Distributing personalized awards to employees and clients is a way to demonstrate appreciation and respect. This action also shows that you pay attention to the human element of conducting business. Combining personalized awards with brand icons is an effective way to blend two powerful strategies.
Refresh Your Brand Logo
The first step is to evaluate your current brand logo. If you’ve wanted to update your brand logo, doing so before creating the personalized awards is an intelligent move. Otherwise, the logo could be defunct before the awards are even distributed.
The awards should be a modern representative of the business. Consider elements such as visibility, accessibility, and brand identification in revising your brand icon. The logo should be universally accessible and should make a clear connection to your company.
Determine the Design Base
Once you get into the creation phase for your custom awards, consider how much of a role you want the logo to play in the award. For example, you could choose to have the award crafted in the shape of the icon.
In other words, the award could be an exact replication of the icon. This option can promote high brand visibility. On the other hand, the logo could play a more subtle role in the award. Consider what role you want marketing to play in the award. If your hope is that the award could promote further sales for your business, consider a more visible approach.
Incorporate the Year
The award should also include the year. Even if you update your brand logo now, this symbol is likely to change in some form as the years and decades go on. If someone looks at the award in the future, the year will indicate the reason why the brand logo might look different. Also, including the year on an award is fairly common so that recipients have records of when they got their rewards.
Make Them Laugh
Brand icons often infuse some element of humor, so you can transfer this tone into the awards. The extent to which you decide to make the award humorous should depend upon a few elements.
For example, you have to consider what the person is receiving the award for and what type of business you own. Also, in some situations, using humor would be inappropriate for the purpose of the reward. While you’re working on infusing humor into the rewards, you might find ways to add touches of comedy to your brand logo as well.
Be Consistent
Consistency is critical when it comes to branding. Create a clear connotation between your brand logo and your business with awards. The awards themselves should be relatively consistent as well.
If you give varying styles of rewards to different people, your recipients might wonder why. For example, providing some recipients with useful, durable rewards and others with awards that could easily end up in the trash is likely to raise questions.
Consider Usability
If you want award recipients to have a regular reminder of your business, the reward should have some purpose. For example, a certificate of appreciation might get thrown out or put in a frame in some rarely used room.
On the other hand, a paperweight or pen holder serves a purpose. Award recipients can see a reminder of your business and brand every time they need to grab an envelope or pick up a pen in their offices.
Incorporate Words
Even if your usual brand logo doesn’t incorporate words, consider the power of doing so on an award. You could incorporate a motivational saying or a phrase of praise along with the brand icon. This move can create a positive association in people’s minds.
When individuals see your brand out in public, they can remember the positive feelings from the award. An award with a brand logo and no words related to the individual’s accomplishments could also feel gimmicky.
As a business owner, you have many options when building your brand and creating a positive connotation in terms of your business in the minds of target audience members. Another way to keep your business at the forefront of people’s minds is to use brand icons in your company’s awards.
AUTHOR NAME : ALISON LURIE