Do You Love It Or Does Your Audience? How to Provide Effective Feedback While Building Your Branding

When working with a designer to build your dream brand, providing clear and constructive feedback is essential to ensuring the final design meets both your expectations and your audience’s needs. However, one of the biggest challenges we find that clients face is distinguishing between their personal preferences and what will truly resonate with their target market. Here are some tips on how you can recognize the difference between the two and how to build a brand that both you and your customers love!

1. Understand the Purpose of Your Branding

Before diving into feedback, take a step back and ask yourself: What is the goal of our branding? Is it meant to attract new customers, communicate core values, or inspire virality through modern trends? By focusing on the purpose rather than just the aesthetics, you’ll be better equipped to evaluate design directions more objectively.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Your audience's preferences should take priority over your personal tastes. This is especially so if you aren’t your target audience! Consider their demographics, interests, and behaviors. If your brand targets young professionals, a sleek and minimalistic design might work best — even if you personally love bold, playful aesthetics. Who are you marketing to and why? With those first two elements, you can begin to form strategic directions and not just individual opinions.

3. Separate Personal Preferences from Strategic Choices

When reviewing designs, note which aspects you dislike because of personal taste versus which might not align with your actual brand strategy. Instead of saying, “I don’t like this color,” try asking, “Will this color appeal to our target audience?” or “Does this color reflect our core brand message?”. Branding isn’t just about visual appeal, although that is part of it. Thinking through all of the elements of your identity and asking yourself why they exist and what purpose they serve can help you provide more strategic feedback throughout the design process.

4. Provide Specific, Actionable Feedback

Vague feedback like “It doesn’t feel right” can be difficult for designers to act upon. Instead, frame your feedback in a way that provides clear direction, such as:

• "Our brand voice is more playful. Can we explore fonts that feel more friendly?"

• "This imagery feels too corporate. Could we incorporate visuals that feel more authentic and approachable?"

Your personal instincts and preferences will always play a role when providing design feedback. With a goal of building a brand that truly speaks to your audience, however, it’s essential to communicate those thoughts strategically. If you ever feel like something is off, but don’t know how to communicate it, encourage a conversation around which elements you’re unsure of and explore with your designer why that may be!

5. Trust Your Designer’s Expertise

When building your branding, your designer brings industry experience and a deep understanding of design principles to the table. If they push back on certain suggestions, it’s likely because they believe another approach better serves your audience and not just out of defense of their designs. Be open to their insights and collaborate to find a balance between your vision and what works best strategically. When in doubt, ask why they believe certain elements are valuable. Design doesn’t happen on a whim, and there is a vast amount of thought and strategic thought and effort that goes into every element.

6. Test and Gather Feedback

If you’re unsure about a design choice, consider testing it with a sample of your target audience. Gathering external opinions can validate decisions and remove the burden of relying solely on personal preference. We say this with the caveat that design is highly subjective! Weigh the weight of a person’s feedback based on how closely related they are to your target audience. Your mother may love hot pink, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a wise color choice for your legal consulting business.

The number one priority when delivering effective feedback should always be rooted in whether or not the designs connect with your audience and achieve your business goals. By keeping your audience in focus, providing clear and actionable input, and trusting your designer’s expertise, you’ll create a brand identity that not only looks great but also delivers results!