When starting up a new business many of us have limited funds and look for places where we can save a little cash. Often branding is one of the things that gets swept under the rug. What you may not realise at the time, is that in the long run, this can really hurt your business. Here are the 5 reasons why investing in branding at the beginning will help you in the long run:

1 – Starting with a bang!

Put your best foot forward and show the world that you are serious about your new business venture. Create a strong and lasting impact with your branding from the get go.

2 – Make your brand and business recognisable

Take Coca-Cola for example. They have had virtually the same logo since the launch of their original brand in 1887!

^*1 Coca-Cola logo 1887

^*2 Coca-Cola logo today

Their logo has become so globally recognisable that we can tell what it is just by looking at a fragment of it!

^*3 Coca-Cola can, partial logo visible

Now imagine if in the 1970s they decided or needed to rebrand because they hadn’t settled on a great brand at the beginning, this means having to build up their recognisability and customer trust again from scratch.

3 – Save you money

Lots of us are unaware of the hidden costs of not having a proper brand. When you have your brand professionally designed, you will receive an array of logo files that you can pass on to any suppliers, printers or web developers etc. that you might use. If you don’t have these files the suppliers have to design a “logo” for you or recreate your “logo”. In return for this they charge for their design time, making your simple brand needs cost a lot more than they need to. If you are doing this again and again the costs quickly add up! Imagine having business cards, flyers and t-shirts printed and a website developed without having a brand first. The hidden design costs could easily amount to more than simply having your brand designed properly and professionally in the first place.

4 – Save time

Designing or redesigning your brand further down the line isn’t only costly, but it’s time consuming. If you wait until your brand is more established, it’ll not only be a branding project, but a redesign of all business elements. You will need to have everything from your website, to your business cards and company signage redesigned. Meaning that you will have to pay for all these assets for a second time and put in the time and effort with all your clients and suppliers to advertise your new brand.

5 – Keep things consistent with brand guidelines

Consistency with your brand is extremely important if you want to become recognisable and appear trustworthy. If you don’t have proper logo/brand files and need to have your brand redesigned every time you want something printed or branded, the chance of keeping a consistent brand is close to zero! When you get your business professionally branded, you will not only receive all the logo files for you to give to various printers and suppliers, but you will receive something crucially important for building a consistent brand… Brand guidelines. This is a simple document that includes your brand colours with colour codes, rules about how to use your logo, specific fonts, imagery treatment and more. The document is there to be given to anyone working on your brand, from the photographer taking photos for your website to the guy printing your business cards. Without this it’s incredibly difficult to present a consistent brand across all fronts.

As you can see from the Coca-Cola example as well as countless others, building a strong brand in the early stages will save you time, money (and perhaps your sanity!). It’s well worth the investment!

Image sources:
^*1 https://www.coca-colajourney.com.au/stories/trace-the-130-year-evolution-of-the-coca-cola-logo
^*2 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coca-Cola_logo.svg
^*3 https://www.amazon.com/Coca-Cola-Fridge-Pack-Cans-Count/dp/B00HZYDW5E