Branding for Mental Health Products
Branding is the secret weapon that will help you distinguish your mental health products from your competitors. To be successful and stand out in this increasingly-crowded industry, your customers need to understand who you are and what makes you different at first glance.
But building a mental health brand is not as easy as it sounds. Branding is a strategic process that needs to be done right from the start – otherwise, your company won’t attract the right type of customers and will blend in with the crowd.
Since the mental health space is so delicate, it can be tricky to get your branding right, which is why we highly recommend working with a wellness branding agency like Aventive Studio. Learn more about our signature brand strategy & design services here.
Whether you already have a company or you’re experimenting with mental health business ideas, here are some branding tips for mental health products that will help you start off on the right foot.
Develop Your Core Brand Attributes
Your brand is the heart of your business. It is what people think about when they hear your name and what people remember when they want to buy from you.
A strong, consistent brand image is essential for any business, especially a mental health one. You need something that resonates with people and makes them want to buy from you because they trust you over your competitors.
The way to build this is by creating a personality for your brand. This includes things that make up who you are as a business and what makes your mission unique.
For example, if you were to create a mental health app, your core brand attributes could revolve around the following:
- Tech-based mental health support.
- Passion for and commitment towards a cause (ex. accessible mental health care).
- A specific approach to achieve the vision behind the app (ex. free consultations for new users).
These basic attributes can not only help describe you but can also set you apart in an already crowded space. They will also be reflected in your visuals and overall branding.
Remember that determining brand attributes is an unavoidable part of building a successful business. It is the very ingredient that connects you with your ideal buyer. For instance, if your mental health product is aimed at “relaxation,” its branding will be completely different than if it were focused on “energizing” and “motivating.”
As part of our agency’s brand strategy process, we determine your company’s brand attributes, target profiles, customer journey, target profiles, positioning, content strategy, and more to help you make more sales. To see examples of our past brand strategy & design work with wellness companies, click here.
Perform Extensive Competitor Research
When it comes to branding and marketing mental health products, there are a lot of things you can do wrong. You could create a confusing and unpleasant website. Or maybe you don’t do research enough and end up marketing your product using the wrong words.
In other words, the mental health products market is an incredibly sensitive space and as a product or service provider, you are responsible for how your brand interacts with people’s mental health.
To avoid all these pitfalls, we recommend performing extensive competitive research so that you know what’s working and what to avoid.
If you want to compete in the mental health space, you need to understand how other companies have been able to create successful brands and products. This will help guide you as you create your own brand.
The little things matter. For instance, if you are an acupressure mat manufacturer and every other acupressure mat in the market is using black and white in their color palette, you can stand out simply by using a fun color palette that oozes vibrance.
But that’s easier said than done. You need to work with an expert brand strategist who can pinpoint your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, analyze their branding, and create a visual brand that sets you apart from them.
Narrow Down on Your Ideal Buyer
In order to create a strong brand identity and ensure that it is easy to find, it is important to know who exactly you are looking to reach.
What age group do you want to attract? Is it children or adults? If it is adults, what type of people are they? What do they do? Are they stay-at-home moms or pro athletes? Do they have a specific interest in mental health?
These questions will help you determine the tone of your brand, what colors and fonts to use, and how you should present yourself online.
The age group that you target will also determine how much detail needs to be included in your branding. For instance, if you are targeting teens, then you might have to focus on providing less information about the specifics of your product or service and more about its benefits to appeal to their senses.
The main aim of all your branding should be to establish you as an expert in the mental health space. And that’s only possible when you put out the right message, which, in turn, is only possible when you know who you are talking to.
Get Your Branding Visuals in Order
Branding is all about consistency. And uniform visuals help you do just that! The more organized you are with the visual design of your product, the easier it will be to create a consistent image across all marketing channels.
You have to have a visual identity that conveys what your product is, but also what it stands for. This means choosing the right colors and icons, creating an overall brand look, and coming up with effective creatives.
Logo Design
The first step in creating a visual identity for your brand is to create a logo. This is the most important part of the branding process because it will be used everywhere.
A logo is a visual representation of your brand, and it is important to have one that is consistent with your vision and personality. It is the face of your company, and you have a split second to make an impression.
Your logo should be simple, memorable, and easy to understand. It should also have a distinct color palette, which should align with your brand colors. And it doesn’t matter whether your logo is serious or friendly-looking, so long as it matches your brand strategy.
Brand Colors and Typography
The colors and fonts you choose for your business can have a big impact on how people perceive your brand. You need to ensure that they are not only eye-catching but also different from what’s being offered in the market.
Make sure that the colors and typography you choose work well with each other and aren’t too similar to that of your competitors or even distracting from one another. A branding agency like Aventive Studio can make you a mental health mood board to help you maintain consistency with the visual & emotional feel of your brand.
Also, consider how your mental health brand colors will be displayed in different contexts (for example, if they are used in packaging). Think about how these elements will look at small sizes — if you are printing on t-shirts or socks or other products, for example, where fonts are smaller than usual, make sure that everything looks good in print!
Pro Tip: Color psychology is an interesting area of study, so read up on it if you are not sure what color would work best for your product’s target audience. This is when having a good branding strategist on your side can make a huge difference!
Packaging
Packaging can make or break a product. It is where you start to make a statement about your brand and product, so you want it to look professional and appealing.
You want your customers to know what they are getting when they open up that box or jar just by looking at the visuals. That’s why it is important for your packaging to be consistent with your brand identity as well as with the rest of your marketing materials.
Besides being appealing, your packaging also needs to have a functional value i.e. product information – in a way that it looks visually striking to the user. And getting that perfect blend of function and creativity right is worth the time you invest in designing your packaging!
Showcase Your Mental Health Business with a Stunning Website
A website is the cornerstone of your business, and it is the place where you will showcase everything you do. It is also the hub where people will come to learn more about what you do, connect with you, and ultimately buy from you.
Needless to say, your website needs to grab the visitors’ attention quickly, showcase your mental health products to sell in an uncluttered way, and be appealing enough to encourage people to take action.
Since a website is just another marketing channel, it also needs to answer some basic questions about your brand, such as what you are selling, why you are better than your competitors, what kind of results people can expect after using your products, and how other people have benefitted from your offerings.
In addition, you should pay special attention to your homepage. People who visit websites generally don’t go directly to a specific page; they usually start at the homepage. So, it needs to have a compelling copy and attractive graphics that speak to them directly.
Branding for mental health products is all about showing empathy for someone’s mental health problems and conveying that you understand their struggles. It is important to be authentic, because if people don’t connect with your brand, they won’t buy from you.
That’s where Aventive Studio comes in! We provide full-service branding for mental health businesses like yours. From brand strategy to logo design to website development, we can help you create a memorable brand identity that will perfectly reflect who you are and what your company does. Reach out to us to get started!