Islamic Branding Benefits Series—Part 4 of 4: Big Budget

This is a series of practical steps whereby you can utilize branding and design thinking to strengthen your Islamic business no matter your budget. In the first episode of this four-part series, we started with Islamic brand design with #nobudget. Next, we delved into #lowbudget and #midbudget opportunities. Now, we're going to look at Islamic brand design opportunities with a #bigbudget.

If you have a big budget, it goes without saying to first consultant with your Islamic branding specialist. This way, you can map out your vision, mission and company goals. This is all informed discussions in the light of your industry and your current customer base—looking at retention, as well as appealing to new customers. So all the issues and barriers will be discussed in a “non-disclosure” environment to see what will be the best plan for your Islamic brand. Due to the value creativity, Islamic design and branding bring to the table, your plans will be focused. All and all, it might even save you some money, depending on what the outcomes of these consultation sessions will be.

“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.”—Dr. Ralph Speth, CEO of Jaguar

Typically, here’s what is common with a big budget:

Brand Strategy

As with any plan, you’ll need a strategy. Your business strategy, along with all the research, usually set the foundation for this exercise. Before a problem can be solved, we have to know what the problem actually is—not what we think it is. This may even require testing and refinement with your audience. It will also call for user experience design especially for your website strategy. The brand strategy, just like your business strategy will look at your entire company and what you want to achieve with it. Then it can be broken down into actionable steps that can be measured over a period of time. This will be the jumping board of all brand decisions and will inform all creative work, so getting all the stakeholders of your company on board early, will be crucial.

An Islamic brand identity without a Islamic brand strategy is like a well crafted missile with no aim.

Brand Name

If you already have an Islamic brand name or names then this step might not be as important although there have been many cases where a name change was called for and made the sought after difference. Either way, the brand strategy will investigate its urgency in the light of the equity it holds. A good Islamic brand name adds value in and of itself in the mind of your customer for a long time.

Brand Identity

The size of your Islamic business, along with your objectives, will usually determine how deep or shallow your Islamic brand identity should go, especially in the light of what you want to achieve with your new Islamic brand or rebrand. If you’re a multinational Muslim business, the brand roll out would be great as it needs to be on pretty much every touchpoint. So consider the impact. The brand identity design would also be great as it needs to communicate how it needs to be applied as a coherent system across all those touch points. If you're a small Muslim business owner in one location, the brand identity will also be significantly smaller.

Brand Communications

Your new Islamic brand identity needs to be adopted by all your departments, divisions, services and products. It also needs to go on all communications—online and print.

Be relentless, creative and consistent in the application of your brand identity.

Website

For many organizations, their website is their company. Or at least the immediate extension of their company after their physical location. So extra care should be taken by helping the user navigate through the site and make sure they achieve their goals. It usually requires an additional online strategy with user experience design at the forefront. It also considers the Islamic branding identity and the overarching Islamic brand strategy.

Advertising Campaign

Branding has different stages which are illustrated in the below graph. It's purpose is to get the customer to the brand end goal: long term loyalty. If this is a new Islamic brand then your goal is to let people know about it. So the dynamics are relative to the brand and marketing goals.

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Source: Keller, 2003

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Consistent brand building over an extended period of time usually get the support of an advertising campaign. Advertising is you telling the people about yourself, putting your best foot forward. Advertising in and of itself is strategic. However, its strategy is only in accordance with your overall Islamic brand strategy—not the other way around. Advertising’s main goal is to showcase how your product or service work in relation with the competition. Coupled with branding, it appeals to the nobler motives and beliefs of your customers or (potential customers). As with marketing and sales, advertising is also known for its far-fetched claims or deception. Make sure yours is halaal and within the Islamic brand protocols!

Social Media Campaign

In reality, this is part of the advertising campaign but I've listed it separately due to it taking shape on its own as a major brand building tool. Its importance borrows from the customer, potential customers and the general public, all being exposed firsthand to the brand with all its components: identity, voice, culture, personality, offers, relationship and experience.

Marketing Campaign

This is also listed separately due to marketing avenues that could prove to be extremely beneficial if invested into. Examples that come to mind are affiliate marketing, product reviews, sponsorships, demo workshops, press releases and public relations. Your Islamic brand strategy and budget will map out the most effective marketing directions.

Marketing has a close relationship with sales and is a bit further away from Customer Relations Management (CRM). Marketing is more interested in driving the customer towards the purchase. Branding on the other hand, is closer to CRM and focus particularly on nurturing existing customer relationships through retention strategies and loyalty programmes. Both have its place, although marketing needs to follow a branding strategy for the benefit of your Islamic brand. Marketing strategies have long deceived customers. It is in your best interest to stay within the halaal lane.

This was a relatively long yet brief outline of things you can do for your Islamic business depending on your budget. If you have any additional suggestions, I'd like to hear them in the comments.

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Islamic Branding Benefits Series—Part 3 of 4: Mid Budget

This is a series of practical steps whereby you can utilize Islamic branding and design thinking to strengthen your Islamic business no matter your budget. In the first episode of this four-part series, we started Islamic brand design with #nobudget. Next, we delved into #lowbudget opportunities. Now, we're going to look at Islamic brand design opportunities with a #midbudget.

You have a budget, but before you go haywire with spending, consider a consultation with an Islamic branding specialist. After an initial assessment, you’d have a better idea what it is you need right now so your spending is informed. As you grow your Islamic business, the last thing you want to do is make uninformed decisions at crucial stages of your brand journey. Through a brand consultation session or two, you’d be able to better navigate where you’re at, and what you’ll need to get to your next stage.

Next, let’s look at typical areas that will most likely make the best use of your budget:

Brand Identity You will most likely require a logo, some brand elements, a typographic treatment, image treatment and colour treatment, on limited items such as a business card, letterhead, social media banners and so forth. Of course, a good Islamic brand identity is built upon a good Islamic brand strategy, so consider strategy while you’re at it. You have the power to control how you want to be perceived. This is your chance.

Website

If your website is a major sales driver then this is an area you might want to invest a good portion of your budget. If your website doesn’t play a significant role in your sales drivers, it may have to wait until you have a more substantial budget.

In contemporary times, your website is your office or shop.

Social Media

With your limited budget, consider branding your social media channels. The idea is to make sure there is only one look and feel across all your brand touchpoints. It’s the fastest way to communicate coherence and consistency.

All your online quotes, posts, images, banners, et al, are vehicles that work for you while you are asleep. People share it long after you’ve posted it. Let it benefit from a consistent Islamic brand look.

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Islamic Branding Benefits Series—Part 2 of 4: Low Budget

This is a series of practical steps whereby you can utilize Islamic branding and design thinking to strengthen your Islamic business no matter your budget. In the first episode of this four-part series, we started with Islamic brand design with #nobudget. Now, we're going to look at Islamic brand opportunities with a #lowbudget.

Social Media Don’t miss the opportunity to capitalize on social media but choose a small number of platforms to exert all your efforts. Consider on which platform your target audience will most likely be. Find out about the trends, metrics, tips and times of these platforms in relation to the locations of your audience. Try things: keep what works, dismiss what doesn't. Latch onto stories of your own, frame it, share it. Keep the visual style and colour palette consistent. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase (and share) your Islamic brand personality with the global village. First impressions last.

Photography Get creative with photography, especially if you have niche products. It pays to hire a professional but I’d understand if you can’t justify the costs, especially in the beginning. There have been long discussions about the use of illustration and photography amongst the kibaar ulema in Islam. If you turn a blind eye to the fiqh of business, you may fall into minor or major sins. It is therefore important to research and learn about the fiqh of image making. If you have to have people or animals, you can only use it online (digitally)—not offline (print). This will exclude women because their entire body is awrah. Be smart: learn the fiqh and get creative.

Own a colour Say what!? Choose one colour for your brand. For now. Two if you have to—the additional one for neutrality or contrast and balance. One colour is easily interpreted and stored in memory. Use it everywhere. Over time, your Islamic brand becomes synonymous with a particular colour. Perfect for brand recognition and recall. Known in branding circles as ‘own the colour.’ In the world of branding, it's all about what will stick in the mind—the soonest. Your Islamic brand attributes will then be associated with those mnemonics, phonetics. Take a moment to appreciate the dynamic interplay of Islamic brand strategy and Islamic design.

One Typeface Just like colour, one typeface is easy to digest and to remember. Go with a family that speak to your Islamic brand personality. Use with contrast, i.e 24 points with 16 points, with 11 points with 7 points, etc., if you have a lot of text. Also use extra bold with regular with thin and italics to have a typographic flavour and reading. A typeface is your brand voice on paper. There are many quality, free fonts available. Do some research on which are the most complete and offer the better quality. Extended families provide you with the most options.

Writing Style Funny or serious, friendly or corporate? The way you use words, the sentence case, justification position, layout on the page, paragraphs, spaces, drop-caps, et al, are all codes of your expression and your audience picks it up on a subconscious level. Decide on how you want to convey your voice in print or on the web, set a rules template and stick to it. Don't neglect vocabulary and spelling. Soon you’ll establish a consistent style of writing. It’s an investment that requires both time and commitment but it pays off in the end. If typography is your personality expressed, your writing style is providing dimensions of that personality.

It's in the name

Although there’s a science and art behind it, the best names don’t always come from professional naming experts. Many people underestimate their own creativity. So here’s the deal: if you feel you need to move along with your Islamic brand due to budget constraints, do some brainstorming and make connections. Then use a thesaurus and do some clean up. Choose a few and ask what people think. Finally, always check if your name is available as a trademark. These need to be done with knowledge of your industry, target market and competition.

Good Islamic brand names tend to stick and become synonymous with the category.

Ace with space

If you want to give the illusion of space in your office or store, consider white or a light colour and remove unnecessary clutter. Keep heights more or less aligned. Place things in proximity and apart; break it with something small (in-between). Try to maintain (and paint if you have to) 1–3 colours as the overall palette. Subtle differences in value and hue are welcome. Choose one strong colour set against the white background. Another as a medium in-between and the brightest/most contrast of them all, is the accent. In other words this should be the colour that “makes things pop.” The floor must be neutral, i.e it mustn’t draw attention to itself. Depending on your setup, consider one or two big mirrors on different walls as it gives the illusion of depth. Carpets and wood add warmth whereas artificial and synthetic materials like tiles have a tendency to be cold.

There is an important principle in design: what you take away is as important as what you add. Negative space is as important as positive space. Use it.

Uniform—Make the invisible, visible

After your logo, your dress code or uniform is a brand identity signal. Assess your Islamic brand personality. These will give you direction on your dress code, i.e is it friendly and sporty? If so, your dress code would be casual and you would always smell fresh. Your body language would exude optimism and you will look fit. The same for your staff.

For years, salesmen in services expressed the invisible with the visible, i.e they usually display professionalism and trust with how they dress.

Blog or Vlog

Blogging and vlogging have become of the foremost free tools in the sphere of both marketing and branding. It’s the most direct way of expressing your Islamic brand culture, share valuable information with the world and provides you with your own perspective on things. People love novelties. They love to be part of a purpose and a community. Give Muslim consumers what they want whilst your brand gains recognition and credibility in the marketplace.

This is the perfect opportunity to breed a culture of followers. If you have an Islamic culture, imagine the good upon good you will benefit from—in this life and the next.

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