As a leading branding agency in Cheltenham, the SOZO team often gets asked by clients what the term actually means. Our answer can be eye-opening. Branding means far more than a flashy logo or cutting-edge website (although both of these are core elements of branding).

Branding is the art of making people think about your firm the way you want them to. Everything you say and do, the products and services you put out there, the values you stand for – it all impacts on your brand, or how you are perceived, for better or worse, by your customers. Social posts, marketing literature, business cards – there’s nothing that branding doesn’t touch.

Branding can be bewildering, but the good news is that you can master it – with a little help from an expert branding agency. Since 2000, SOZO has helped more than 300 businesses develop their branding in Cheltenham and beyond. Here’s a quick introduction from our branding agency experts.

Why should I care about branding?

People often think of a brand as just a logo, but as any good branding agency will tell you, it’s so much more than this. Branding relates to everything you do and say as a company. Your brand tells the story of who you are. But most importantly, your brand reflects how a person feels about you. This feeling is made up of thousands of interactions which all get stored away in a person’s mind.

Each of us has subconscious ‘dossiers’ stored in our brains on thousands of companies. Every time someone sees your logo, website, signage or brochure, this gets put into their ‘folder’ on you. But the brand doesn’t stop there. Every time someone speaks to you on the phone, meets with you, receives an email from you, or uses your products and services, this also gets added to their subconscious dossier on your brand. That’s why it’s so important to work with a branding agency who can ensure that only good things go in!

So, when thinking about your brand, don’t just consider its visual representation. You need to think about how your whole company presents itself to the outside world. From how you answer the phone to how your website is designed, it all adds up to how a person feels about you – in short, your brand. As a leading brand agency in Cheltenham, our job at SOZO is to make sure that impression is what you want it to be.

Isn’t branding just for big business?

Absolutely not. While SOZO’s branding agency experts work with firms of every size, we would argue that branding is equally important for small companies. Large firms have marketing budgets to match, which they can use to manipulate how people feel about their company. SMEs, on the other hand, have far less to spend on influencing their public persona – so it’s vital that every pound they spend with a branding agency gives ROI.

Branding for SMEs

When a multi-million pound TV campaign isn’t an option, SMEs must rely on a far more personal interaction with their customers to determine their brand. That’s where the input of a good branding agency can be invaluable. As a specialist branding agency, SOZO works with our SME clients to develop a brand strategy that targets the right audience at the perfect time, and evolves alongside their operation into the future.

So how do I change our brand?

The first step to changing your brand is to decide who you are and how you want people to feel about you. This is harder than it sounds, and SOZO’s expert branding designers start off by helping our clients to unlock their brand story. You need to get to the core of who you are as a company and what exactly you do. Take a good, hard look in the mirror and decide what is your real point of difference from your competitors.

Once you’ve determined your core brand values, you then need to instil these into all of your staff. Everyone must believe in your brand and convey a consistent message to the outside world. Next, you need to visually represent this message with a strong, clear and consistent brand identity – for example, your logo, stationery, website and brochures – and ensure that all internal staff adhere to this with a strict set of brand guidelines.

How can a branding agency help my business?

Effective branding means different things for different businesses. The branding of a multinational fast-food chain, for example, takes a very different approach to a domestic legal firm – and a good branding agency will approach the project accordingly. Drawing on two decades’ experience as a respected branding agency in Cheltenham, SOZO can develop every element of your brand, from the visible brand identity across your marketing materials to the tone of voice in your messaging. But our branding agency experts go deeper – with everything we do underpinned by the brand story.

How can a branding agency help with a brand’s story?

Think of your logo and company name as the tip of a branding iceberg. Just below the surface is your brand story, meaning the fundamental essence of who you are as a business, taking in everything from values and culture to ambitions and mission statement. Unlike your logo, the brand story might not always be visible, but it’s always there at the heart of your company, driving internal strategy and sending out subconscious messages to your customers. At SOZO, one of the first things our branding agency experts do is sit down with you to understand what makes you unique, before developing a brand strategy that lets you capitalise on that individuality.

How can a branding agency help with brand strategy?

Alongside a clear and consistent brand identity, a brand strategy means deciding how, when and where you will deliver your brand messaging, who you’ll be targeting, and what success looks like to you. Your brand strategy is a central part of our branding agency work at SOZO. Trust our team to show you the way forward, from the big launch of your rebrand to any twists and turns the future may hold.

Why is branding so important?

For as long as there have been competing companies, customers have been brand-aware, but in 2020, it’s more important than ever to put your business in the hands of an expert branding agency. Statistics reveal that businesses with an authentic and ethical brand identity outperform the stock market by 134%. On the flip side, the companies that have gone off-brand during the COVID-19 crisis and Black Lives Matter movement have turned off customers and tarnished their reputation.

As a leading branding agency in Cheltenham, SOZO can help you master your brand. To discover how we can help, call us on 01242 511912 or email info@sozodesign.co.uk

Find out more about our branding services >