Making a logo alone won’t help develop a brand identity. A logo may represent a company, but a brand is more than just a logo. Designing a logo is a minor first step toward forging a distinctive company identity.
A strong brand has become essential for businesses to set themselves apart from their rivals as millions, if not billions, of enterprises, compete to build a reputation for themselves.
Let’s start by discussing what brand identity is.
A brand identity is made up of what your company stands for, your values, the way you market your goods, and the emotions you want customers to have when doing business with you. Your brand identity can be thought of as both the character of your company and a promise to your clients.
Initially, the term “brand” was used to refer to the mark that cattle ranchers “branded” on their cattle, but the concept of a “brand” has since expanded to embrace much more than just a name or a symbol.
Typically made up of a name, tagline, logo or symbol, design, brand voice, and more, a brand is a feature — or group of traits — that sets one company apart from another.
Brand identity is the part of branding that focuses on your brand’s personality and the values you want to communicate to clients.
The most magnetic brand identities today scale across digital platforms, in-person interactions, and even naturally chatting with real customers. “Brand identity is more than just selecting the ideal logo to slap on coffee cup sleeves or mount over your front door,” says Brand Identity.
What makes brand identity so important?
A brand identity can motivate customers and foster greater brand loyalty since it embodies practically everything your company is and does. Therefore, brand identity is essential to the future of your company.
How can you imitate what companies like Coca-Cola have done and incorporate other distinctive components into your company’s identification if your brand is more than just your logo?
Here are six elements of strong brand identity and the reasons why you must create them.
The “Face” of Your Company
The logo essentially represents the “face” of your company for your brand. However, that face should be more than just visually appealing or intriguing; a logo also contributes associatively to company identification. The audience is informed that [this image] represents [your company’s name].
Credibility and Trust
A distinct brand identity gives your goods greater recall value and increases your brand’s authority in the marketplace. A brand builds credibility among its rivals and customer trust by establishing a face and keeping that face constant throughout time.
Advertising Impressions
A brand identity serves as a blueprint for every element of your company’s advertisement, whether in print, online or as a YouTube preroll. A brand that has a name and reputation in its field is well-equipped to market itself and leave an impact on potential customers.
Your Company’s Mission
Your brand gains a sense of identity by giving it a core set of values. In turn, that provides your business with a goal. Everyone is aware that companies have mission statements, right? You see, without first giving your brand a name, you can’t have one.
Attracting new clients while delighting existing ones
People who support what your business offers are drawn to it by a strong brand identity that has a face that can be trusted and has a mission. However, once they start using the product, that same brand identity makes them feel like they belong. A good brand creates advocates instead of just customers with a good product.
It will take effort on your part to establish your company as a well-known and adored brand name. The actions listed below will assist you in creating a brand identity. They are easy to follow, but it might be challenging to put them into practice.
Developing a Brand Identity
It’s important to take your time when building a brand. Beyond choosing a few basic colors and a logo, there are numerous moving parts. What is necessary to develop a brand identity is as follows:
1. Do some market, value-proposition, and rivalry research.
- Audience
Different people have various desires. Generally speaking, you can’t market to a pre-teen the same way you would market to a college student. To build a brand that people would adore, it is essential to understand what your consumer wants from a company in your market.
- Value Proposition & Competition
What distinguishes your company in your field? What do you have to offer that other businesses don’t? Building a great brand requires understanding what sets you apart from your rivals. Observing your competition can also help you learn which branding strategies are effective and which ones are not.
- Mission
You are aware of the services your company provides, but make sure your mission statement is concise and explains your vision and objectives. In other words, be aware of the goal of your company; without this knowledge, it will be difficult to give it a personality.
- Personality
Even if you might not be branding a specific person, you can still be approachable while creating a brand image. Use your typeface, colours, and graphics to convey the brand’s personality. Then use your words to amplify that visual representation: Are you a sassy, self-assured company like Nike? Or are you as sophisticated and refined as Givenchy? In either case, create your brand as a strategy to advance your company.
Even while research can be tedious, the better your brand identity will be, the more you will understand about your industry.
- SWOT Analysis
Finally, conducting a SWOT Analysis will help you comprehend your brand better. You can uncover traits you wish to represent in the brand by considering the brand’s attributes.
SWOT refers to:
Strengths: Positive aspects of your company that provide it an edge over the competitors.
Weaknesses: Qualities that prove to be detrimental to your business.
Opportunities: trends and changes in your sector that could benefit your company.
Threats: elements of your industry or environment that could be problematic for your business.
2. Create a template for the logo.
- Logo
The logo, which is the most identifiable aspect of your company, is an essential component in the branding process even though it does not entirely include the brand identity. It appears everywhere, including your website, business cards, and internet advertisements.
- Interesting Form
Even though your logo is essential to branding, it isn’t the only component of a good brand identity. Your brand identity must take into account your product(s), packaging, and service delivery methods. Consistency and familiarity with your customers can be achieved by visually expressing your firm in all of your activities. As an example, consider McDonald’s golden arches. They developed the enduring “M,” which is now identifiable everywhere in the world, using an intriguing form.
- Color & Type
A approach to strengthen your identity is by developing a color scheme. It gives you choice so you may develop original designs for your company while adhering to the brand concept.
If not employed properly, type can potentially be a double-edged sword. Despite the fact that “mix and match” type design is fairly popular, mixing a few fonts for your company is not always a smart move. Typography should be used throughout your logo, website, and all your company produces printed and digital materials. Look at Nike’s website and advertisements; they consistently use the same typeface and type style across all of their marketing materials, and it seems to be doing brilliantly for them.
- Templates
You presumably regularly pass out business cards, send emails, or write letters to prospective clients. Making templates will offer your company a more cohesive, trustworthy, and expert appearance—even for something as minor as email signatures.
- Consistency
Consistency is what may build or break a brand identity, as was previously noted in almost every phase (I can’t stress this enough). To develop a unified brand identity, use the templates mentioned above and stick to the design choices you’ve made for your brand across all sections of your firm.
- Flexibility
Yes, maintaining consistency is key, but it’s also critical to be adaptable in a culture that’s constantly seeking the next big thing.
Flexibility enables you to make changes to your advertising campaigns, taglines, and even your complete brand identity to keep your audience interested. The important thing is to maintain consistency throughout your entire brand with any modifications you make (don’t only alter your business card design, for instance).
- Document
A set of brand guidelines that list all of the do’s and don’ts for your brand is one of the best ways to make sure a company adheres to its branding “rules.”
One company that has done a fantastic job developing an easy-to-follow brand guide is Skype. One approach to enable people to develop brand assets and spread your brand while maintaining brand compliance is through this.
3. Include words you may use to interact, promote, and represent yourself on social media.
And one of the best ways to do this is for your brand to offer high-calibre content.
Your internet brand is your content in every manner. Every piece of content you publish reflects on and defines your brand. It’s your salesman, your shop, your marketing team; it’s your story. Wonderful brand, great content. mediocre brand, uninteresting content.
- Language
Use words consistent with the character of your brand. If your brand has a high-end identity, use formal language; if your brand has a casual identity, use more conversational language. It’s crucial to carefully create your tone to match the personality of your brand because the language you decide to use as a brand will be incorporated across the entire company.
- Connection & Emotion
People adore tales. People adore moving stories, to be more precise (emotionally and to action). Consumers can develop an emotional bond with a brand thanks to a strong brand identity, which can serve as a good starting point for long-term brand loyalty.
- Advertise
Designing advertisements, whether traditional or digital, is the most effective approach to spread awareness of your business. It’s a means of reaching your target market and communicating your brand’s message.
- Social Media
In order to communicate with your customers directly and foster brand loyalty, social media is crucial. Give your brand a positive reputation by promptly replying to your consumers if you are mentioned in a tweet, status, or post (especially if the customer has a query or issue).
4. Know what to avoid.
Even if you take all the necessary steps to develop a strong brand identity, if you engage in any of the following bad habits, your brand may weaken or fail.
Don’t send conflicting messages to your customers.
Use the right language and imagery to convey what you want to communicate. Not all things that make sense to you will make sense to your customers.
Don’t imitate your rivals.
Given that you are selling the same goods or services as your competitors, you might want to do what you already know doesn’t work—don’t. Your competitors might have excellent branding. To make your company stand out in your sector, even more, consider what they do and add your own spin to it.
Maintain consistency between your online and offline actions.
While your print materials’ appearance may differ slightly from those of your online presence, your brand’s overall colors, typeface, theme, and message should all remain the same.
Scale without sacrificing.
Scaling identity only works when you iterate off your original song sheet… rather than producing a totally new song, Rosen advised me. “As your brand moves into new channels, resist the impulse to just chase trends that don’t connect with your company’s DNA.”
5. Keep an eye on your brand to preserve its identity.
Without monitoring important performance measures, it can be challenging to determine what you’re doing well (and what you’re not) in terms of marketing.
Utilize Google Analytics, polls, comments, social media debates, and other tools to track your brand and understand how people perceive and engage with it. This will provide you with the chance to alter your brand as necessary, whether it’s to fix a mistake or strengthen brand identification.
If your product lives up to the buzz you create, you’ll start to build momentum with customers who believe in your brand, says Zabik, “Test, learn, and optimize. Figure out what sets your brand distinct from your competition and learn to communicate that in a way that builds trust.
Develop a Brand Identity That Customers Will Remember
Consistent use of type, color, pictures, and language is necessary to develop a distinctive brand, but it’s worthwhile. You’ve gone beyond being just a name and a sign when customers can instantly understand who you are and what you stand for based only on your logo.
Want more advice on branding identity? D’marketing Agency provides further brand identification ideas. Visit our website now!
