Brand perception refers to how consumers view, interpret, and feel about a brand. Through brand design, messaging, and personality, it is possible to evoke emotional and behavioural responses from your target audience, as well as directly influence their cognitive understanding of the brand.
So, how can design and branding both positively and negatively influence the perception of a brand?
Read more below…
Why is brand perception important?
Positive brand perception encourages and enables potential customers to foster trust and long-term loyalty in your brand. It might seem like a stretch, but research shows that the emergence of the ‘digital self’ can hugely influence online purchasing decisions and associations. In the modern age of digitalisation, we spend a significant amount of time online, and therefore create – knowingly or not – digital personas of ourselves. If there are negative connotations or perceptions of a brand, people are much less likely to want it appearing in their digital spaces.
In some markets, brand perception can act as a differentiation and power tool. Brands that are perceived more positively, namely large brands including Apple and Nike, have an element of differentiation from their competitors and can therefore command markets through loyalty and perception. M&S is perceived differently from Aldi, being at opposite ends of the supermarket market, but M&S have a perception of ‘higher quality goods’ and can therefore charge higher prices.
First impressions count
First impressions have always counted, but now even more so. Within seconds (7 to be exact), potential customers have created a perception of your brand. Research shows that ‘up to 90% of snap judgements about products can be based on colour alone‘, and colours will often be the first thing someone notices about your brand. Consistent and visually appealing branding will almost immediately influence whether or not someone engages with your brand, so be sure to choose colours and designs appropriately.
The ‘primacy effect‘ is a recognised cognitive bias that refers to an individual’s tendency to better remember the first piece of information than any other information later received. Read below to find out more information about brand design choices you can make to positively influence first impressions of your brand!
Storytelling and the emotional impact of brand design
Brand design choices can be leveraged to intentionally evoke different emotions and feelings through colour and storytelling. Coca Cola‘s use of red, and Cadbury‘s use of purple, will no doubt arouse feelings of nostalgia relating to their associations with childhood and Christmas. As well as this, brands will use storytelling to elicit different emotions. Dove’s Real Beauty campaign tells the story of Dove’s ethos, and in it, promotes the brand as a companion and ally to the acceptance of beauty standards in the 21st century. This particular campaign prompted a huge response through social media, with influencers and individuals alike sharing their experiences of changing beauty standards, adding to Dove’s associated authenticity and brand transparency.
Design has a huge influence on the emotional perception of a brand, with visual materials able to represent feelings, intentions, and brand ethos that can be interpreted and communicated clearly with different customers.
Digital presence and social media
Your brand perception isn’t just limited to what is organically posted online. Of course, a significant amount of attention is given to internal design, sales, marketing and other communications, but be sure to consider the influence of social media and UGC. Social proof is a hugely beneficial form of marketing that can massively impact the perception of a brand. Online interactions between brand and consumer, as well as testimonials and other UGC, helps audiences form an almost instant opinion of a brand.
Website design, ease of navigation and overall user experience can also influence a customer’s feelings about your brand. Attention spans are short, and if your website is taking too long to load, isn’t mobile friendly, and isn’t convenient to navigate, potential customers will quickly venture elsewhere to meet their demands.
What brand design choices can I implement to positively influence perceptions?
First of all, let’s consider your brand identity, mission and values. Establish your goals, what you want to achieve and who your target audience is. It might be useful to map out your brand and create consumer personas to help you truly understand your customers, what they want, and what your brand can offer. Don’t skip this step – it’s super important to be able to consolidate your brand’s potential for success!
After you have a strong understanding of yourself and your potential customers, begin creating visuals. Ensure you have chosen colours and typography that represent your brand and your mission. You might want to read up on colour theory before you create brand guidelines to align your branding and values.
When you engage in content creation, you will need to ensure consistency across colours, typography and tone of voice. Leverage brand design to your advantage with high-quality images, clear messaging, visual storytelling, and uniformity to elicit functional and authentic brand perceptions. Align your design with your values for sustainable and strong branding.
Visual content should be implemented in campaigns and through strategies with strong targeting and goals. Ensuring the right audience sees your content is critical to forming brand perceptions. Be innovative in your marketing but ensure you’re doing the basic research into your audiences, what they want and whether your brand can offer it.
Get in touch if you want to chat about design work, and let us help you create visually stunning brand assets!
