Three Strategies for Great Branding… Everywhere

Evaluating branding is about impact. When we talk about brand consistency, it’s about the unified and positive force of that impact for customers, both loyal and new.

Sometimes this gets lost in store development when external and internal branding are siloed. This can confuse or even alienate shoppers and dilute brand impact.

Here are three strategies to ensure your store’s external and internal branding work seamlessly together to create a unified, engaging and brand-right customer experience.

First steps: engagement, communication and wayfinding

How easily is your store identified from surrounding roads? How much do you want to communicate to drivers, including those who aren’t navigating to your store at that moment?

Some retailers want to be subtle or even mysterious. Part of their branding is “not for everybody… but maybe for you.” Others want to foster immediate visual recognition and reinforce brand identity. Many want to communicate as much as possible, whether that’s about seasonal products or big sales.

Miller Zell utilized Sunbelt Rentals branding to expand seasonal merchandise selection by improving exterior communication of their rental equipment and brand messaging.

The brand presentation and messaging used externally, such as taglines, value propositions or even quick pokes at humor, should be matched in the interior décor and layout. Further, if you’re promoting products or sales outside, then store entry should immediately and clearly address how customers can quickly access those products or sale items.

This is about creating a seamless experiential flow, one that is designed with the customer journey in mind. The exterior of the store should act as an invitation, setting the stage for the experience that awaits inside. The design should guide customers seamlessly from the outside in, with clear sightlines and intuitive navigation.

Your store interior meets your customers the second they walk through the door. Ensure there’s no disconnect with customer communication outside your store and when they walk inside.

Uplifting brand perception with every touchpoint

The branding inside and outside your store should align with every brand touchpoint, from external marketing campaigns to all digital presences, from emails to social media to your app.

If you promote a seasonal campaign on social media, billboards or on window displays, the in-store environment should reflect that same campaign with coordinated visuals, messaging and product displays. And it’s important to ask if any messaging outside your store can provide on-brand campaign support.

Set the tone from the street. The exterior of your store should communicate your brand’s personality and the atmosphere customers can expect inside. Is your brand fun and playful? Or sophisticated and luxurious? Or is it all about selection and pricing?

Miller Zell focused on Mizuno’s brand objective of helping athletes raise their games by blending art and technology 

The path to purchase starts in the parking lot with exterior design, including wayfinding, signage, lighting and window displays. It also includes cohesive sensory elements both inside and outside your store, from music to scents to a strategic blend of creativity and purposefulness.

Part of this is creating an almost subconscious brand connection. A mom or dad taking their child to school passes one of your stores and registers “Your Brand” without actually looking or thinking about a shopping trip. It’s a matter of colors, logos and past experiences connecting with customers and inspiring a spontaneous shopping wants-needs review such as, “We need… eggs… a homework desk for our teenager… aspirin… a dry-wall patch… a new phone… workout clothes… dinner,” etc.

Your store associates also are a key touchpoint of branding and brand perception — brand ambassadors, if you will. You train them, you provide uniforms or branded attire and you reward them for good work. Part of your associate engagement is helping them buy into your brand identity, which ensures that customer interactions align with external branding efforts. The tone and style of customer service should reflect the overall brand promise, creating a consistent and immersive brand experience from beginning to end.

Miller Zell partners with Church’s to create award-winning packaging, outstanding POP for a product launch, optimized digital menu boards and customized in- and out-of-store communications. These efficient, purposeful brand refreshes  even include updated uniform designs that celebrate the brand  to both customers and associates. 

How do you do it? Formalize brand guidelines to establish brand consistency

External and internal signage are often different in form, material selection and purposes. But not with branding.

While “maintaining brand consistency” might sound obvious, it’s always Point A for the beginning of concepting and design of any signage or displays, inside and out.

Your stores vary by footprint, region and even perhaps purpose. Your exterior areas likely feature different parking layouts and alignments. Outdoor signage laws vary from state to state and might include restrictions on the size, location and type of signs that can be displayed.

Your store might have one main entrance. Or several.

Miller Zell connected traditional and forward thinking with Alltown's modernized convenience store design.

Don’t be distracted by these potential variables. It’s important to clearly establish and present your brand identity in brand-consistent ways, no matter the store-to-store differences.

Create a brand playbook that sets standards and an all-encompassing visual language, including logos, colors, fonts, images, primary and secondary slogans and verbiage. This ensures brand-right consistency — from parking, to entrance, to browsing or mission-driven shopping, to checkout to exit.

Establishing guidelines for all types of branding makes new interior or exterior signage or décor elements and innovations easier to implement, wherever your designs, print needs, digital touchpoints or manufacturing originate.

As with all things retail, optimizing the brand experience at your stores is about creative, strategic, holistic and pragmatic thinking.

Branded environments benefit from a seamless visual identity, ensuring a cohesive entry experience that aligns with in-store branding with external marketing.

When done effectively, this connection strengthens brand perception, enhances customer trust and creates a more immersive shopping experience.