With the world’s marketplace getting more and more competitive, it has never been more important that it is now to have a strong brand image. There are multiple brand touchpoints - from brick-and-mortar stores to e-comm, social media to print advertising. The diversity of these outlets makes it crucial for a brand to be recognizable and have staying power in the minds of its customers.
Imitation is the best form of flattery, to be sure, but NOT when it comes to branding. This is something that I personally have seen countless times. While scrolling through Instagram, as you do, I have seen multiple brands posting similar looking content - with fonts and all to clearly emulate a more successful brand. Either in the same industry or another one. Spotify, for example, is known for their bold white fonts on colorful backgrounds. It sticks out and is very Warhol-esque. When I was browsing Issuu, a free publication aggregator - I stumbled across a film festival brochure that looks like the Spotify creative team did it in-house. It’s a simple enough visual to copy - two-toned images with white text splashed across. But it was EXTREMELY recognizable!
The reason a certain visual identity works for a company is because it aligns with their entire product/service offering, their core values and their past branding. This may sound idealistic, but really. A lot of work goes in behind-the-scenes for a logos, campaigns, fonts to be associated with a particular brand. This is the problem with cookie cutter visual branding and here's why:
1. You end up having a suspiciously large number of brands (sometimes in the same category, sometimes not) that have similar imagery. Although it is almost impossible to come up with something COMPLETELY new - it is possible to not make it look exactly the same as something else. Copyright is a tricky enough business as it is. And everyone browses the internet for inspiration - Behance, Pinterest, Instagram - you name it. I myself do it. But once you start aligning your visual with another brands’ - it becomes very difficult to pull away and create a look of your own.
2. And it can only cause confusion among customers and show a blatant lack of sincerity on the brand's part. With the age of the internet, it is so easy to find out where we've seen that familiar looking logo, or that campaign that you saw on the subway that's giving you deja-vu feels. And bam. Say goodbye to your likes and follows. And never underestimate the power of Google image search.
3. If a smaller, lesser known company bases it's branding off a larger, more recognizable one - there's always that glass ceiling. IF the brand ever makes it big and gains visibility (and isn't that what all brands want?), you're going to be out in the open and caught red handed. Be a dear and go back to the drawing board. Trust me. A couple (hundred) more design meetings won't kill you.
4. And if a brand does end up wanting to change things mid-way after they get cold feet - major rebranding is always a toss up. Look at the Google or Mastercard logo evolution. It's one tiny change at a time. And even THAT attracts the attention of critics. Drastic changes for no reason show lack of commitment and are always a red flag.
It has become so easy to create graphic assets and design websites - with little or no design expertise. Just look at Gimp, Canva, Wix, Squarespace. It's great that this skill has become so accessible to smaller business and entrepreneurs, especially those with small budgets. But make sure you (or your creative team) is being careful while building your brand image - make it yours!
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