23 Branding Trends to Look Out For in 2022

In recent years, the importance of Branding has grown exponentially. With the introduction of digital marketing, the visual sense of the brand, as well as its reach, has become critical. Companies are finding more and more ways to promote their brand, and they want to take advantage of these changes. However, in order to do so, they must guarantee that their branding is in tip-top form.

Keeping up with the newest branding trends is an important and practical approach to improving your brand. Unlike in the past, these tendencies are changing at a rapid pace currently. As a result, all businesses must remain on top of current developments and capitalize on them. Brands that do not follow these trends risk becoming outdated and gaining a poor user opinion. As a result, they should engage in rebranding activities on a regular basis. To assist you, we have produced a list of anticipated branding trends for 2022:

What Exactly Is Branding?

At its most basic, branding is the act of studying, developing, producing, and iterating on your brand’s perception in order to correctly express your vision, goal, personality, and purpose. Branding is made up of all the exterior impressions, ideas, and concepts that separate a firm from its rivals. It includes everything from a brand’s visual identity and design to message and tone of voice.

What Is the Importance of Branding?

Your branding is essentially your brand’s personality as well as the distinctive selling feature that allows what you do to stand out. With new items appearing all the time, first impressions matter – and as your company’s profile, your brand should represent and quickly express who you are, what you do, and what you stand for. Branding, when done well, can market your business, enhance your products, keep existing consumers engaged, and attract new ones. However, if done incorrectly, it might destroy a brand’s prospects of success in the market.

1.Logo Flexibility:

Many businesses have recognized the value of having a logo that can be simply scaled up or down and utilized in a variety of ways. The days of elaborate images and complex graphics in logos are long gone. With digital media becoming the most popular marketing platform, firms want to make sure their logo appears nice and clean even when scaled down for usage in a social media post. Shape-shifting logos are another logo trend that we can anticipate. Companies will develop one master logo and then have several variants of it based on how the logo is used. So, for a print ad, we might see the entire logo, but for Instagram stories, we might just see a portion of it. We may view the entire logo, however for Instagram stories, we may just see a logo version reduced to a single brand piece. This also adds to the diversity of the brand’s visual identity. Many large corporations have already begun to experiment with shape-shifting logos.

2.Maintaining Simplicity:

Minimalism is a decade-long design movement that may be seen in branding, whether in the visual identity or the messaging. Users desire direct communication and the least amount of effort to comprehend a brand. On the other hand, businesses must conform to these client trends and ensure that they communicate clearly and without ambiguity. This is why we see so many companies’ visual identities becoming quite dull. They are avoiding cursive fonts and other aesthetic aspects. Instead, logos are becoming more straightforward wordmarks with bold and simple typography.

3.Experiencing Nostalgia:

While one dominant branding trend in 2021 will be to be modern and sleek, another trend that we will see is firms becoming nostalgic. This will be especially true for companies that have been on the market for decades. This is a subtle method of informing consumers that they have been present for a long time. Burger King is one company that has already begun to do so. It has altered its current logo, which featured vibrant colors and a sheen, to a flat, not-so-bright-colors design. They are infusing a sense of naturalness in the brand and generating a nostalgic emotion in the brand by doing so. We will see more brands by the end of the year.

4.Visual Content’s Importance:

A picture is worth a thousand words, and when thousands of them move at the rate of 24 frames per second to create a gorgeous film, think how much material you can transmit. Users’ attention spans are rapidly dwindling, and they do not desire to read extensive messages. Users began consuming material on high-speed mobile devices with the introduction of these gadgets. Users are finding it more difficult to read long articles on them due to their size. However, if the same knowledge is given in a picture, infographic, or video, viewers will be willing to spend a minute or two gathering the information.

5.Brand Advocacy

Brand activism is not a transient fad or trend. Wearing your heart on your sleeve and displaying your commitment to the causes you care about (rather than just paying lip service) has never been more vital. Consumers like to connect with companies that share their values, which range from environmentalism to social justice. Leaning into brand activism entails articulating your commitment to good change – and then following through!

“How a brand ‘fits’ into your values, beliefs system, and lifestyle will undoubtedly influence whether you purchase into that brand,” says Envato Brand Designer Sophie Dunn. “A brand’s mission and purpose influence who you buy from and choose to identify with on a regular basis.”

6.Quirky Branding

Hand-drawn artwork and unusual images, as well as overlapping parts, asymmetry, and chaotic design, are all part of quirky branding. It’s a movement that has been embraced by a diverse spectrum of businesses, including those in conventional areas like finance and health insurance. Quirky branding is all about breaking the rules and incorporating unexpected design elements to generate a feeling of fun and uniqueness.

Quirky branding approaches, which frequently include DIY components, collage, unusual images or artwork, humorous typography, illustration, colliding elements, vivid or clashing hues, and twisted forms, assist firms in making a statement. These “quirks” may reflect a more approachable, personal aspect of a company, in addition to being enjoyable and eye-catching.

7.Gradients

Color gradients began as a fun feature of Powerpoint and Microsoft WordArt, but they are now appearing everywhere from design and digital art to social media postings, websites, presentations, and – of course – branding. Color gradients are popular because they are highly adaptable, with a wide range of creative uses.

Gradients are being utilized in a variety of situations, including picture overlays that relate photographs to a brand’s color palette, as a method to give extra visual interest to text or type, and as subtle or striking backdrops to artworks.

8.Branding for Blandness

Minimalism has swept the globe by storm in recent years, with people reducing clutter from their daily lives in the style of Marie Kondo. The concept appears to have grabbed on even in the corporate world, as many organizations have begun to reduce their branding to its most basic form.

Google and Airbnb, for example, both recently had facelifts that altered their logos to sans-serif, a popular typeface for Minimalism. The same can be said for major fashion houses like Balmain, Yves Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga.

Other businesses are following suit by using fewer colors, creating more negative space, and utilizing simpler font. In fact, 95 percent of the best firms’ logos are merely one or two colors (Nora Kramer Designs, 2017). Consider brands such as Glossier, Muji, and Uniqlo.

Aside from minimalism, another reason why many firms are becoming minimalist is that it provides them a higher chance of being legendary. After all, the simpler the typeface and colors, the easier it is to combine with other accompanying visuals. Nike and Levi’s are ideal examples of this—both brands’ logos are instantly recognized regardless of the background.

9.Personalized Visual Content

Humans are visual beings. We naturally retain photos better than any other type of material. However, from the standpoint of brand marketing, this does not imply that all sorts of visual material will evoke the same response from your target demographic.

According to a PR News survey, online material with nice photographs generates 94% more views than those without (Solve, 2020). This is because this form of visual material tries to promote your business without the danger of overt advertising.

Furthermore, visual material like as GIFs, charts, infographics, and videos help you create new leads on social media more successfully. They have a greater chance of being seen than advertising that just lists the things you have to sell. This is especially crucial now that Facebook has updated its algorithm to prioritize friends and family above advertisers in news feeds (Forbes, 2018). As a result, many B2C marketers (54 percent) are increasingly focusing on developing videos and webinars (Content Marketing Institute, 2020), which are frequently utilized in conjunction with social media content to increase their efficiency.

Of course, before using this method, be sure to produce images that suit your brand’s aesthetic. For example, if it’s an infographic, utilize your official font style and color palette to embellish it. If it’s a video, place your logo in the bottom right corner. Customers will know that you created the material this way. This helps you to market your brand discretely.

Take a look at this collection of graphic content marketing data for more ideas on how to capitalize on this technique.

10.Social Media Branding

The internet’s accessibility has opened the path for an always-on social media culture. As a result, sites like Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram have become great locations for establishing your brand. As a result, it is not surprising that 90 percent of firms use social media to increase brand recognition (Hootsuite, 2020).

Following that, you’ll need to develop a consistent aesthetic theme for your accounts. To give your company a more established identity, choose a color scheme and have a standard for photo editing and layout.

Finally, you must create a voice for your brand. Do you want to come across as formal? Quirky? Punny? Create and keep to a lingua franca that speaks to your intended audience.

Consider employing social media management tools to prepare posts and track the effectiveness of each piece of content you publish. You can make your social media marketing more coordinated and data-driven this way.

11.Authenticity of the Brand

In recent years, customer trust has reached an all-time low. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer, just 34% of customers trust the companies from which they buy. As a result, developing a genuine brand image is important for modern organizations (Edelman, 2019).

According to a Stackla analysis of consumer content, 86 percent of customers consider authenticity to be a major influence in their shopping decisions (Stackla). Furthermore, the same survey found that 90 percent of millennials value authenticity in branding, preferring “genuine and organic” businesses over those that are “polished and packaged.”

This research demonstrates that altered marketing, excessively edited commercials, and the use of picture-perfect models no longer entice current customers. They would want to do business with firms that are truthful with them.

12.Being Inclusive

Nowadays, no business can afford to make the mistake of not being inclusive. Recently, a large number of businesses have faced backlash for not being inclusive, and they have had to reposition themselves as caring and open companies that provide services to the whole population. Inclusivity should include sexuality, ethnicity, religion, color, and anything else that can offend the audience. Defamatory news may quickly become widespread on social media. People’s tolerance levels are lower than ever, and they are quickly offended. As a result, businesses must embed diversity at the core of their branding strategies, drawing inspiration from well-known brands such as Dove and Fendi. Only because a company caters to a certain demographic

13.Brand Immersive Experiences

Immersive brand experiences are an innovative trend that is growing up to be a crucial aspect of brand storytelling. They are all about bringing consumers into your world, inviting participation, and developing a connected and engaged community. There’s no question that immersive brand experiences are the way of the future, whether it’s by organizing a themed event, developing an online game or interactive experience, or going above and beyond with your product packaging to create an unrivaled experience for your customers.

Take, for example, this Stranger Things immersive experience. It lowers viewers right inside the Hawkins Lab depicted in the program, where they may “find the mysteries within the walls,” and is located in both San Francisco and New York. The experience is genuinely compelling and deepens the viewer’s relationship to the Stranger Things brand, thanks to a sleek website including graphics inspired by the show and behind-the-scenes photographs of what to anticipate on the night. Another example is Exhibition Hub, which provides a worldwide immersive exhibition experience that allows art fans to enter into the works of famed artist Vincent Van Gogh, complete with 360-degree projections and a 15,000-foot-tall screen.

14.Type is Bold and Playful

When it comes to delivering your brand’s message, selecting the proper font or typeface is an essential step. You may communicate a compelling message that matches the tone of your brand by putting your words in the correct package. This is the trend for you if your business is bright, lively, and playful!

“A picture may be worth a thousand words, but don’t underestimate the power of a lively, entertaining typeface,” Sophie says. “Slab serif or show fonts may offer a lot of flair to your branding.” Add some movement and a splash of color to bring it to life.”

Text truly takes on a life of its own with this branding trend, which pushes designers to adopt a joyful approach to typography, using strong writing, whimsical forms, colors, other various design elements. The bold and lively type trend is all on communicating personality, and it includes complicated design approaches like 3D fonts, moving letters, kinetic typography, and shapeshifting words. Consider this captivating design by Simon Eves, which offers a feeling of meaning through movement. Who needs visuals when you’ve got typefaces like this?

15.Integrated Social Media Effort:

Social media marketing is not new, but we can expect to see businesses making the most of social media platforms. Following the initial concerns, various social media platforms have gained importance, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp, and even TikTok. Given how much time individuals spend on social media on a daily basis, it has become a hotspot for attracting leads or consumers. Initially, businesses would have a single strategy for all of their social media accounts. However, with the saturation of social media, they must now have a different plan for all outlets. At the same time, they should not be haphazard. As a result, the trend of synchronized social media planning and execution will be on the rise.

16.Humanize Brands:

There is a distinction to be made between brand communication and brand speech. Users increasingly prefer it when a business speaks to them rather than bombarding them with marketing messages. As a result, conversational texting is becoming more popular. Brands aim to be as human as possible in order to build a deep relationship with their customers. Marketing teams are developing targeted initiatives, particularly on social media, to address this. User participation is essential in this process. Gone are the days when you could publish something on social media and disregard the feedback.

Brands are now reacting to nearly every comment on their posts and engaging with people. This aids in showing the brand’s human side and interacting with customers as peers. If you can inject a little levity, you can rapidly break the ice and make your business more approachable. While some clever businesses have already begun to do so, we expect to see this trend accelerate by early 2022.

17.Branding Without Brand:

Consider a large hoarding that discusses the importance of comfortable shoes but does not include a brand or logo. In 2022, this will be a big disruptive trend. Brands will become so powerful that they will engage in ‘branding without branding.’ Marketers would have laughed at this a few years ago, but it now seems promising. This is due to an overabundance of marketing. Users are fed up with marketers flashing their products and making promises to them. They are looking for answers rather than brands.

To avoid this, brands have begun to use their unique selling qualities as their brand image rather than any visual identity. However, the absence of any brand representation might backfire if sufficient brand memory is not developed, thus we will see this trend more in large businesses that will utilize their flagship goods or services to market themselves.

While branding trends are subject to change, the factors mentioned above appear to be important head turners in 2022. The most important thing for designers and marketers to remember is to make their branding basic, straightforward, and accurate. This must also be reflected in their visual representation: the logo, website, print advertisements, or digital media. At the same time, they must maintain the consumer at the forefront of their minds and design their branding to best serve them.

18.Brand Inclusivity

Customer expectations are changing as a result of diversity, body positivity, and inclusiveness. According to an Accenture poll, 70% of millennials choose inclusive and diverse companies over those that are not (Accenture, 2018).

According to the 2018 State of Branding, the majority of corporations (79 percent) recognize the necessity of tackling social and cultural concerns as part of their branding strategy. However, many of these enterprises are also failing to keep up with demand (Bynder, 2018).

Some examples of businesses that thrive at encouraging diversity include personal care brand Dove, underwear maker ThirdLove, and cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty. Instead of using picture-perfect models, these companies have made it a point to include actual women in their advertisements. They’ve been creating marketing campaigns with the goal of shattering beauty norms. This includes showcasing women of all ages, ethnicities, shapes, sizes, and gender orientations in order to empower their clients.

Of course, if your company does not particularly cater to women, there are other ways to make it more inclusive. You can, for example, be economically inclusive by of

19.Branding that is socially responsible

Consumers no longer regard items as simply commodities; instead, each one serves as a message. As a result, purpose-driven companies are more appealing to current consumers. In fact, 71% of customers buy from companies that support their cause (Consumer Culture Report, 2020). According to a previous Cone Communications survey, “businesses must now explain not only what they stand for, but what they stand up for.”

One explanation for this is that 46 percent of all consumers believe companies have better problem-solving solutions than the government (Edelman, 2018). Take, for example, the American shoe and apparel company Toms. It employs one of the most effective social responsibility tactics available today. According to some, it is one of the firms that pioneered the social impact movement.

20.Brand Persona Humanized

The fact is that shoppers find it difficult to trust brands. They believe that most businesses are merely out to take their money. If you want people to do business with you, you must humanize your brand, which customers expect, especially given the current epidemic. One of the most tried and true brand marketing strategies of all time is to give your brand a personality. After all, your firm, like individuals, should have a variety of personalities.

According to the Sprout Social Index, customers expect to see diverse behaviors from companies on social media (Sprout Social, 2017). Customers expect businesses to be honest (86 percent), pleasant (83 percent), and helpful, as predicted (78 percent ). Aside from these characteristics, customers like companies that are amusing (72%), fashionable (43%), politically correct (39%), and sarcastic (33%). (33 percent ). These actions make it simpler for customers to identify with a specific brand.

21.Brand Strategy Based on Technology

Technology is firmly interwoven in both our daily lives and the functioning of numerous enterprises. As a result, this item on our list of upcoming branding trends is not particularly novel.

For years, marketers and brand managers have used technology to help with many facets of branding. They invest in branding automation tools to increase the efficiency with which content is created (32%), to allow data-driven decision-making (27%), and to better personalization (22 percent ) (Bynder, 2020).

However, in recent years, there have been growing technologies that businesses have gradually used in order to better enhance branding. Mobile applications (68 percent), voice assistants (40 percent), and virtual reality are among the top technologies that marketers are implementing into their operations (37 percent ). These will enable them to accommodate internet users who rely on their smartphones, as well as deliver better experiences for their potential and present consumers. Furthermore, these new technologies can assist them in remaining relevant in this fast-paced environment (Bynder, 2018).

22.Generate Hashtags

Being proactive in your marketing strategy is one of the finest methods to satisfy your customers’ expectations. In this case, creating hashtags has become a widely used technique among businesses. This not only offers the firm a more personalized image but with such viral material. You will see an increase in consumer involvement. In exchange, you can gain benefits for both yourself and your business. As a result, you must draw that remarkable and out-of-the-box creativity from your thoughts and work within those constraints to produce something humorous, intriguing, and completely engaging!

23.Go for it!

One of the most professional methods to lead the game is via authenticity. When this is aligned with customers, the value may increase. As a result, supporting live streaming may be extremely beneficial to you and your organization. When you get clients on board and they are live and available for you, it will be simpler to have a one-on-one conversation with them through spontaneous contact. Address their issues and generate some question-and-answer sessions whenever you go live on various platforms. It will be difficult for them to relate to you and remember that the closest you can get to them for sales is by understanding what they want, how they want it, and when they want it.

To summarise

Because trends are never static, there are patterns to them that change their course. Some of the most in-demand branding trends for the year 2022 are given in this article to help you create the greatest results for your organisation.

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