Amazon. Apple. Google.

What do these names have in common?

Aside from being single-word companies, these three are also considered the top three most valuable brands in the world in 2018. According to Statista, a leading provider of consumer and market data, this triumvirate is up there when it comes to brand value.

Would you want your brand to be counted among the most successful ones?

What’s in a name?

Defined as the overall experience that a customer encounters when distinguishing a product, a concept, or an organization from its competitors, brands have carved a distinct place in society.

Brand names are made to characterize and differentiate these products, services, or concepts. Branding and marketing experts go to great lengths in order to make sure that these brands secure top positions in the minds of their target customers. The stronger the brand, the stronger the brand value and return on investment.

However, a brand is more than just a name, a logo, or a tagline. It is a whole collection of elements that make up one defining perception in the minds of the consumers. Brands are made – carefully, painstakingly, strategically. Successful brands are not born overnight; well, at least, not the ones that truly last.

It takes a village...

Now that you know that brands do not just magically grow on trees, you will have a better appreciation of how one is nurtured from the ground up.

When you have a struggling product, service, or offer or perhaps you have just started your own company, you must take steps to carefully create a brand that will stay in your audience’s minds. It takes a village to raise a child, and your brand is no exception.

If creating and developing a brand is a struggle for you, then you don’t need to worry. If you are about to launch a new brand and want your unique voice to be heard, you can seek the expertise of a brand design company in Dubai.

Not only will these brand specialists help you design a brand identity, they can also aid you in formulating a branding and marketing strategy. From naming to visual identity to even graphics and events, these consummate marketing professionals will ensure your brand’s success.

Here are the top 5 strengths that you should look for in a branding design agency:

Strength No. 1: Experience

When you are looking for a brand agency that will help you with your company, product, or service, consider their years of service.

Exposure to a lot of branding projects is a good indicator of how well they have adapted to certain challenges. Browse and look into their portfolio and body of work. Ask questions about the results. The years may have given them diverse design experiences that are crucial in casting a wide network of alliances that can help in creating bespoke solutions to your brand requirements.

Experience is great teacher. Find out if it has taught them well.

Strength No. 2: Independence

Check if they can stand on their own. See if they are an agency that can independently manage your account based on their own creative and objective efforts. Are they well equipped to stand on their own and formulate answers to your brand’s most burning questions?

Are they independent enough to carry the weight of launching a new brand? Are they independent thinkers who can create out-of-the box concepts? Independent brand agencies can think well on their own and without bias. See that you look for this attribute.

Strength No. 3: Authenticity

Creating brands and nourishing them takes a certain authenticity in the way the agency thinks, acts, and feels.

Do they express a profound appreciation and respect for your brand and company culture? Genuine brand design agencies always strive to put their passion into driving them to dig deeper into the history, traditions, and even local practices of their clients. This sensibility is transferred directly to contemporary aesthetics and inspiring lingo that resonates.

Strength No. 4: Creative Teamwork

Creativity does not always stem from large numbers. Boutique brand agencies benefit from a compact team of creative visionaries working as one. Transcending hierarchies and designations, they work as one body to give you the most bespoke strategies to achieve stellar results.

Check if the agency you’re eyeing has a philosophy that creates customized solutions while prioritizing and meeting the commercial realities of your project.

Strength No. 5: Personal Touch

Creative branding agencies that understand the value of creating lasting relationships with customers come up with branding strategies that have a personal touch.

This kind of agency will make sure that you are part of the process. Your or your organization’s unique personality and characteristics are taken into account when developing your brand story. This is then translated into enduring and intelligent branding that exudes spirit and soul.

Whom can you trust?

Not everyone is cut out to handle brand management or marketing jobs.

On the same vein, not everyone who claims to be creative or smart can successfully create and execute branding programs. It takes years of training, practice, and exposure to branding experiences. When you are looking for angels who will raise your brand up to the high heavens, go for a brand agency that has these aforementioned key qualities.

AUTHOR BIO

Grace Yacoub is the owner, founder and CEO at Zaman. She recognized the potential to develop brands in Dubai back in 1996. Amongst her first projects were to convert the local powerhouses of Etisalat and NBD into branded entities and engage the nation in the drive for modernity. She has since led projects across finance, family, industry, property, retail and all sectors to convert many of the region's most important companies into powerful brands.