Cultivating a new brand identity for your retail store involves endowing it with unique characteristics. With an estimated 64% of retail shoppers forging relationships with brands based on shared values, the need for a brand identity is paramount.
If you own a brick-and-mortar retail store, it is often a case of doing more than just having the premises. Your brand identity needs to be at the heart of everything you do, and it needs to be evident in the shopping experience. Here are a few strategies for making this happen most effectively.
Consistency
Consistency is one of the best tools at your disposal for engineering a brand identity. Every time your customers interact with the brand, regardless of medium (email, physical shopping, online shopping), the emotion they experience needs to be positive every time.
Consistency allows you to forge a reputation based on an associated emotion or experience. If you make sure that every time your customer interacts with you, they feel taken care of, that’s the sensation your brand identity becomes synonymous with.
Signs
Signage is arguably the most critical part of a brick-and-mortar shop because, for many customers, it is the beginning of their experiences. The majority of new visitors to the site will have their first experience of your business by looking at your sign.
Signage can also extend to window displays too, so you need to make sure that everything is coordinated and working in tandem. Visual presentations can help to cement a brand identity, which is vital for business growth.
The Logo
Staying with the importance of visual components for a moment, the logo is a vital part of your experiences. A logo represents something crucial for any company, which means that you need to focus on creating a recognisable offering that evokes the sensation you need.
The logo must find its way onto every product you create. A good logo won’t overwhelm customers, but it won’t go unnoticed either. These concepts can be challenging to try and align, but a powerful logo will make all the difference for the brand identity. Then you need to cleverly use this in your retail store to make subtle associations.
The Colours
It is estimated that colour recognition can aid in brand identity by an increase of 80%. That’s a huge benefit, but many people don’t utilise these colour schemes in the right way.
Don’t be fooled – colour can be challenging to get right. Certain colours generate specific emotions in people – red often represents passion, for example. Utilising an effective colour scheme is among the best ways to make sure that you successfully create a brand identity, but it’s vital to match colour with desired emotion – when the two clash, it doesn’t work.
The Lighting
Lighting is vital for a business because it demonstrates intention and creates an atmosphere. Whether it’s the more subdued mood lighting of a restaurant or the harsh, bright LED’s of a retail store, lighting is critical.
Your brand identity ties into lighting because it all contributes to the type of experience you create. If you want a relaxed, pleasant trip, you’ll enjoy more mellow lights, but make sure they don’t leave your customers straining to read labels or ingredients of products. It’s all about striking a balance.
Final Thoughts
All of these concepts individually have to line up together to get the best results. You can’t rely too heavily on one or the other – building a brand identity requires you to have a delicate balance of all of these concepts.
We can help with either just consultation on the above or more or help you with the fit-out or project management.
