When it comes to choosing where to shop or where to spend your time and money, chances are, you’re judging options by their signage and branding. So are your customers.
If you’re a reader and still reach for a physical book, chances are that you would have picked a book for how the cover looked. Be it the title, an author you like, the font used, or how it looked on the shelf. Then you’d have read the back of it, to see if it piqued your interest. If it didn’t, you’d replace it and carry on looking for an alternative. If it did, it would have ended up leaving the shop with you, having earned the right to be bought with your hard-earned cash.
This applies to anything you choose to buy. Take clothes shopping, for example. A glance around your chosen store will reveal if there’s anything in the particular style or colour you want, before you go and feel the material, then check if it’s the right fit for you. Your decision to even be in that store, however, is determined by how you perceive that brand, what it stands for and how its objectives and activities align with your own.
Such is the power of unconscious bias
Unconscious biases are the subconscious and often automatic way in which we make a decision. They can often determine what we’re drawn to about a brand or a business, based on past experiences, visual appeal, cultural acceptance, and peer review.
For example, two businesses manufacture and sell the same products, and sit across the road from each other. Which do you choose to enter: The one with the fading and damaged sign on the door, or the one with an attractive, sleek sign which instantly signals quality? It could well be that the first one is the better business, with higher ratings and better long-term customer relationships. But you can’t tell that from the signage at the front, and that is ultimately where your initial decision was made.
Another example is being seen among the younger generation. Branding matters. They’re more likely to choose a brand which aligns with their values. To invest in a business, or a brand, is to know and understand exactly what they’re about. If the business doesn’t have the right look or values for their target market, they’ll choose another that does. Thanks to the power of media – and the fact that a lot of people like to share their views on their social media – they’ll tell their followers and friends.
The emphasis on how social media is being used to promote brands, products and services is one which is also driving how brands look… if your signage looks good in a photo or a reel, then you stand a better chance! It’s why so many companies include an “Instagram-worthy” element into their branding – from the way signage is created, to a branded wall within the premises, to developing hashtags which help their customers share/find them online.
If a brand looks good, it’s synonymous with how it appears to be one of quality, and worth spending at. And so, the “cover” of your business is well and truly judged. If it looks out of date or cheap, you are less likely to find new, or more customers.
If you don’t invest in how your business looks, why should customers invest in you?
Whether you like it or not, your business is being judged by how it looks, first and foremost, before customers begin to do research into your business. This is true whether you’re operating in the B2B or B2C areas.
Here are some interesting statistics, released at the end of June, for us to ponder:
- 55% of a brand’s first impressions are visual (US Chamber of Commerce)
- The colour choice you use can increase brand recognition by up to 80% (Loyola)
- Consumers are 81% more likely to recall your colour than remember your name (Reboot)
- 77% of consumers prefer shopping with brands they follow on social media (SproutSocial)
- 64% of consumers have used a brands hashtag, or tagged them, on social media (TINT)
- Brand consistency can increase your business revenue by 10-20% (Lucidpress)
- BUT: 15% of companies don’t have brand guidelines (Lucidpress)
- And almost half of businesses publish off-brand content a few times per year (Lucidpress)
How your business looks at every level – online, in print, in a physical building, etc – matters.
But, we’ve got a loyal customer base who don’t care about how we look
Really? How much user-generated content are your customers producing, which features photos of the way your business looks? The way to really know this is whether they’re happy to show off your business branding! How you look reflects the perception of quality.
There was a reason, in the not-too-distant past, why Saville Row was the goal for aspiring tailors. And the businesses that operated from such a prestigious address needed to have the right look to go with it.
The way you look, which portrays the quality of your business, is also a reflection of your brand’s messaging, which is what customers consciously buy into. There’s a reason why the jaguar rebrand failed, and sales have dropped 97.5%.
You love your brand, but see it from someone else’s shoes
If you want your business to grow from strength to strength, is it time you looked at its cover through the eyes of potential new customers? Do you have the right colours? The right font? The right look? Is the brand consistent everywhere a customer is likely to find you, or do you look like different companies online compared to in-person? Does your signage truly represent the quality of your products or services?
Need an expert eye to assess your brand?
At FASTSIGNS, our network are experts in understanding how best to give your business an appealing and consistent look. If you want an objective pair of eyes to look at your brand from a customer perspective, we’d be happy to take a look.
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