One of the challenges for small businesses is building a brand identity despite not having the budget to “do it right.”
You could easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just on research and design. Just a logo design can cost that much!
The good news is that you can get a very usable brand identity on a relative shoestring. The challenge often comes at the other end – at the marketing company which has been hired perhaps to design and build a new website.
If the client doesn’t have an established look to their materials, one that properly represents the company and does the job it needs to, then branding is going to be a part of that website project. That is true whether the client or even the designer is aware of it.
When you are establishing the look of a website, you are either creating a portion of that company’s brand identity, or you are applying an existing brand identity to that particular instance. One or the other.
The development of a website look is, in most cases, a large portion, even a majority of the cost of a professional website development project.
Developing a look is more than art. It’s a thoughtful exercise in marketing.
It’s also one of the huge differences between a bargain priced website and a professional development.
Professional developers think marketing. Others think art, or “I like the way that looks.”