DECIDING HOW TO brand your business — or embarking on a revamp — can be daunting. Where to begin? Robin Wright, manager and optician at Highland Eye Boutique in Atlanta, GA, can help with this. “Start by knowing who you are, and who you are not,” she says. “You do not have to spend a lot of money to create the branding, if the branding itself tells people who you are.”
This attractive practice’s poised, tasteful aesthetic was designed to project a “clean, boutique feel,” Wright says. It achieves this efficiently, starting with its logo, which is emblazoned with a very minimal rendition of the name with a pair of glasses perched on top inside of a blue scroll. “We decided to keep it simple, yet elegant,” she says, adding that they also took some inspiration from local high-end clothing design company Sid Mashburn.
Targeting a core demographic aged 35-65 but also seeing children and the elderly, Highland Eye Boutique stocks a range of branded items including bags, cleaning cloths and spray bottles, cards to request reviews, blank cards, and associates’ name plates and business cards. Staff are issued their own branded jackets to wear at work on colder days, and all internal signage and communication bears the logo. The latter also has pride of place on the awnings at the front of the building to keep things seamless inside and out. “Also, on our sandwich board, we try to match name brands and messaging to remain consistent,” Wright says.
The team brought in an online company to design the logo but handles all other branding duties themselves in house. The office bulldogs have also become a kind of signature element, “to the delight of our patients,” says Wright.
Wright can’t stress enough the importance of having a good logo from the outset; from there, you can put it everywhere, especially when sponsoring events in the community. “Make sure that you apply your branding consistently, so you do not confuse your message,” she advises. “Do not be afraid to expand from there and have fun with it!”
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