These days, people are making more health conscious choices for their mind and body.
Popularity for fitness, exercise, and health has increased significantly especially over lockdown, with more people discovering a passion for moving.
Whether you’re a personal trainer or you just have a huge passion and knowledge for fitness, building a brand that represents you is the first step towards accessing these passionate individuals.
Your fitness brand is more than just a logo or your name, it’s essentially the overall perception that your audience has of your brand.
Building a brand that audiences relate to and want to engage with will be the make or break for your business.
So what will make your brand successful?
1. You understand your audience
To make a good fitness brand the first steps are to know who you are, what you do and who your audience is.
Starting from the latter, it’s important to indicate who your target audience is.
The best fitness brands have a clear idea of what their ideal customer looks like, their hobbies, routines and profile.
Once you know who you are speaking to, you know how to create a brand they are going to respond to and resonate with.
You’re always going to attract customers that fall outside your ideal customer persona, but making a purposeful connection with a specific type of person is going to make your brand easier to relate to.
All of this information will help determine your brand visuals and identity which we will expand on later.
2. You have a clear identity and set of values
As mentioned, you know your audience, but you also need to understand what your brand is, what you provide and what your purpose is.
With so much competition in the fitness industry you need to know what sets you apart from the competition.
Your brand personality refers to a set of human characteristics that represent your brand e.g ruggedness, sophisticated or competence.
Once you have an idea of your identity you can determine what your brand personality is.
For your brand, this information will help you hone your brand voice which is the language you use in your branding when you communicate with your customers, think taglines, social media captions, website content or signage.
3. You know your market
Building a successful brand is all about strategy and identity.
You want to cut through the noise whilst also being a brand that people can get on board with.
What are your competitors doing.
If you’re a local gym look at other gyms in the local area and establish what they are or are not offering – can you give customers a better or different experience? Branding is important in giving you that competitive advantage.
If you’re an online fitness guru, you may establish a brand that is catered towards more experienced gym goers to give them informed and professional workouts, whereas other fitness gurus are focused on beginners.
Your brand visuals and tone of voice will all demonstrate your brand to effectively access and engage these types of customers.
4. You are consistent
You can do all the groundwork when creating a brand but if you don’t use your brand guidelines consistently across all your platforms, you are going to undo all the hard-work.
The main advantage of branding is to make your business appear professional and trustworthy to your audience which in turn will make them trust you and choose to invest in your brand.
Using consistent brand visuals, voice and identity will show your audience that you are both professional and trustworthy.
5. You are accessible
As designers, our job is to translate your brand’s identity to your audience through visuals.
We call these brand assets.
We use our knowledge and theory to create colours, fonts and graphics that represent your brand, and are easy to recognise.
For example, if your business focuses on providing people with at home yoga workouts that are easy to use for beginners, you are going to want to have brand assets that are simple and soft to reflect this.
If your brand has darker, more sophisticated themes that involve lots of expert terms, it isn’t going to make your brand accessible to your target customer.
Brand assets are elements such as the font, colour palette, logo or stickers that make up your visual branding.
These are then used consistently and exclusively across your website, signage, marketing materials and social media.
As designers we make this easy for you by creating a set of brand guidelines.
This includes everything from your logo to your font pairings.
Our job is to take your brand identity and your values and translate this into visual elements that represent your brand, and give your audience something to recognise and relate to.
Check out some of the brand design projects we created here
Typography
Certain fonts will send a strong message about your brand to your audience.
For example, many fitness brands like Nike and Puma will use sans serif fonts that are clear and simple.
Pairing fonts that are used for headings or subheadings can create contrast and make the main font stand out, using the same typeface but with different font versions is also a good way at creating hierarchy between messages whilst maintaining the flow of the page.
Colour palette
Colours are incredibly important to your brand.
People create strong associations with different colours and you can take advantage of this by having a brand palette that evokes specific messages or emotions.
Look at the Courtney Black brand that uses an off red and black palette that people associate with power and strength – what her brand is offering through intense fitness programs.
Logo
A brand is more than just a logo, but it does play a crucial part in gaining recognition from your audience.
Whether you have a logo that is your name, an image or a shape, the form you choose again will install a specific message.
Many fitness brands focus on simple and sharp logos such as GymShark.
A black and white logo with sharp and bold lines that make up a shark outline is instantly recognisable and sleek.
Keeping your logo simple will also be important in making your brand as recognisable as possible to audiences.
Check out some of the brand design projects we created here
Illustrations or Stickers
Your brand package can include more than just your logo and colours, having specific stickers, shapes or illustrations can be another useful tool in creating familiarity.
These illustrations help define your brand and your products and make your brand instantly digestible.
Okay but where are these brand assets being used?
Consistency is key here.
You want to use the same assets across all your channels – from print materials, packaging, signage, social media, websites and more.
Branding assets that are seen continuously across your platforms will be embedded in consumers’ minds.
Not to mention a consistent image will make your brand feel professional and trustworthy.
Brand assets exist everywhere.
Companies that are not utilising them past a logo are missing out on the biggest marketing tool they have, and creating a real connection to their target audience.
Packaging and Signage
This will depend on your vegan food brand and whether you’re selling a product or running an establishment.
Packaging and signage are both important however in enhancing your brand visuals and creating continuity across your brand.
They can help elevate the consumer experience, by creating a unique and exciting experience for the consumer.
The fitness industry is huge.
Making a brand that cuts through the noise is essential for success.
Creating a well thought out brand is going to give you a distinct edge against those competitors and have your audience coming to you.
Don’t be afraid to use your branding as a tool to show the world what makes your brand unique.
Check out some of the brand design projects we created here
