First impressions can make or break a sale. And as an entrepreneur, you want to make sure that you are presenting your business optimally. Branding your store goes further than a simple logo, but also considers the core philosophy that your business portrays.
There are several different criteria that you should be aware of when presenting your business. In this article we hope to shed some light on the optimal steps you should take when branding for eCommerce.
Niche
The topic of interest in a given market can be called a Niche. There are hundreds of different markets to tap into, each with its own demographic of customers. Knowing what products you want to sell or what customers you want to reach will determine the Niche your store with fall into.
Core Audience
Who are your customers? What age and gender are the demographic? Having a clear vision of who your core audience is will make it easier to tailor your brand around. They should feel like your store was made specifically for them because it should be.
Cross Interest
What other things are your core audience interested in. And how can you incorporate that into your brand aesthetically.
Using tools like Google Trends and Facebook Audience Insight will give you the means of answering these questions. Do your research and try to figure out who your core audience is before the branding process. This will make it easier to target a specific market as you are tailoring your brand to fit that interest.
After you’ve done a considerable amount of research you can now build a store to suit your core audience. It’s at this point where you want to think of a name, logo, slogan, color pallet, and tone of voice for your store. Having all these things will give a sense of uniformity to your eCommerce site and advertisements.
Store Name
Your store name should be related to the Niche in some form. You will also be using this as your Domain Name/URL. Try to pick something memorable as you want it to stick in people’s heads and be easily repeated through word of mouth.
Logo
This is the symbol of your brand and should be easily recognizable. Typically logos are simple in shape and have no more than 4 colors incorporated into them.
Slogan
Also known as a tagline. This is a short sentence that can sum up your overall brand philosophy. Short and sweet is the best approach.
Color Pallet
Some companies trademark the specific colors of their brand, this is how powerful color can be when establishing an identity. Starbucks has a certain shade of green that they use on all their products and uniforms. Do some research on color theory related to marketing and try to find five different colors that work well with each other.
The Tone of Voice
When a customer reads your ads and product descriptions, what tone of voice is heard in their mind. Car commercials have a different tone than an ad for Disneyland. And it’s up to you to determine what tone can your customer trust the most.
We hope this information has been helpful and gives you some idea of how to approach your next big venture. It’s very important to consider what image you are portraying to your potential customers.
And designing your brand with the customer in mind will improve your retention rates over longer terms. Gives you a much better chance of reaching the point of sustainability.
