Wherever we go, we see various brands around us, brands are addictive and no matter what we love them or hate them, but the fact is we cannot ignore them in the coming days. They offer emotions, quality, values, and most important promise.
Modern customers expect substance and want your brand to uphold company values which will reflect more with the committed promises towards them. It takes effective brand strategies and years to build a strong identity that will represent your brand. The top challenges which brand managers face are as below:
25.7% creating personalized messages for the correct audience
23% identifying the right technology which will support personalized experience
21.8% balancing brand personalization and brand voice source
It is a fact that branding in the 21st century is not at all cakewalk brands have to struggle and adopt various techniques to sustain in a competitive world.
Branding in 2020 is adopting a different approach wherein DesignerPeople will take a close look at the most critical branding trends towards 2020, which are affecting business, brand, and culture.
Below are ten branding trends which your business should capitalize in 2020.
1.TELL YOUR BRAND STORY
” A Good Story Should Change the way you see the World ”
~ Chuck Palahniuk
A brand story is not about companies ‘about page’; it is more than that where the focus is on building human connections. It is the process of sharing emotional information about how the brand came into existence. Everyone loves listening to stories and news when conveyed through story has a higher brand recall. The story connects the audience with culture, values and history that will unite people.
Customers relate to stories and trust them, which are connected to people and are in a personalized way. Packaging design should communicate brand story and emotion so that it will connect audience emotionally. Get in touch with packaging design company to get done designs which will be convey story creatively.
Other way to humanize your brand is to take people behind the scenes, which can be just by sharing employee stories on brands social media which increase people connection.
Example: Coca-Cola is carrying a very rich brand story with it, which focuses majorly on spreading happiness.
Source: clutch.co/agencies/branding/resources/how-create-branding-strategy-works
2.RESPONSIVE BRAND LOGO
“Your Logo is the Face of your Brand“
When everything is changing at a fast pace, how do we expect the brand logo to stay static. With shrinking screen sizes and the emergence of various new platforms in branding and marketing emerge the need for flexible logos.
Responsive logos are the one whose shape, size, complexity and colour differ to adapt to whatever medium is the place. In 2020 it will be less of fad and more like a practical requirement for such logos which will rule out the old sayings “never change your logo” concept.
When you design a responsive logo, it should break down into four versions. The first variation should include all the components of design followed by the other three types, which will get smaller in size by eliminating various parts as per placement medium. Connect logo design agency to get responsive brand logo designed.
Example: Kodak, Google, Disney these are the logo who beautifully adopt their shape and size depending upon the medium.
3.SERVE YOUR OFFLINE-COMMUNITY
“Nothing is so Healing as the Human Touch”
~ Bobby Fischer
We speak a lot about online communities, but due to the increase in technology, the more human-centric interactions and emotions are valued more. We are glued to phones, laptops and internet engrossed in the online world we forget to check out on beautiful and real things. As a brand, it is essential to not only show your human side online but also offline.
The benefits which are obtained by building an offline community as part of the overall brand strategy in 2020 will be as below:
People will become real by actually meeting and interacting with them
Connecting people emotionally at a more profound sense
Increase in respect and patience
Face to face better feedbacks are obtain
It will also boost the online engagements
Example: There are doctors, artists who conduct workshops and seminars in which they distribute information to the community of people without charging them.
Harley Davidson gathers rider community and conducts various offline group perks, meetings and events.
4.SERVE ONLINE COMMUNITIES
“Most of my sales done when i’m not selling”
There are various online forums which provide a platform where consumers can discuss brand concern topics and give each other advice and feedback. The brand understands consumer’s needs issues and preferences without the motive of selling them.
67% of brands use their communities for insights on the new launch of products or service and features. Talk about selling without actually selling! The customers will instantly become your brand ambassadors hence inspiring others to use the products with productive feedback and suggestions. Website chat, Instagram, YouTube and voice search such as Alexa, Amazon Echo are elements which will encourage the interactive sessions.
Example: Starbucks has a forum where coffee enthusiasts discuss and share their ideas through “My Starbucks Idea”. Voting and sharing are encouraged here the environment makes the customer feel good and valued as in reality, they are. Starbucks can then utilize this online forum information to analyze what customers want, how their preferences change, and what motivates them the most.
Source: https://jmoslow.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/starbucks.jpg?w=640
5.RESPONSIBLE BRANDING
“Be the Change you want to See in the World”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Branding in 2020 will focus on social welfare along with their practical elements. Here the company reputation depends upon public reaction to what business is doing to support the current environmental situation.
People like good brands, the brands that are sensitive towards people societal pain points and try to address them through branding and marketing activities.
Responsive branding helps in increasing trust, raise awareness, and encourage social change. Millennial strongly believe that brands can eliminate social problems, and they want brands that will care about the environment and be more intentional about diversity, opportunity and inclusion.
Example: Tata tea is responsible for branding by launching a brand campaign under the theme of “Jaago Re” they addressed the awareness towards social issues and its solutions.
Tata group is known as the most valuable brand and people associate brand with high ideals, to help in being more human goodness and principle.
6.HUMANIZED WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
“The Best and Most Beautiful Things in the World cannot be seen or Even Touched. They must be felt with the Heart”
~ Helen Keller
In the era of the digital-driven experience, the upcoming years will focus on bringing the more human experiences to a human who engages with the brand on an everyday basis. The need to mix human empathy with the power of automation; hence, the motive should be of using AI to be more social.
The increasing humanized AI experiences will help brands to uncover insights that will help to put them in the customer perspective hence increases the empathy level.
To integrate the humanized AI experience brand has to start with data, secure data will act as a foundation in place. Customers are human, and they love connecting with people and their human values and desires. They want you to create experiences that effortlessly connect them to what matters most.
Example: When we contact any mobile brand customer care after a few auto directions, it also provides us with the option of speaking to their executive. A lot of issues are resolved by communicating with people directly.
Source: www.krome.sg/blog/chatbots-vs-human-agents/
7.GO GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL
“Communication is the Key for any Global Business”
~ Anita Roddick
It is a success mantra for people who are in digital and branding world. Think global and act local means to tailor the marketing campaigns as per geographical audience, tastes and preferences as per their local markets. It is essential to adopt a product to a particular language, culture and desired local requirements or else product will fail to connect people emotionally. Acting local gives people a “sense of belonging” and justifies their identities. There are also various advantages of working local such as local resources will get at low prices and productive workforce. The term is not only used in a business context but is implement in planning, environment, education and mathematics.
Example: Mc Donalds is a company which went global but adopted its menu as per the local favourites of those countries such as McItaly burger in Italy, Maharaja Mac in India and McLobster in Canada.
Source: www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/mcdonalds-international-menu-items-review
8.BRAND INFLUENCER
Influencers have been useful forms of connecting with the community, and this trend has no signs of diminishing. It is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placements from influencers. A brand influencer is an individual who utilizes her or his social media presence to engage and connect audiences and brands. 2020 will be a year of organic influencers who are the real people who are already purchasing your brand products and services and create content about your brand. They are your brands loyal advocates their authentic passion towards you will act as great brand influencers irrespective of their follower’s size. Organic influencers are the best way to increase
Around 9.8x are more likely to make a purchase when they see a peer’s social post, as compared to that of a traditional social media influencer. source
An organic brand influencer on Instagram is going to be in the boom by 2020 and will have an impact on growth positively.
Example: Sanjeev Kapoor is a famous Indian chef who is also a very active food blogger with massive followers on Instagram and Facebook. People value his knowledge and intellectual capacity related to food.
9.MOBILE FIRST
Vertical screens are already gaining a lot of eye-balls; today, mobile has become a significant part of everybody’s life. 2020 will be all about increasing mobile user interaction. To stay relevant and gain competitive advantage brand strategy is to focus on their presence on mobiles. In face moving pace life, the one thing which everyone is carrying for sure is their mobile phones, and hence the potential of reading emails, browsing on mobile is high. Therefore make sure content is custom fit or else you will lose the competition.
Mobiles are not only part of branding strategy but also part of core strategic decision making. Smartphone users perform various activities on their phones 150 times per day. Source
Example: Effective Call To Action should be designed with bright colour, especially contrast with the background. Font should be clear and prominent enough while subject lines and paragraphs should be shorter too. Content should be creative and exciting compared to the traditional way.
Source: sosyalforum.org/mechanic-recruiting-flyers
10.GAIN IN BRAND LOYALTY WITH CREATIVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
“Happy Employees Lead to Happy Customers,
which Leads to more Profit”
~ Vaughn Aust
As per the study by Bulbshare, their statistics say that 77% of shoppers prefer brands that collaborate with them. This is because the simple act of letting them join your creative process empowers them. In the modern-day business blueprint, the crucial role has been played by customers where brands are directly involving customers in the process of development of products.
2020 will be about reinforcing the customer-driven branding campaign, which can be achieved by utilizing correct CRM tools and marketing software solutions. These tools will help the brand to understand, track customers and will help to organize the strategies.
These activities will increase the customer experience and engagement, which will, in turn, sustain loyal customers with the brand. Customer experience will be more prominent compared to product and price as a differentiator in the coming days.
Examples: Brands providing customer care service for 24/7 online. Brands should give liberty to track orders and even communicate directly. Provide various offers, perks and discounts to loyal customers.
CONCLUSION
With increasing massive distractions online daily, the tradition branding techniques seem to be powerless. Companies have to up the game by adopting the branding trends and stay relevant. Stay relevant and to gain competitive advantage, it is essential to track trends in branding 2020 and act accordingly.
Building a brand in coming days will take more effort compared to before. Focus now will shift more on how a brand acts instead of how the brand looks if you are planning to enter into the world of branding contact professional branding agency who will give you in-depth creative ideas depending upon the type of business.
Source: https://www.designerpeople.com/blog/branding/10-creative-branding-trends-2020/
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