5 Branding Trends Taking off in 2022

Featured image by J.luis Esquivel on Unsplash

In this day and age, building a brand that echoes the values of your business is the ultimate key to success. Branding isn’t just about nice-looking labels, words that rhyme, and mind-blowing ads. Rather, it’s about your business’s identity beyond its services and products. In short, branding is about creating something unique that audiences will connect with.

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Whether you’re an early-stage entrepreneur or a designer working on a branding project, creating a relevant, strong, and recognizable brand is critical for growing your business and building a reliable, scalable customer base.

What Is Branding?

Products are never just products. Pepsi is more than a soda. KFC is more than fried chicken. Interacting with these products gives us experience, and we want them for that experience. Better yet, those who come up with these ideas and market them know exactly the experience they want to share when you consider or make a purchase.

In a nutshell, a brand’s visual identity, design, messaging, and even tone of voice aim for external perceptions, concepts and ideas that distinguish a business from its competitors.

Your branding image must be original, straightforward, and memorable to create a strong brand identity. It should also be consistent everywhere your brand is out in sight. This includes your advertising and marketing, product packaging, socials (all of them), email and website, and obviously, your services and products.

Perhaps most importantly is your purpose. You need to know exactly why you are doing it.

#1 Trend: Immersive Brand Experiences

You don’t need to be an expert marketer to know that a rich brand experience is about welcoming your audience to your world. Inviting interaction and creating a community that is engaged and connected with your brand experience is a must in 2022 and likely beyond.

Immersive branding experiences can take place anywhere. They can happen in a comfortable online gaming experience or at a themed event. Or you could take product packing to an entirely new level to create an unparalleled experience for your audience. At least that’s what digital agency SF experts are telling early-stage brands that want their image to live everywhere.

#2 Trend: Brand Activism

Recent findings hint that U.S consumers are seeking greater responsibility and transparency from brands. In fact, 43% of consumers view brands more positively when they participate in social change. Brand activism, therefore, influences consumer decisions, making it a top-of-mind priority for brands and sellers looking to widen their reach.

Brand activism is where you get a chance to express or promote change that aligns with your brand’s core values. These transformations can be of economic, environmental, social, or political nature. But basically, they all have a goal of improving society or the natural world in some fashion.

But consumers aren’t content with your simply stating your stance with your branding. They want to see meaningful actions from brand activists. If you don’t take such actions, they are likely to call your brand a total fake. Take Patagonia for example. This is a brand that clearly showcases on its website the steps they’re taking to reduce their environmental impact. Moreover, they give examples that include videos, blog posts, and statistics that clearly explain their progress.

#3 Trend: Quirky Designs

Quirky branding includes everything from bizarre imagery to hand-drawn illustrations to chaotic design and asymmetry. While it may sound strange, brands worldwide have adopted this trend. This even includes organizations in traditional industries such as health insurance and finance. If breaking the rules in a convenient (even profitable) way to create a sense of fun and individuality sounds tempting, then using unexpected design elements might be just what you’re looking for.

Quirky branding is head-turning. You will notice unique artwork, odd imagery, fun typography, collage illustrations, bright or clashing colors, and asymmetric shapes that not only make you feel something but also make a statement. Even so, these quirks can also reveal a more accessible, personal side of a brand.

#4 Trend: Purpose-Driven Campaigns

In 2022 we will also witness more brands creating purpose-driven campaigns. We’ve grown wary of campaigns that lack value and only drive profit for the sake of the company.

Those who are taking their time, money, and marketing capabilities to explain and demonstrate to buyers what and how they plan to resolve a problem can expect more appreciation from consumers in 2022.

What people really want is transparency and authenticity, and they expect this movement to last. So, if you want to be in the game for the long run, this will require you to be authentic and transparent.

# 5 Trend: Data-Driven Branding

In a massively tech-driven market, brands and consumers create a massive amount of data on a daily basis. This data is critical for understanding your brand’s relationship with your audience. You can no longer afford to let it go to waste.

Taking advantage of your business intelligence tools and analytics provides a great wealth of information that will aid your market research and product strategy.

The data you gain will come in handy whenever you need to speed up product development, enhance customer experience and, obviously, make your brand stand out from the rest.

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