When it comes to your interior branding, it’s easy to consider what you want, but it’s much more difficult to control what you say.
An essential part of outreach, choosing the right branding can help project a positive image about your work that will help you raise awareness and increase engagement. However, failing to consider your branding can result in a net negative that can be time-consuming to fix and derail your attempts to capture the competitive edge that many companies strive for.
So, what exactly does branding your business mean and what advantages does mindful and effective interior branding work carry?
What does it mean to ‘brand’ your business?
Your brand is made up of two key elements:
The first is your brand identity – this represents the materials, content, and imagery that you create to support your business. This can range from press releases, logos and slogans, your product range and more. Once complete, these are added to your products as well as your online and interior branding with the end goal of carrying a particular message.
However, once your branding is in the public eye, the second element of your brand comes into play – your brand image. This is how your business or service is viewed in the eye of your clients and customers. And while you may have a clear goal with the branding that you have created, how it is digested by end-users can be vastly different.
This makes understanding and addressing your brand perception incredibly difficult. If correctly managed, making small investments of time, effort, and resource can provide significant returns. And if not properly cared for, the smallest shift or mis-step can have serious consequences.
Why is perception so important?
Crucially, brand perception is what your customers believe, say, and think your product or service does – not what you tell them.
Tracking and understanding brand perception has always been extremely important and the new decade marks a time where this has never been truer. The rise of social media and always online culture allows businesses to directly address their audiences and capitalise on opportunities in the marketplace to advertise and engage with integrity.
However, the fast-moving rate of change can leave companies looking outdated, or inauthentic – losing your brand valuable cultural capital and resulting in a conflict between your messaging and perception.
Starting from your inside out can be a helpful way to help consolidate this identity and revise your approach. Whether you are considering a design identity interior refit or end-to-end redesign, taking the time to understand how your branding impacts your audience can prove to be incredibly effective.
What ways can your interior branding influence others?
While the idea of ‘perception’ can feel vague, the benefits and risks can prove to be very real indeed. This includes, but is not limited to-
Trust: If your audience has a positive impression of your brand, this paves the way for them to develop trust in your product or service. This is incredibly valuable for any business and leads to repeat business, recommendations, and recurring engagement. However, once lost, trust is very hard to regain. Having a quality brand identity applied to your office can encourage client conversions, leave a positive impact on your customers, and help build loyalty from your staff.
Awareness: Having a quality brand can help raise your profile both commercially and in terms of attracting high-quality hires. Internal branding can help your business stand out in a crowded marketplace and encourage engagement in the long and short-term. Making your logo and design scheme distinctive is an essential part of internal and external branding. If your ‘identity’ is indiscernible from the competition, outdated, or worse; you can end up doing more harm than good.
Revenue Generation: Of course, any professional development needs to be undertaken with the view to securing recurring revenue. Developing a distinctive, positive, and timely brand can help you secure a solid client base and help weather any changes to the marketplace. However, it’s essential to remember that there are few processes more time and resource heavy than rebranding a business. Taking the time to ensure that you get it right first time is not only helpful but essential for entities of all sizes.
What next?
If you want to learn more about the role that interior branding can play in your business, our team at Sisu Projects is here to help. With many years’ experience supporting a range of clients, we work with you to understand your brand and help you optimise your impact when it matters most.
You can view our list of services in full from here and review our regularly updated list of client testimonials. If you have specific questions about your branding, please do not hesitate to contact us directly and let a member of our team know exactly what you need to optimise your approach today.