5 Exceptional Branding Trends for 2022

Even before you get the chance to tell your target audience who you are as a brand, they’ve already formed a conclusion based on your website, social media profile, ads, and your other assets.  

This shows how important your visual presence is online. The content you share, your website design, and the captions you use say a great deal about your company’s level of professionalism and trustworthiness.  

The impression your business makes either attracts or pushes customers away. And, the foundation to all of this is your brand.  

Many people think that what constitute a brand are its logo, colors, design, symbol, and other visual aspects. But, in this era of digital distraction, an exceptional brand is so much more than those things.  

What we’re trying to say is that a nice logo and a catchy name are no longer enough to get modern consumers interested in what you have to offer and pull them closer to a purchase.  

So, what constitutes a brand that piques the interest of its target audience?

As an SEO company in Miami, we believe that aside from knowing who your ideal audience is, communicating what your USP is, and how to tell your story compellingly, you also need to stay on top of the latest branding trends.

To get you started, here are the top five branding trends for 2022 that you need to know about:

1. Logo Adaptability  

One of the most important qualities a logo must have to succeed is adaptability. You want to design your logo to represent what your business is right now and the current products or services that you’re offering. But, at the same time, you want it to be flexible enough to accommodate the future expansion and growth of your company.  

The trend today with logos is minimalistic. Aside from the fact that simple wordmark logos with a strong interface are aesthetically pleasing, modern consumers also don’t want to put in so much effort to understand a brand. They want communication to be direct and simple.

With digital media being the dominant marketing medium, make sure that your logo is clear and looks amazing even when scaled down to use as a profile picture in your social accounts or your posts.  

Fancier and intricate logos are awesome, but when you scale them down, they tend to look warped, making it harder for people to identify what they are. However, when you use a clean and simple logo that’s legible even when scaled down, people will recognize your business right away.  

Another trend in logos that we can expect more of next year is shape-shifting logos. These are logos that have several different versions. Each of them is designed to fit different applications.  

For example, print ads that require bigger logos can be more intricate and detailed. If you want to use it for a mobile website, you may have to change one or two graphical elements.  

Here’s an example of shape-shifting logos:

2. Nostalgia

For brands that have been around for quite some time, we can expect them to go retro next year. This has something to do with the fact that we now live in a world where we're constantly chasing trends and glued on social media to stay updated with the latest happenings in various industries.

Going retro and invoking old memories will somehow allow people to relish in the past and capture the feeling of how things used to be when life was simpler. This can help attach positive feelings to your products and services, which gives you the opportunity to build trust and increase your chances of getting remembered by your target audience.  

According to a study conducted by Nielsen, ads tend to yield better results when they’re aligned with emotions. That said, you should seriously consider including nostalgic marketing in your branding strategy next year.  

3. Branded Visual Content

We can’t stress how important branded visual content is to your business' success. As we said, a lot of people will judge you based on your posts online, which is why you must plan out and carefully curate what you’re going to put out there for the public to see and make sure that it matches the aesthetics of your brand.  

Since not every type of content you publish will evoke the same response from your audience, you have to find out what makes them tick. This will give you an idea of what you should be posting that you know your target audience will like and respond to.  

With consistency being one of the secret sauces to success, you need to know what your ideal customers want to see from you and give them variations of what they want.  

Right now, sales-y posts aren’t as appealing to modern consumers as they used to be anymore. If you want to effectively attract leads and generate sales, you should be more genuine.  

Instead of telling people to buy your products in their faces, build trust first by showing your expertise, giving tips, and just helping people solve their problems in general.  

By using infographics, GIFs, short-form videos, long-form videos, and other more interactive forms of content to convey value to your target audience, you’re more likely going to capture their attention and generate leads in the process.  

However, you want to make sure that everything you publish online reflects the aesthetic of your brand. For example, if you’re going to publish a video, your logo should be placed at the bottom corner. This way, users will know it’s your company that produced this content, and in a way, it subtly advertises your brand.  

4. Inclusivity

Gone are the days when the world’s standard of beauty was thin, blonde, and white. Today, more and more people are embracing diversity, body positivity, and inclusivity. And, it’s changing customer expectations.  

According to a survey conducted by Accenture, millennials are more likely to support and buy from brands that are inclusive and diverse. 79% of businesses also acknowledge the importance of addressing social and cultural issues by including inclusivity in their branding strategy.  

This proves that now is the best time to execute inclusivity for your brand. Rather than hiring celebrities, why don't you feature your most loyal customers? Featuring real people who actually use your products or services in your promotional videos or ads is more compelling and authentic than getting famous people to follow a script.  

Being inclusive could also mean a bunch of other things for other industries, such as offering products at different price points and at different designs to cater to differently-abled people.  

Oneof the brands that excel in promoting inclusivity is Nike. The company features inclusivity and diversity through this photo:  

5. Purpose-Driven Brand

A purpose-driven brand exists to solve a problem or meet a need in society. They’re motivated by their core mission, which dictates their story, visual identity, decision-making, and more.  

As an SEO company in Miami, we believe that the businesses that will thrive in the upcoming years are those that have a purpose and are driven beyond profit.  

That’s because modern consumers no longer just buy products to fill a need. They buy them because they can identify themselves with a brand. Brands that support causes or those whose marketing efforts are centered around a mission tend to appeal more to people.  

In fact, 71% of customers buy from businesses that align with their values. A good example of this is Toms shoe company.  

They came up with this “one for one” idea model wherein the company would donate a pair of shoes for every sale they made to less fortunate children. This model not only gave people a compelling reason to buy (that they’re doing it for a good cause), but it also helped create a positive impression of the Toms brand, which drove their sales up.  

This 2022, shift your branding towards a more purpose-driven path. Emphasize and share to your audience what you believe in and stand up for as a brand and use this to lead your campaigns and marketing strategy. Partner with your ideal customer to be able to contribute socially and use this solid partnership to make a difference in this world.  

You can start by delivering content, products, and services that are closely related to your cause, adjust your social mission to reflect the modern consumer's evolving social priorities and keep listening to your customers.  

Take Your Branding to the Next Level

It's becoming increasingly difficult for brands to capture the attention of their target audience, stay relevant, and gain the trust and loyalty of modern consumers. Butc staying updated with the latest branding trends can help.  

For marketers and business owners like you, you gotta keep your branding simple, make sure that your visual content online is consistent with your brand aesthetics, and position your customers at the center of your branding so you can serve them in the best ways possible.  

Digital Resource is your go-to SEO company in Miami. We offer a wide range of digital marketing services, including branding, social media marketing, SEO, and reputation management. If you need help giving your brand a facelift or differentiating yourself from your competitors, allow us to do it for you!  

Do you want to put your brand front and center? Contact us today!  

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