Entrepreneurs are advised to brand themselves especially as they transition to digital business to gain competitive advantages.

“Make sure our business or our brand has a recall to people. That is why more than ever, it is important if you are doing business for a while now to revamp your brand, and if you are new to the business to build your brand so we can make sure that we get the right audience and the right customers come in for our business,” Canva Philippines Community Lead Gladys Lacorte said in a webinar.

Lacorte said successful brands have clear purpose, values, and personality or character.

“The values should always be clear and actionable,†she said, identifying examples of guiding values such as pursuing excellence, making complex things simple, and setting big goals and making them happen.

Lacorte also underscored the importance of having a style guide and a brand name.

“So a few tips in building or deciding on your brand name –it should be memorable, it’s purposeful, it’s appropriate and most of all, please make sure that the brand name that you decide on is available so do your research and check out the competition or other brands around you. Is anyone else in the country using the brand name, is anyone else outside of the country using the brand name? It is very important that we don’t just look inside the Philippines but even outside,” she said.

Lacorte said brand names can be descriptive, emotive or invented.

She added business owners also need to connect their brands with colors, have a right font that complements brand personality, and a logo telling a story of their brands.

“By the colors of the brands, even if you don’t see their logos or their brands or what their businesses are, you already have a recognition of who they are,” she said.

Lacorte said they should stick to just one to two fonts, and not use all the fonts available.

“Please always be consistent so that you can generate recognition from your audience and play with hierarchy. So when you are creating a content or a poster, what is the message that you wanted to highlight to your audiences?,” she said.

“Also when you are doing content for your brand, it is important to style your imagery and stay consistent because your brand imagery is everything that makes your brand visual/aesthetic,” she added.

Lacorte further said it is likewise imperative for businesses to get feedback from the market or audience about their brand name or look.

“Do experimentations when it comes to branding. Within a month, hopefully, get their answers and you know what they want because it is very important for us to put them at the forefront of everything because they are our customers. Do your research and know what is popular to them and then it should just guide you,” she added.