Environmental Branding Offers Big Benefits to Your Company

Cohesive and strong branding is the first step in a successful product, but the vast galaxy of environmental branding is key to putting stars in the eyes of your consumers. Environmental branding is the process of designing a three-dimensional space that reflects your company identity. It offers a powerful way to enliven employees and introduce visitors, clients and prospects to your brand’s unique culture — an important feat considering consumers form their brand impressions in 1/10 of a second.

Environmental branding can cover a diverse range of services, but the main areas, which we provide, are:

Office Features
Themed Spaces
Art Installations
Store Displays
Exterior Branding

Even though environmental branding is proven to have a considerable positive impact for businesses, only 59% of workplaces take advantage of branded environments. What’s more surprising is that only 50% of businesses design with branding in mind.

Give your business an edge against competitors while motivating your employees with these types of environmental branding:

Stunning Office and Feature Space Design

Office and feature space design is crucial for two important audiences: clients/customers and employees. First impressions with these targets can mean the difference between new business or no business.

Surrounding your office space with a themed space that reflects your brand can impress clients and encourage them to work with you in the future. Those same colors or items of furniture also serve to motivate your employees and boost productivity along with job satisfaction. One study found that “82% of employees said art was important in the work environment.” Working in an aesthetically pleasing office versus a bland colored one can result in higher quality work.

Effective design branding should reflect the color palette, feel and culture of your brand for a cohesive identity, one where employees are advocates and clients feel welcome.

Our work for the Golf Channel provides a great example of office and feature space design done in a way that maximizes the brand experience. Our goal was to pay homage to the company’s history while motivating employees to dream big. To achieve this, we themed each conference room with a golf course design. Three-dimensional collages of award-winning golfers line the hallways of the building along with informational blurbs to serve as an inspiring reminder of their careers and achievements. We also included humorous art features of notable golfers from classic movies such as Caddy Shack and Happy Gilmore in the workout rooms. Learn more about our work for the Golf Channel here.

A portion of the golfer collage for the Golf Channel.

Theming a Space to Inspire

Adding art installations around the office is another effective way to environmentally brand the workplace. There are two ways to work with art pieces: subliminally or explicitly. Paint color, murals or wall pieces work in a subliminal way by hinting at ideas and forming subconscious impressions while employees work. Sculptures or kinetic artworks convey an obvious idea that can’t be missed by viewers.

For our longstanding client, CNL Financial Group, Inc., we combined both explicit and subliminal art to theme the CNL da Vinci Center. We featured replicas of Leonardo da Vinci’s artworks, including a collage titled “The Evolution of Man” with pieces of da Vinci’s art. Another notable piece we created is a 3D replica of da Vinci’s “The Wing” which now hangs in the entry space. We also invited viewers to find inspiration through incorporating words throughout the space that exemplified da Vinci’s life

Our work for the Central Florida Expressway Authority offers a great example of explicit environmental branding. To commemorate the Central Florida Expressway Authority’s 50^th year, we included actual highway signs from each of the major highways in Central Florida. Each sign denotes the years they were completed and were used in conjunction with a timeline of the organization’s construction work to present an engaging history of the brand.

Splendid Interior and Exterior Displays

Store displays may be the most common form of environmental branding. They constitute retail advertisements and point of purchase (POP) displays. The strategy behind this type of environmental branding is recall and action on the part of the consumer. By viewing an ad repetitively, it increases recall in the consumer mind. It can also motivate consumers to buy the product. In fact, when executed correctly, product displays catch more consumers’ attention, leading to a 46.5% increase in sales.

Our work for Pet Alliance offers a vivid example of a branded environment, including branded retail spaces. As part of this organization’s rebranding effort we provided both exterior and interior design. The exterior sign now reflects Pet Alliance’s new look while external and internal directional signs offer a boost of branding with eye-catching dimensional lettering. Additionally, we influenced paint color choices for the space as well as designed and produced animal-themed posters for placement in Pet Alliance’s new retail space. These along with similar posters throughout the building serve as an endearing and humorous inspiration for visitors to adopt a new friend.

An example of the posters created for Pet Alliance.

Whether you choose an individual area of environmental branding or a combination, branded environments provide an impactful way for businesses to inspire their clients and motivate their consumers by serving as a living embodiment of the brand.

Is environmental branding the final marketing frontier for your business? Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service Orlando marketing company that specializes in environmental branding. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to deliver brand values, character and vibrant personality to offices and trade show displays. Utilize brand aesthetics and empower your team with captivating space design, art installations and store displays. Your environmental branding goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com