7 Steps to Branding Success: Step 3 - Keep it simple
by Jonas Blake on May.05, 2009, under Social Upgrade
KISS: Besides being a band
of relative success and questionable taste in facepaint, it is also a great acronym.
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
This is very appropriate when it comes to branding. A simple brand is incredibly important, for several reasons.
1: A simple brand is easy to remember. It is important to have a brand that is easily associated with you or your company, and so it has to be easy to remember.
2: A simple brand is easy to incorporate. In order to stay congruent with your brand, everything from your advertising to your slogan to your shirts should point back to your brand, and if you have a complicated brand image, this can get hard to do. After all, how do you make a slogan that implies your company “has a great work ethic, cares about animals (but mostly pandas), likes long walks on the beach, and does software really well, mostly in the military field.”
Actually, a panda made of lines of code and carrying a rocket launcher would be pretty cool. But you get the idea.
Examples of great brands that keep it simple are everywhere, from Nike’s Just Do It to Geico’s Save 15% (or more!). The trick is not so much to have a short slogan, but to have a simple concept.
For instance, Coca-Cola does not exactly have a slogan like Nike or Geico, but it does have a concept, which can be nicely summed up by “Ahhhh…” - refreshing, fun, tasty, etc. Simple, yes. Easy to remember, on a feeling basis, yes. Easy to associate with all kinds of advertising, yes. Check plus for Coke.
So learn from the best, and keep your brand identity simple, stupid.
