Four Signs Your Business isn’t Ready to Invest in a Full Branding Process Yet
When it’s not the right time to invest in design
Most companies know that professional design and branding are essential to appearing credible and trustworthy to their customers. However, for various reasons, some businesses aren’t yet ready to invest in a full branding process. To save your company from wasting time and money, here’s how to know when it’s time to hold off on investing in a full professional brand.
Note that a “full branding process” refers to the more holistic creation of a brand identity, voice, personality, and tone that are tailored to your audience and evoked by the design of your website, logo, color palette, business cards, and more. If you’re not ready to invest, you will (at the very least!) need a professional logo and color palette to get started.
Here are a few reasons why you may want to wait:
1. You might want to change your name
If you think that your business’s name might change in the near future, it’s a good idea to hold off on doing a full branding process until you have a more permanent name.
In the meantime, you can work with a professional to help you identify names for your business that are more aligned with your brand identity and to help you plan the transition from your previous name to the new name.
2. You’re still developing your product
A good sign you’re not ready to commit to a professional branding process is if your offering or product is still in the works. If you haven’t fully figured out what your product or service is, it’s going to be hard to define how it changes the world.
At this point, working with a branding professional can help you identify your target audience so you can build a product that is designed to serve them. This will ensure that your product is a success.
3. You haven’t pinpointed your mission/purpose
You might have a great idea, but if you’re still figuring how you want to implement it or what you want your business to do, you’re lacking the direction you need in the branding process.
However, don’t feel like you need to have a perfectly polished mission statement before you dive into branding. You can continue to refine your purpose as you go through the branding process.
4. You don’t know who your customers are (or who they will be)
If you don’t know who your product or service is made for, this can make it more challenging to design your brand. It’s helpful to go into a branding process knowing, at least generally, who would be interested in your offering.
Once you have a good idea of a group of people you might want to target, you can use that to guide and inform the entire branding process.
Why it’s important to invest in an expert, even for the early stages
If the above conditions don’t apply to your business, but you’re still feeling hesitant about investing in professional branding and design, you’re not alone. It’s a big step to invest in, but it can truly make the difference to elevate your brand and build a relationship with your customers.
A professional branding expert can also help before you’re ready for a full branding process. For example, we can work with you to identify a target audience, develop a mission and vision statement, and create an overall identity (including a name!) that evokes the traits you want to emphasize about your business.
Think of branding as the foundation of your business. You don’t want to skimp on it — your brand is how your audience perceives you. If they see a generic website or a lack of continuity across your brand, it’s going to make them see you as generic or inconsistent. These are the last things you want as a growing business.
In the early stages of your company, investing in professional branding can set you apart from the crowd and give you the best chance of success and growth.
When should I invest in a full branding?
When you’re ready to uplevel your business, resonate with your target audience, and present your best side to the world, you’re ready to find a designer you love and start the process!
If you’re ready to work with a designer…
We’d love to chat with you! Submit a client inquiry form so we can get the conversation started and talk through how to best support you.
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