There are many elements to being an entrepreneur. You need to provide a marketable and commercially viable product or service. You need working capital or credit to bring your idea to fruition as a real company or product. You then need to communicate your offering to the target customers. There are many sources offering information and resources for entrepreneurs. If you have not started your business yet, this article may be helpful to new entrepreneurs.
One concept that many new entrepreneurs struggle with is branding. Many business owners and startups have a general understanding of product branding. However, they don’t fully understand the concept and value of corporate or business branding. Product branding refers to distinguishing your products from others in the market and showing how your product or services are superior or otherwise more desirable than others.
Corporate or business branding extends that concept to an entire business but has the added value of tying all products and services offered together. It can do this by associating branding and identifying business vision. Potential customers and investors perceive the added value of the company ethos and extend to the boardroom.
An often overlooked and missed opportunity for corporate or business branding is branding through office design. Every business should communicate its brand values throughout its entire company, recognize that first impressions are lasting, and that a business should be consistent in its brand.
Most entrepreneurs spend lots of time and effort choosing just the logo colors and logo designs for their packaging, business cards, and letterhead. They also spend significant money furnishing their offices and workspaces. However, while their offices may show an individual style or be in character with the business owner’s personality, there is no link to the branding through office design.
Your offices may be plush and opulent with fine collectible furniture or have a very chic industrial style that is totally disjointed from your corporate brand. This failure through office design violates all three of the above tips for enhancing your corporate brand.
You would not use a different logo or tagline on your business cards and stationery. You probably even ensured that the font utilized in all your corporate communications is similar. Your receptionists have likely been instructed how to answer the phones and greet customers/clients, so there is consistency within the brand. Why not forward this branding through office design?
First impressions can be lasting. Before a potential client or customer first comes to visit your business, you should give lots of thought to the message that is communicated by your office design. Is there consistency, or is everyone’s workspace different and disjointed from the others? There can be some unique personality in each workspace, but not to the point where the different styles clash to the point of communicating a lack of unity or teamwork. There should be a common theme and a conscious effort to communicate the branding through office design, rather than just furnishing the office with functional utilitarian furnishings.
Branding through office design allows the entrepreneur an additional opportunity to communicate and reinforce the brand. Remember, the fundamental purpose of branding is to set yourself apart from competitors and other products and services in your industry. You are not setting your company apart when your offices look nearly identical to those of your competitors. You are proud of the brand you are building. Don’t just show that pride with your website or stationary. Reinforce it in the place you and all your employees spend most of the time.
Now that you understand the importance of business branding through office design, it is time to take advantage of this otherwise untapped opportunity to build and reinforce your brand. Evaluate the essential elements of your brand and how it is perceived in the marketplace. Once you have defined the key elements, it is then time to set yourself apart from your competitors with unique branding through office design. For assistance in implementing this strategy, contact an interior designer with expertise in branding through office design.
