding Agency comprise all kind of brand related requirements and enlarge your scope of products or services. They help develop your brand from scratch and help create a strong brand identity in the market.

2. Digital Marketing:

Agencies help to develop your brand through online or digital platforms. They use different strategies and run campaigns on major media platforms. It helps to make your brand visible to your targeted audience.

Also Read: Brand Design Complete Guide – Principles, Process, Case Studies and Inspiration

3. Direct Marketing:

These organizations focus on marketing your brand on direct response platforms like email marketing, postcards, etc. They have in-built strategies that drive your audiences to the website also deals with telephonic marketing.

4. Shopper Marketing:

Creative agency mainly target to promote the retailers by marketing strategies and our promotional activities. They also use various in-store media and technologies to create applications that lead to purchase.

5. Public Relations:

These groups help in creating brand awareness directly to the public. Building a solid image of your brand to the world is their primary point of the task. They help develop your brand through media talks, conducting events, shows, articles, and many more.

Most Common Job Roles in a Creative Agency

These agencies comprise professional team members for respected roles who are exceptionally qualified for the agency’s service. Now let’s discuss some of the typical roles in a creative agency:

1. Art Director:

A professional art director will regulate which artistic components to utilize, pursue the team’s exact vision, evaluate and approve copy, determine budgets or schedule, also help get the best output from the artistic works.

2. Creative Director:

A creative director administrates the creative department at branding and marketing companies. Their roles include planning or designing company advertisements, observing brand campaigns, amending presentations also shaping the proper branding standards.

3. Brand and Content Strategists:

A content strategist is in charge of creating a company’s editorial voice also controlling content needs, modes selection, and distribution.

4. Account Directors/Managers:

An account director supervises the delivery of creative work that connects the customer’s needs also addresses the various challenges they face inside and outside the agency.

5. Producers:

The producers are responsible for enchanting the approved creative idea and making the client’s desires happen on air, visuals or other channel methods.

6. Creative Writing & Content Writers:

Writer & Editor comprises a variety of content for publications by conveying ideas through the text. Their primary responsibilities include creating topics, writing catchy material, and making edits based on client feedback.

7. Videographers:

A Videographer is in charge of recording live events and small scale video making productions. They also focus on smaller shows like documentaries, commercials, and other film videos.

8. Web Designers & Developers:

The role of web designers is to design appealing and efficient landing pages, optimize sites for maximum rate or scalability. On the other hand, the web developers assist in designing, compiling and modifying websites, from the layout to operation as per the client’s demands.

9. Graphic Designers:

Graphic designers are mainly in charge of creating exciting, inventive designs with words, imagery and illustration. They also help in illuminating their clients in a precise manner to generate something catchier than they imagined.

10. Content Distribution Specialists:

The roles and responsibilities of content specialists are to accumulate content for a company, supervise the content also created to post in their accounts for marketing or promotion.

Types of Creative Agencies

1. Advertising Agency:

An advertising agency is an all in one destiny for advertising your business or products. Such agencies will guide you in giving you the best strategies to reach out to your consumer’s with promotional campaigns.

Most agencies have their own in-house creative employees who help in designing the campaigns. They help in considering which channels to use and how to regulate to fit the channel. Therefore, if you plan to promote your advertising-related requirements, you can approach such agencies.

2. Digital Agency:

A digital agency majorly aims at magnifying the use of digital platforms to reach audiences. They provide creative, scheme or technical enhancement of visual-based products and services. The channels might include social media platforms, websites, Search engine optimization (SEO), paid promotion campaigns, and digital consulting services.

The significant benefit is that as they are very prompt in the digital space, they will always be competent at the latest system updates and potentialities. They also are familiar with how to make the best move on each digital platform. They can also help in guiding you to the best channels that are more suitable for your products or services.

3. Design Agency:

Design agencies majorly focus on the development of brands, product packaging design or design services. They majorly include digital and design services that also deal with brand specialization, structure, and product design. The main benefit of such agencies is that they make customer offerings more attractive than their competitors.

They focus primarily on graphic design online and even assist in printing for their designs. They also develop visual communication materials for customers to use in marketing and other promotions. In a design agency, you can get all kinds of branding related requirements under one umbrella. A professional agency can always make your brand reach the next level with its professionalism and experience.

4. Interactive Agency:

An interactive agency is exclusively focused on helping you with online brand promotion. They often create digital experiences that engage customers with innovative technology, excellent design, and multimedia content.

At times, they are hired in creating a great website too. Typically, they also engage with ad agencies or consultants provide on a complex element of a campaign or a massive digital project.

Generally, these organizations target design and technology over strategy or promotion and have a substantial deal in design or digital video.

5. Consulting Agency:

Consulting agencies majorly focus on more prominent strategies and objectives. They always do a substantial deal of research also concentrate on specific markets and industries. These organizations always have the potentiality to reach high and enclose professional or creative services under one umbrella.

Such agencies comprise experts in particular industries who provide professional advice, assistance, and functional solutions to companies facing challenges that can’t manage within the house itself.

Importance of Choosing the Right Creative Agency

No matter how good your brand is, until consumers are aware of it or build trust, it will be a challenge to succeed in the market; you have to give importance to marketing your brand or products.

Therefore, it is critical to get an agency that offers you a complete solution for your business. You can make a track of different brands with whom they have worked before.

A good agency will always be aware of inflating and promoting the brand in the best possible manner. So, approach an agency that is well aware of all kind of branding elements also who exactly know what brand awareness is!

Another most essential aspect to consider a reputed agency is a money. An excellent creative agency knows precisely how to give you more offers, but not price more. Also, remember, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys! The point is that do not choose an agency only because you found they are cheap. Indeed, look for an agency, who understands your product to give the best value services that make your brand reach the next level.

Freelancer vs Creative Agency

1. Lack of Commitment:

 In the case of any service, Success depends on the level of commitment you put towards your work. As freelancers already have multiple projects, your task will always be secondary for them. They won’t be able to give their proper attention as they have numerous jobs with them. As a result, you won’t get a good result from them.

On the other hand, creative agencies allot a dedicated professional team. In their case, your work is their primary priority, and their mindset is always set towards one thing. As a result, in return, you’ll get the best output with more options and make you satisfied.

2. Communication Issues:

As they are not professionals, Freelancers may have lesser knowledge in providing good customer service and disregard basic ethical standards. Thus, lack of functional factors and responsibility in the overall project leads to various communication difficulties or misleading deadlines.

In contrast, agencies comprise well-experienced professionals who are well trained about dealing with the customers following all the other standards. Even if the customers face any challenges, they can rectify them soon and give you the best result.

3. Deadly Deadlines:

Missing deadlines are one of the typical issues found in the freelancing world. As they are managing multiple tasks, they find it challenging in getting them done alone. Even though they promise in delivering it within time, in most cases, they don’t follow it due to the limitations. It will lead to the last minutes’ struggle and complications like hurting your profit margin. Consumers will lose their trust or confidence in you, and your business will face further consequences.

In the case of creative agencies, as they are working as a team and the central focus is on the branding part only, they have the resources to execute it also deliver the project within the time limit. It is one of the primary reasons why most clients approach such agencies and get their work done.

4. Unpredictable:

Clients who work with freelancers working as part-time specialists have the experience that the majority of them are unpredictable. Initially, they’ll be working properly, and frequently they may disappear, start answering you late or even cancels the project.

On the other hand, creative agencies always have a reputation in the market or credibility, and they will constantly be there with you. Even if you have any challenges or difficulties, you can even visit them anytime, and they will always be available for you. Thus, your work will be in safe hands and get the best output from them.

How much does it Cost to Hire a Creative Agency

1. Small Level Agency:

A small level agency comprises a lesser team who might be a start-up or have experience in the industry. Even though they’ll be working as a team, their work mode is limited, and their clients will also be major of small sectors.

They’ll initially focus on the local areas only, and once they get a good level of experience, they switch to a broader form. The cost of such a small level agency will be much lesser when compared to medium and big agencies.

Average Per hour: 2000* INR X 10** hours = 20000 INR

*Amount varies with experience from 2000 to 5000 INR

** Min. and Max. Hours depend on work

Also Read: Branding Agency Cost & Brand Building Process in India

2. Medium Level Agency:

When it comes to medium level agencies, they’re the standard ones serving the industry for some years and successfully achieving their milestones with time. They have a bigger group and will be leading in more than one scope of the area. Their clients will be majorly small and medium scale industries.

As they have a more standard group, they provide a better result when compared with a small level agency. The cost will also be slightly higher than the small level agency

Average Per hour: 5000* INR X 10** hours = 50000 INR

*Amount varies with experience from 5000 to 8000 INR

** Min. and Max. Hours depend on work

3. Big Agency:

These are the bigger giants who are ruling in this particular sector. They are working in a more extended format and have all kinds of services under one roof. For any type of branding related requirements, you can approach them, and they will definitely help you out.

These agencies have highly professional team members who have the best experience and are the industry’s soul. As they offer you high-quality services, their cost will be higher than the other two level agencies.

Average Per hour: 10000* INR X 10** hours = 100000 INR

*Amount varies with experience from 10000 to 25000 INR

** Min. and Max. Hours depend on work

Challenges of Creative Design Agencies

Now let’s discuss some of the challenges faced by creative design agencies:

1. Staying in trend:

While it is essential to keep an eye on emerging trends, it isn’t always good to follow them, as you also end up like everyone. Therefore, you have to follow the trend and do something creative to make you unique from your competitors. Moreover, it is always embracing being a trade setter rather than a follower if you set away. At the same time, be constantly conscious of the competition too.

With this in mind, it is not always a simple task to be consistent and provide creative projects by maintaining the reputation. The cost of the project depends on delicate planning, research and risk-taking. This all makes an agency unique from its competitors.

2. The abundance of Creativity:

Being always creative is a great talent; one or another time, you’ll get out of the track, and you will be like a fresh one only. Being creative needs a lot of encouragement and freedom to explore new ideas, problem-solving, etc.

Therefore, keeping the staff stimulated can be a challenge in some cases. Combining things and various tasks, networking events, can even need a much booster to the creative thinking process.

3. Collaboration with Vendors:

Productive collaboration is vital for any company to prosper in this competitive market. Proper communication between internal and external shareholders will define how efficient your team will execute quality products and services.

Collaboration requires multiple calls, emails, phone calls or direct meetings; it is worth observing that there are many other substitute means of collaborating with the team and customers.

4. Staying Profitable:

While it’s essential to continue in the current trend focusing on projects, budgets, profitability and productivity, one should plan frontwards also look towards further expansions.

Setting reasonable business goals or objectives will set out as a plan for where you want your agency in the future.

Performance analysis and succession planning is the core to nourishing your team and heading onto new challenges. Once you have all these systems, you can get a good culture with personal growth.

Some Common Questions for Creative Agency

Q1. Do you have the availability to take on my project?

Ans: It is one of the primary questions most consumers ask since everyone has a limited period and needs to complete it within that timeline. If they have the availability, you should also encounter the expected timeline of projects similar to yours.

However, well-established agencies always have an excellent professional team who will be able to manage multiple projects at the same time.

Q2. How much experience do you have in my industry?

Ans: Some clients have the perspective that the agency needs to have experience in their own industry. However, you need to understand that whether or not they are specialized in your sector, it’s best to get a sense of their knowledge in their base.

Q3. What does your creative process look like?

Ans: Each agency are unique and has their own process which finds the best for them, but no matter what is the process, they all have an entrenched process to get things done on time. While enquiring about an agency, you can ask them to detail their process, giving you a clear idea.

Q4. How much you charge?

Ans: The pricing of the services are majorly dependent on your requirements. They will only charge you for the scope of work they have. Ask them to give an idea of the costing and what all services they offer for the said costing. It is essential to make sure that everything is transparent on both ends.

Conclusion

With this blog, we believe you get an overall idea about the term creative agency, its importance, types, challenges and the regular queries users have regarding such agencies.

A professional creative agency will always help develop your brand and guide you in each step of building your brand. It doesn’t matter from what type of industry you are in the present era; it is essential to have proper branding or marketing for your brand.

If you want to save on the agency fees, it can be immensely more cost-effective to allocate this part of the business and benefit from their knowledge in the sector. It is the main reason why many companies approach creative agencies rather than generating them themselves because spending money on branding is not your business expense, it’s your investment.

If you desire to know more about the essentialities of creative agencies, you can consider DesignerPeople Branding Agency. Our team will contact you and help in getting a better result for your brand.

Author: Megha Malik

As a passionate entrepreneur and creative brand consultant with experience of 14 years in digital, branding and packaging industry, it is my honest effort to put my experiences and knowledge of industry towards readers. A chartered accountant by degree but a marketing personality in blood has motivated her to take in designing industry as a career. With her fun-loving personality and sharp branding skills, she is a great motivational speaker on her YouTube channel, an active member in various business channels offline as well as online. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.