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“I need to work on branding. I need to redesign my logo and improve how my website looks.”
This is a superficial understanding of branding and one that will get you nowhere. Sadly, that’s the mindset of many small-minded businesses and self-proclaimed marketing professionals in Singapore.
What’s Branding
Branding has little to do with what can be seen, and everything to do with what can be perceived. It goes far beyond the superficial collection of images, colours, and sounds, to the first thing that comes to mind whenever someone mentions your brand name.
So, what exactly is a brand?
A brand is what a business, firm, organisation, institution, or products and services, stand for in the minds and hearts of its target audience. It can also be defined as a set of expectations, stories, and memories that, when taken together, are the main reason a consumer may choose one product or service over another.
What’s Brand Identity
Brand identity can be defined as the face of your brand. It’s the visual representation of your brand, and it includes things such as colours, logo, typography, messaging, and packaging.
It’s meant to attract customers to your business, while also making them feel at home. It’s both outward and inward-facing.
How to Create a Brand Identity
To create a brand identity that’s attractive, strong, and consistent, you need to work on the following seven key elements:
Determine Your Brand Purpose and Brand Positioning
The first step to creating a solid brand identity is defining your brand purpose. Brand purpose can be looked at as the main reason your business exists in the first place. Brand positioning defines your target audience and a list of all the things that make your products or services better than any other option on the market.
Thorough Market Research
Market research is what informs your brand’s purpose and mission. It’s by understanding your target market that you’ll be able to refine your purpose and position your brand better. Market research is usually conducted through interviews, face-to-face interaction with potential customers, surveys, and so on.
Likeable Brand Personality
Think of your brand as a person. What personality does it have? It’s what defines the tone and voice you use to communicate your marketing message. An established brand personality means your customers will have an easy time connecting with your brand. Otherwise, you’ll be sending them mixed messages, which often leaves them confused.
Memorable Logo
A logo should match, enhance, and compliment your brand. This makes it an integral piece of your brand identity, one which the people that interact with your brand are exposed to the most. Your logo should be in synch with the rest of the visual elements that represent your brand, besides communicating the visual appeal of your brand.
Attractive Colour Palette
Closely connected to your logo is the colour palette that you choose for your brand. It suggested that you at most use 3 colour palettes. Even more important, you want to understand the emotions conveyed by each colour you choose to make sure you’re sending the right message out there.
Professional Typography
Professional typography isn’t just about finding unique fonts but finding one that works in harmony with your colour palette and logo. Don’t be too pedantic, though.
Here are a few pointers to observe when deciding on the right typography:
- Avoid using fancy fonts, unless you’re an advanced graphic designer who understands the art and science behind fonts pretty well.
- Avoid using default fonts. Reason being they’re not a good way to stand out since they lack the unique factor.
- Never mix two or more font families at once. Stick to one, and if you must use them both, make sure it’s for two entirely different purposes.
- Avoid mixing contrasting fonts.
- It’s never a great idea to use all-calls to draw attention or emphasise your text
- Avoid using hyphenation. But that can be justified when the line text consists of more than 60 characters.
On-brand Supporting Graphics
The final step to creating a solid brand identity is working on the extended visual language of your brand, including photos, icons, and design assets.
Google has some interesting visual assets guidelines on icon designs. Here’s their take on everything:
- Use a reductive or flat approach when designing the icons
- Icons should face the front
- Standard background colours
- Straight hard shows, not curved and soft ones
- If you have to choose, go for geometric shapes
- Padding should be done according to the icon’s shape
Choosing a Branding Agency in Singapore
At its core, branding shouldn’t be outsourced. But there are core aspects of it that should be handled by a professional.
One example of a company that witnessed unprecedented success after rebranding is Netflix. Before that they were just a small company that was struggling to find its footing, and then they rebranded and they were transformed into a hundred billion-dollar company.
Keep in mind that not every company that outsources their branding services to an agency has a success story to tell. You have to make sure that you’re working with the right branding agency, and one way to go about it is by answering the following key questions:
How many Agencies should you interview before you find the right one?
There’s no ordinate number of agencies that you should interview before you find the right one. But simple logic demands that you interview as many of them as you possibly can. Don’t rush to choose any agency, not until you’ve interviewed at least ten of them.
How Big Should the Agency Be?
One of the reasons companies rebrand is to take advantage of the international market. This is a reserve of well-established agencies that smaller branding firms always struggle with. The point is to always go with a large branding firm that’s handled a similar task before.
What Clients has the Agency worked with
It helps to dig through the company’s portfolio to find out what types of clients they have had the opportunity of working with in the past. Are they from the same industry as you? Digging into a company’s portfolio to find out what type of clients they have served in the past will open your eyes to what the company is actually capable of doing.
What’s their Process?
Data analysis is the driving force of every successful business strategy. You have to figure out what your clients want and position your business accordingly. Speaking of which, a good branding agency is one that’s big on using a data-driven branding approach. Do their past clients feel like they invested a great deal of time researching?
What’s Their Reputation?
Branding is one aspect of your business that requires total transparency. There’s no room to second-guess any of the decisions you’re making. So how about you find out from their past clients how the agency handles their business. Check out the testimonials on their website and the quotes they’re getting from past clients. Is their reputation solid enough or can you spot some holes?
Top Branding Agencies in Singapore
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MediaOne Branding |
| About | MediaOne is a Singapore-based, full-service digital marketing and branding firm. The company believes that every brand is unique in its own way, and as such offer to help them discover their true identity through branding, market research, and deep analysis. |
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DW Branding Agency |
| About | DW Branding understands that every progressive business or brand needs a compelling brand identity. They, therefore, take it as their responsibility to help brands discover their natural appeal. From naming to brand architecture, DW handles almost every aspect of branding using researched-backed insights. |
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Carbon Interactive |
| About | Carbon Interactive is an award-winning marketing and branding firm whose services include web design, web development, digital marketing strategy, reputation management, and brand development. Their mission is to make businesses shine through marketing, reputation management, and brand development. |
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Highspark Agency |
| About | Highspark Agency is one of the leading providers of branding services in Singapore. They’re arguably the most proficient experts of visuals, messaging, and branding in general. It’s their mission to help brands discover what makes them unique so they can figure out how to position themselves in their niche market. |
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DDB WorldWide Singapore |
| About | DDB is an internationally recognised branding and digital marketing firm, dedicated to helping brands increase their value. Their services include creative development, brand identity, and ad publishing on radios, TV, periodicals, and so on. |
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Vantage Branding |
| About | Vantage is known for their two key services, business branding and graphic design. They also offer SEO services, where they help businesses rank better. Some of their great works include imagination, strategy, and insight blending. |
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Dentsu Aegis Singapore |
| About | Dentsu is a global communication network specialised with business branding. They have one of the most dedicated teams of branding and marketing professionals that strive to offer the best marketing solutions to businesses and unforgettable experiences to customers. |
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Epsilon Singapore |
| About | Epsilon Singapore firm deals with digital marketing services including advertising, brand strategy, brand consulting, web design development and sales production. The company has been in operation for more than four decades and has been involved in the growth of some of the best brands in the world. |
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The Cresset Technologies |
| About | Talk about the sassy slogans, pretty pictures and charming copies; all these are offered by the cresset technologies. Their team knows what will work best for your business. Their slogan is that a good image incorporates, trust, loyalty and credibility. They maintain that by giving you the best branding services. The cresset technologies are all about enthusiasm, spontaneity and passion in the branding industry. |
| Key Clients | Nomi Ansari
Tena Durrani Asim Jofa Faraz Manan Sitara Studio |
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BBH Asia |
| About | The agency has been named as a top-three agents in the world. The brand strategy is the central activity they specialise in. They first determine your category, and the consumer target then develops the unique insights that will create important branding and creative platforms. Additionally, they possess a bunch of opinionated people from all the marketing fields who will help you achieve your designed business brand. |
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2IIE Branding Singapore |
| About | It argues that many of the branding agencies out here are there to perform a basic service. However, 2IIE branding agency is passionate in ensuring your business brand succeeds. The company gives you the right advice, tools and ammunition to take you to a higher level above the rest of business competitors. This is through the adoption of market research, brand identity and logo, brand communications and values. |
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Global Dot Com |
| About | Global Dot Com PTE Ltd is a full-service brand agency in Singapore. the company offers effective marketing and branding campaigns that help you maximize the popularity of your brand, improve your profitability and generate the right sales leads. Your business brand will be promoted through the incorporation of the right identity, right voice and right corporate look. Y |
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Address: 7030 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, #09-85 Northstar, Singapore 569880
Tel: (65) 6908 5866 Website: https://www.globaldotcom.sg/ Email: hello@globalbotcom.sg |
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Brand Union |
| About | Brand Union is a global advertising, branding and positioning agency based in Singapore. The agency specializes in strategy, design and brand management. they have a team of professional experts who offer brilliantly designed brands to promote your business brand in the market. Their services include brand packaging, strategic branding, brand activation and identity branding. |
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Grey Singapore |
| About | Grey Singapore helps their client’s companies to grow by positively influencing the people that matter most and engaging their audiences more ineffectively with brands that stand out. The company has experienced professionals that have proved that effective branding has the power to bring excitement, raise of organizations value and shift of perceptions. |
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SGK Singapore |
| About | The company has digital transformations to keep pace with the constantly changing digital era. SGK is improvising many new and exciting ways to meet the expectations of their clients. High-quality services are offered to big and small business brands as they believe in all businesses and their roles in giving their customers the best services. |
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VMW Group |
| About | As the top branding design agency in Singapore, carbon VMW group is committed to provide unique creative solutions and overcome all the branding challenges in your business. Their unique design articulates your business brand message to fit your individual needs of raising your business brand. |
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Arcade |
| About | Arcade is a marketing and advertising agency in Singapore. Arcade plays a vital part in promoting business brands having worked with a broad network of businesses globally. The company helps these brands thrive in the current disruptive and competitive business environment. |
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Click True |
| About | ClickTrue is privileged to have a group of passionate thinkers, technologists and storytellers that promote your business branding and changes consumer behaviour. Their expertise in all kinds of market industries makes them your perfect choice for branding. |
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TBWA Singapore |
| About | TBWA Singapore is an award-winning branding agency. Its vital mission is making your business shine. The agency has successfully partnered with big companies over the years of service. It offers; advertisement and event marketing, sales promotion, graphic design and event marketing branding. |
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Adwright Branding Agency |
| About | The Adwright branding agency is one of the most established, and integrated branding agencies. The company has been in operation for more than twenty years. The rich branding experience enables the company to produce high brand quality and integrated solutions in design, marketing, and branding. |
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Branding Services to Expect from an Agency
Finding an agency that offers branding services in Singapore is ridiculously easy.
Just Google it, and you’ll be presented with a long list of branding agencies in the country to choose from.
The only hurdle maybe your budget. But there are ways to go around it, and that’s part of what we’ll be exploring in this section of the post.
Here goes the list:
The Discovery Session
The most important part of branding your business is making sure that it can be found. You have to start by figuring out how to make it discoverable.
So, in a sense, every business needs a discovery session. Your business should be right there, in front of your target customers, where you can make sales.
Marketplace Research
Before you run with branding, you have to understand the marketplace. This demands that you begin by taking a comprehensive view of the market.
This has to be conducted on two levels:
The first one is by looking at the industry as a whole. What’s the general state of the industry you’re in? How big is the market? What’s trending at that particular point?
The second one is narrowing down to your specific geographical location.
Competitor Research
Part of the branding process is understanding the forces surrounding you. It’s through understanding the people you’re competing with that you’ll be able to carve your own niche.
At the end of the research process, your agency must be able to answer the following questions:
- What’s the list of businesses you’re competing with?
- What does each one of them excel at?
- What exactly are they doing wrong? Or which area are they performing poorly?
- Are you impressed by their look? What’s there to emulate about them?
- Which one of their offers rivals yours?
- What makes you unique? Why would any customer choose you over any one of them?
Remember, branding runs deeper than the visuals on your website. It runs deeper than your colour scheme and logo.
Brand Naming
People will remember your business by name. So, you need to be really strategical about how you choose a name for your business.
A new business needs a name; an existing one needs to look into the possibility of changing its name.
There’s no limit as to how you can name your business. You can even name it after yourself, or one of the ingredients in your products.
Brand Identity Design
This is the idea most people have about branding.
Sorry to hush your mellow, but this is just one segment of it.
It’s through brand identity design that your customers get to recognise you. It’s what your customers use to visualise your business.
Website Design and Development
Website design and development are also part of branding services.
Remember, your website is an online representation of your business. It’s, therefore, important that you would want it to be consistent with your overall brand identity.
You’re not just setting up a website for the sake of it. You want the website to carry everything that you represent as a brand.
Partnership and Relationship
You must establish a relationship with your branding agency.
A good agency is like an extension to your business. They’re like your second eye, a trusted resource partner you can count on in your time of need.
It’s a relationship you want to nurture. So, give yourself time to learn and understand each other, and eventually, you’ll be joined at the hip.
Branding Deliverables
The agency you hire to help you brand your business will be responsible for creating branding deliverables.
This refers to all the items that you’ll be taking home with you to help you out with marketing your business.
Here goes the list of branding deliverables that your agency must be able to facilitate.
Brand Strategy
This is where branding starts. Think of your branding strategy as the foundation of everything the agency will be doing.
If the strategy doesn’t feel right, you can be sure nothing will work.
Your agency shouldn’t keep you in the dark about their game plan or the intended course of action
Brand Identity Design
This should be the next item in your list of deliverables. It refers to all the things that customers will be using to identify you.
Brand identity design consists of brand name, brand logo, brand guidelines, colour scheme, typography, and logo usage.
You need a budget for this. You can come up with your business name, but you need a professional to help you out with your logo and the rest.
Stationary Branding and Design
Your branding activities aren’t restricted to online. You need to brand everything you’ll be working with, including stationary.
You can go all in and get the following items designed at once:
- Business cards
- Compliment slips
- Letterheads
- Invoices
- Contracts
- Receipt books
- Quotes
- Proposals
You can also hire an agency to do all this for you. You need all the items on the list, all designed to match your brand.
Marketing Materials
Marketing means putting your business or brand in front of potential customers. Not an easy feat for small businesses.
Your marketing budget could easily hit the roof. So, you need to be really smart with the decisions that you make on this one.
Printing Services
You need quality printing and not the cheapest option you stumble across.
Pick a company that does embossed edge paint printing for your cards. These companies are not cheap – typically, most of them tend to charge about $400 for 500 cards.
But you can bet your cards will look more professional.
Using Branding and Marketing Grants in Singapore
Singapore is a tech powerhouse in the Asia-pacific region, and that’s mostly because it enjoys the support of the government. This support comes in various converging forms. Among them are low tax rates on small businesses, a robust regulatory regime, a well-developed IT infrastructure, and, of course, grants.
And luckily for you, we just happen to know of a government grant for branding that you might want to take advantage of today.
EDG: Strategic Branding and Marketing
Interested in refreshing the image of your company? Or maybe you’re looking for a way to generate more engagements.
Enterprise Development Grant for Brand and Marketing Development may be the right project for you.
Any project that involves creating or redefining its brand values qualifies for the EDG.
Any new business is looking for a marketing strategy that it’ll be using to communicate its offering better and differentiate itself from the competition. The EDG project is a good start if you’re strapped for cash.
It’s even better because it also supports partnerships, overseas market research, and product diversification studies.
Eligibility
Companies that wish to apply for the EDG are required to meet the following criteria:
- Must be registered, in addition to operating in Singapore.
- Have at least 30% shares in the business.
- Be in a financial position to start and run the business.
Benefits
- For SME’s, the grant will be supporting up to 70% of the qualified branding cost.
- For non-SME’s, the project will be supporting up to 50 of the qualified branding cost.
Follow this link to apply
The Application rules and the procedure:
- Before you apply for the grant, you’re advised first to approach the SME centre to find out if your project qualifies. Your project will be evaluated for eligibility.
- The application you submit will be assessed and approved by Enterprise Singapore (ESG). Those assessing it will look at the scope of the project, projected outcomes, and the competency levels of those behind it.
The Application Process
To apply for the grant, you have to begin by signing up to the Singapore’s Business Grant Portal (BGP) with CorpPass (LINK: https://www.businessgrants.gov.sg/).
After that, you have to wait for 8 to 10 weeks for your application to be processed.
In case of anything, you’ll be contacted via the BGP to submit additional information or make necessary adjustments to your application.
Approval
Once your application has been approved, your company will be presented with a LOF (Letter of Offer).
Here’s what will be indicated in the letter:
- The conditions that come with the support
- The amount of grant your company has been awarded
You’ll be required to accept the conditions in the LOF within the specified timeline, and that’s it.
Author Bio
Tom Koh is widely recognised as a leading SEO consultant in Asia who has worked to transform the online visibility of the leading organisations such as SingTel, Capitaland, Maybank, P&G, WWF, etc. Recently he was instrumental in consulting for a New York-based US$30B fund in an US$4Bn acquisition. Tom is a Computational Science graduate of the National University of Singapore. In his free time he performs pro-bono community work and traveling.
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