You’re probably aware of well-known brands like Apple, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Instagram and Facebook, just to name a few. Any company that wants to stand out in the crowded commercial marketplace needs a strong brand identity. Your brand is the visual imagery, graphic design, tone and vibe of your company that it displays to the public. Any seasoned marketing professional and graduate of an online MBA will tell you that brand identity is more than just visuals – it’s about personality. This article will discuss the importance of creating and maintaining a strong brand identity. We’ll cover what brand identity is, why it’s important and how to create a unique and memorable one. So, continue reading to learn more about this valuable topic.
What is Brand Identity?
Brand identity is the term given to a collection of visual, emotional and conceptual aspects that define your brand present itself to the market (its customers and other stakeholders) and make it stand out from its competitors. Brand identity is how your company shapes how people perceive its brand, including key aspects like its personality, values and messaging.
When it comes to visuals and graphic design elements, brand identity will include features such as the brand logo, the brand colour palette, typography (such as fonts used in ads and messaging) and various other imagery such as stock photos and graphic elements. These different elements will all come together to create a recognisable and cohesive look for your unique brand. Think about the visual styles of Apple or Coca-Cola and how their various logos, fonts and colours create a unique and memorable brand image that is instantly recognisable.
When it comes to communication, brand identity is all about your brand’s different taglines, tone of voice, written communications and overall messaging. A strong brand identity should ensure consistency and cohesion in how the brand speaks to its audience using various channels for marketing such as websites, social media, paid search ads and videos.
Why is Brand Identity Important?
Beyond the visual and various messaging, a strong brand identity is also about building an emotional and mental connection with its customers by evoking emotions such as trust and loyalty. A brand identity needs to reflect your brand’s core values, ethos and mission statement and should offer customers a clear sense of purpose, meaning and everything your brand stands for.
Furthermore, brand identity includes the user experience people have when they interact with the brand, from buying its products and services to various other customer interactions and touchpoints. This overall experience should have people feeling connected to your brand and develop a strong sense of trust and customer loyalty to be effective for your company.
A well-crafted and cohesive brand identity will help companies stand out in the crowded commercial market with stiff competition and foster recognition from consumers, as well as ensure a consistent, uniform and similar experience across all platforms, channels and interactions, which is especially important for multinational companies with a presence in multiple countries. A great example of this is McDonald’s, a global company that should offer customers a similar fast-food dining experience no matter where they go in the world.
How to Create a Brand Identity
Creating a brand identity for your company involves a thorough and mindful process of defining how your brand will present itself to customers and connect with them. You can start the process by figuring out your brand’s purpose, mission and values.
What problem are you solving for customers? What products or services do you want to sell that solve this problem? What does your company stand for? This crucial information should form the foundation of your unique brand identity and should guide every choice you make when it comes to creating a brand. Consider what makes your brand unique and how you want your audience to perceive it.
Next, you’ll want to identify your target audience. You need to understand their needs, buying preferences and customer behaviours so you can tailor your brand identity to land with them effectively. You will have to engage in some market research for this. Also, make sure that you research your direct competitors to see how they position themselves in the market and find opportunities to differentiate your brand from them. You don’t want to be perceived as a copycat or inauthentic which is fatal for brands.
With this firm foundation in place, you can begin developing the visual and written aspects of your brand. Hire a graphic designer and get them to begin with an eye-catching logo that encapsulates the essence of your brand, as this will be the most recognisable element of your brand. Working with the designer, choose a colour palette and typography font style that aligns with your brand’s unique personality and evokes the feelings you want to create in your audience. Next, working with a content writer or copywriter, define your brand’s tone of voice and written brand messaging, ensuring that it truly reflects your brand’s personality and character and can consistently communicate its values and mission.
Your brand story is another important piece of the puzzle, as it gives some depth and width to your brand identity and also helps to create an emotional connection with your audience. Again, working with a copywriter or perhaps a brand strategist, you can create this story, which should convey why your brand exists and what it stands for in a way that is relatable and helps people solve their problems.
Finally, you need to ensure consistency across all customer touchpoints, such as your website, video content and social media, as well as packaging (for those that sell goods) and customer service. Every interaction with your brand should reinforce the same messages, vibe, look and feel. You want to focus on creating a seamless and uniform experience for your audience. Building a brand identity will take some time and refinement, but as long as you remain authentic and focused on your brand values, this will help you to create a lasting impression and stand out in the market.
