Branding is an important part of every organization since it helps to separate a firm from its competitors and build a distinct identity in the market. To remain relevant and competitive in today’s ever-changing business world, organizations must keep up with the latest branding trends. With that in mind, here are some of the top branding trends to watch in 2023.
1. Logo Adaptability:
Companies must be present everywhere if they are to be noticed. That is, it is no longer sufficient to simply have a physical store that is promoted online and through marketing. If you want to prosper in the digital age, you must have a website as well as be present on many social networking platforms. As a result of this trend, many businesses are now creating shape-shifting logo designs. This simply implies that the size, intricacy, or color of your logos will vary depending on the application. For example, you may have a master logo for your website and a simpler icon for your Instagram account.
You can assure consistency no matter what medium your logo is viewed in by having these different variations. That is, it enables you to make your logo work regardless of the layout on which it is utilized. Furthermore, it allows your clients to perceive your branding in a variety of ways, improving the likelihood of brand recall.
2. Nostalgic Brand Marketing:
In the digital age, trends have become a focal point. People constantly check their social media accounts for the latest technology, gadgets, fashion design, and industry trends. However, for many consumers, the culture of “keeping up with the Joneses” can be stressful and exhausting. This is why blasts from the past are becoming more important in branding.
Many people yearn for the past and want to relive the way things used to be. You can evoke these old recollections and associate positive sensations with your products and services by using nostalgic brand marketing.
As a result, you can increase your chances of increasing customer trust and brand memory. One example is Microsoft’s “Child of the 90s” advertisement from 2013. This campaign aims to reintroduce Internet Explorer to kids in their twenties and thirties who grew up in the 1990s. Spotify’s flashback ads, which revive the 80s and 90s culture and relate it to 2019 trends, are a more contemporary example that newer firms might emulate.
3. Branded Visual Content
Humans are visual beings. We naturally retain photos better than any other type of content. However, from the standpoint of brand marketing, this does not imply that all sorts of visual material will evoke the same response from your target demographic.
According to a PR News survey, online content with good photographs generates 94% more views than those without (Solve, 2020). This is because this form of visual material tries to promote your business without the risk of overt advertising.
Furthermore, visual content such as GIFs, charts, infographics, and videos help you generate new leads on social media more successfully. They have a better chance of being seen than advertising that just lists the things you have to sell. This is especially crucial now that Facebook has updated its algorithm to prioritize friends and family above advertisers in news feeds (Forbes, 2018). As a result, many B2C marketers (54%) are now focusing on developing videos and webinars (Content Marketing Institute, 2020), which are frequently utilized in conjunction with social media content to increase their efficiency.
Of course, before implementing this method, make sure to produce images that suit your brand’s aesthetic. For example, if it’s an infographic, utilize your official font style and color scheme to embellish it. Place your logo in the bottom right corner if it’s a video. Customers will know that you created the content this way. This helps you to advertise your brand discretely.
4. Social Media Branding
The internet’s accessibility has opened the path for an always-on social media culture. As a result, sites like Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram have become great locations for building your brand. As a result, it is not surprising that 90% of firms use social media to increase brand recognition.
That being said, you should be mindful of how you present your products and services on these platforms. An excellent place to start is to identify which sites your clients frequent and research the format of each social network. After all, these platforms cater to many types of material. Twitter, for example, focuses more on written information, whereas Instagram relies more on pictures.
Following that, you’ll need to develop a consistent aesthetic theme for your accounts. To give your company a more established identity, create a color scheme and a standard for photo editing and layout.
Finally, you must create a voice for your brand. Do you want to come across as formal? Quirky? Punny? Create and keep to a global language that speaks to your intended audience.
5. Official Hashtags
Still, on the subject of social media, another branding trend that has emerged in recent years is the usage of official hashtags. On Instagram alone, seven out of ten hashtags are sponsored (Omnicore, 2021). Furthermore, Instagram posts with at least one hashtag receive 12.6% more engagement than those without (Later, 2021).
You can reach out to your customers’ followers by encouraging them to post about their recent purchases from your company and utilizing the hashtag. You may also upload screenshots of these user-generated posts on your social media page to inspire other customers to share their experiences with your brand and urge leads to buy.
Hashtags can be used to gauge the pulse of your customers in addition to engaging them. Closely monitoring these might provide you with a better understanding of how people perceive your brand. Furthermore, having separate hashtags for various items and services allows you to track their influence on your clients.
6. Doing More With Less
Doing more with less is really about having a bigger impression with fewer parts. It’s not about minimalism, which uses beige, white, and neutrals with a lot of white space. Instead, this style employs the fewest features necessary for a brand to convey the greatest degree of expression and personality.
These brands use one or two colors with large, clear lettering. They just employ what is required to communicate the message, tone, and personality. This branding trend corresponds to the common feeling of having too much when we can all get by with far less. In response to all of this excess, marketers are retaliating by doing more with less.
7. Humanizing brand personality with a Mascot
A character that represents a company or brand is known as a brand mascot. to the extent of human beings in the form of the world. Customers can connect with a brand on a more personal level when it has a personality and a face. The Mickey Mouse character, for example, is a mascot for the Disney brand and is frequently used to advertise the business and its different products and services. The usage of a mascot can also serve to establish a sense of nostalgia and familiarity among consumers, which can aid in the development of brand loyalty.
In 2023, we’ll witness an increase in strong brand mascots that are front and center in branding. These mascots add a distinct personality that uses human attributes, rather than merely being a good design flare for a brand.
8. Customer Driven Branding
Customer-centricity has reached new heights in the modern business landscape. Being customer-driven meant more than just doing surveys to learn what your target market wanted. Customers are now directly involved in the development of products by brands. According to a Bulbshare study, 77% of shoppers prefer brands that collaborate with them (Bulbshare, 2018). Simply allowing them to participate in your creative process empowers them. Furthermore, this method makes you appear more trustworthy and genuine. According to the same study, the majority of these consumers (86%) regard customer-driven brands as more trustworthy. Meanwhile, 81% of them regard collaborative brands as more real than their competition.
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