A couple weeks ago, I saw a presentation from a well respected business in my area. The information was great and the presenter was fantastic. One thing that definitely bothered me, however, was how little the business used their brand in the presentation. As business owners, we have a lot on our minds. WIth all the balls we’re juggling, it can be easy to forget things at times. One thing we can’t forget, is to use our company banding in every opportunity we have.
In this particular presentation, the powerPoint was clean and sleek, but the design and colors used (the brand) didn’t match any of the businesses other marketing material. I had a presentation I was giving a few weeks later, and I was certainly not going to make the same mistake. My design put together a great PowerPoint template that included the Full Scope Creative color scheme, fonts, and tagline. A presentation in front of an audience of any size is simply too big of a spot to not use your company branding.
There are some other key places that I have seen businesses miss a chance to use their branding. It’s not uncommon to see a brand not fully utilized on a business card. Yes, the logo is there, but the fonts used are different from that which are on their brochure or letterhead. I especially notice this on cards that are printed from Vista Prints. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re getting something printed for free, odds are it isn’t going to use your company branding to its fullest extent.
I again hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you hand out pens that simply have your company name printed on them, you’re missing the mark. Countless times I’ve had a business professional hand me their business card and the logo is fantastic. Only for the same business professional, to moments later hand me a pen with the company name simple printed on it. In some cases, I get that the logo might not work well on that particular product, but that is part of what should be addressed in the brand design. A well designed logo, for example, should work in full color or in a simple all white design. For example, look at the Full Scope Creative logo on our business cards. It is very much our logo, but simply done all in white. By having the logo flexible enough to be full color or all white, it allows us to use the logo and full brand on a much wider range of promotional products, like pens, mouse pads, and more.
One spot I see a brand not being used, and one that pains me to see, is a company not using their branding on their website. Part of developing a brand is making sure you are using fonts that are unique, but also easy to use in a number of places, such as on your website and email newsletter. Along with identifying the fonts to use, your brand should also identify the colors to use. I always find it so odd to be handed a business card with a blue background and black text, only to go to the website and see a green background with gray text. Both might look great – but the branding was not connecting between the two.
It might sound obvious, but it can’t be overstated how important it is to use your company branding whenever given the chance. As business professionals, I know we have a ton of things to keep track of and keep on top of. But we need to be mindful to use our company branding to its fullest extent, whenever we have the opportunity. If you have any limitations or issues using your company brand, we’d love to help! Contact us today and we can go over options for designing a modern and usable brand for your business.
