In order to develop a brand in a logical way, we must know the contact points of the audiences with it.
In this way, the correct applications that will manifest the brand in the appropriate way can be designed.
What are touch points?
If we are working on the identity of a company, before starting to design the brand, one of the points that we must audit are the contact points.
If you’re creating a whole new brand, advertising will probably be the most important touch point since no one has the products or services they offer.
If you are redesigning a brand, you will have to analyze which contact points are most relevant in order to redesign them according to the new identity and to ensure that current customers / users have a contact point according to the new identity.
Scenario 1. New Brand. Cottage
Someone decides to create a rural house and needs a brand for it. In principle the basic needs are stationery, business card, perhaps a sign for the house…
But in truth, the critical touch points for this brand will be the brochures, advertising and web that serve as the first point of contact with potential customers.
If these applications are made with their backs to the brand, it may be that your brand idea is one and the one being communicated is another.
The typical case is that of creating a brand that “breathes” modernity and finding yourself with “classic” brochures. The result is that neither the brand nor the brochure work and therefore you have wasted the time and money invested.
Scenario 2. A brand redesign. Industrial spare parts store
In this case, the company already has its customers, suppliers, etc…
In this case, it is necessary to analyze which contact points are the most frequent and relevant (invoices, brochures, etc…) and take advantage of opportunities to renew them and include the new brand.
For example, time the launch of the new brand with the release of the new parts brochure and take some kind of action.
In this way, customers receive a kind of “welcome pack” to the new brand through a representative piece of the company.
Without the correct identification of the touch points, it is very difficult to design the correct brand
Identifying the contact points is key since when presenting the brand, we must present its manifestation in these elements and see how the new brand gives new impetus to these contact points.
That is, if the new brand is “younger”, the catalog will be younger, the door plate will be younger, the business card will be younger, the web will be younger…
All the momentum of the brand will infect the contact points and the client, seeing this manifestation applied, will understand how the new brand will help them to be better perceived, understood and valued.
How to identify contact points? scenarios
To identify the touch points we must define objectives of the new brand and then create usage scenarios with the new brand.
That is, how a tourist finds out about rural houses (what contact points can he use to reach our client – adwords, a brochure, a report in a magazine, etc…).
Once it has been reported, they will visit the web, they will call us (the telephone response is part of the branding), they will come to see us…
Once you have decided, that we send you, you receive a letter, an estimate…
Once you buy, you receive a confirmation email, etc…
All these contact points will allow us to develop a logical brand proposal that the client will understand and appreciate.
Design our brand around the points of contact. What do we say, how do we say it?
The key to contact points is that they allow us to establish a common working framework between us and the client.
It is clear that the brand must be designed in the abstract, but that manifestation of the brand (that is, what the logo is on a white background) is complex to evaluate and criticize since it is very subjective and in principle the client should trust the brand. professional judgment.
But that brand applied in real demonstrations does serve to establish a dialogue about whether the brand is “young” or “too young”, if it is too “garish” or “bland”, etc…
The most common templates to express touchpoints are:
- Visiting card
- Cover of publication, brochure
- Advertising (in magazine, marquee, newspaper)
- Object (shirt, boat, cup)
- power point
- Signaling
- Interior poster in office
- Exterior sign (in a building, office, commercial premises)
- Web
- linear in a supermarket
- Showcase
The list of contact points is infinite and depends a lot on the client’s sector, type of product, service…
The key is to recreate as many scenarios as possible with the client. Tour their facilities, offices, visit a client, share yourself as a client, call by phone, find out how they treat you, response time for letters, emails…
Collect the largest number of elements so that when it comes to manifesting the brand, the client sees the potential and solutions that could be applied.
More about branding
In elevation we have published a series of articles that will help you organize your brand.
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