How to develop brand identity
Your brand is your business, and your brand identity is its personification. It (brand identity) is what lends individuality to your business. It represents your USP and makes a significant and lasting impression upon the minds of your consumers. It is what enables your consumers – both current and potential – to recognize your business because your brand identity sets your business apart from the rest. The question before marketers is therefore not whether but how to develop brand identity.
Important Things to Keep In Mind
Before you jump into brand identity development, there are some things that you should keep in mind if you want to create a really strong impact. The first is look before you leap. This cliché never rang truer – do your groundwork well, before jumping in. Get a good understanding of your product, your mission, your vision, and above all, the message you want to send across. Your business values are also an integral part of your identity. The values you hold dear and adhere to represent the character of your brand. Once you have these clear in your mind – and on paper – you can set about building your brand identity brick by brick.
The Building Blocks of your Brand Identity
Having done your groundwork, the next step is putting together the building blocks for your brand design strategy. Quite simply, these include your strategy, logo, content, persona, images, and other visuals.
When putting together the elements of your brand building campaign, remember that you are doing it to create a personality for your brand. As such it is important that each element depicts – and even personifies – your vision, mission, and message. Here is a shortlist of the most important elements of your brand design strategy.
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Logo
Your logo represents your brand making it the most important building block to your brand identity development. It would not be wrong to say that your logo is the foundation or cornerstone of your brand. Devote time to experimenting with various designs, colours, and shapes before you finalize. Pay attention to visual impact and message. You want to be sure your logo is appealing and yet creates a powerful impact on the viewer. This does not necessarily mean it should be colourful or flashy. Simplistic designs like Master Card and FedEx work equally well – sometimes better. Also bear in mind that typography or font is as important as the logo if you want to create just the right impact. You might think of the logo coupled with your brand name as the look and feel of your brand or its attitude if you will.
Persona
The persona or personality of your brand goes to define the face or character of your brand. It is the personification of your brand that will interact with the outside world. This element should communicate to the world who you are and what your brand represents. It should therefore be aligned with your mission and value statements. It should also resonate with who your consumers are, their wants and desires, and what motivates them. You may also want to consider and experiment with various consumer segments before deciding upon a persona for your brand.
Competition
Strange but true, your competition is an important part of your brand identity. After all, you are building your identity because you want to stand out among the crowd and to do that, you must know about the crowd you are competing with. Pay attention to how other brands in your industry – and related industries – present themselves and the perception of the consumers concerning these brands. Take a close look at their visuals, communication, and other collaterals. If nothing else you will surely learn what not to do.
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Putting it together
Competition today is much more intense than it was in the past. With literally millions of businesses going online, standing out from the crowd is essential. The process of putting together the elements discussed above comprises the art behind brand building. A brand design agency will tell you that three basic things that go into brand strategy –
- Visual Impact
When putting together the elements of your brand identity, make sure that together they create a strong visual impact and evoke the right emotions among your consumers. For instance, you may have a smashing logo but if it is not aligned with what your brand represents it won’t work. Similarly, if your identity is not differentiated from the competition, you might end up being lost in the crowd.
- Blending
Getting just the right mix of branding elements is crucial. ByJu’s grew from a “coaching class” to a big brand in education because of its value statement – its belief that learning is best when done willingly. This value together with a simplistic logo created a strong and lasting impact.
- Make it Lasting
You create your brand identity only once and it should be strong enough to carry you along the rest of your marketing journey. ByJu’s supported its brand identity – self-motivated learning – with the impact created by its brand ambassador – the Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan – that helped people recognize and retain the brand image.
Summing it up, your brand identity is akin to the perfect dish cooked up by an expert chef. Numerous small ingredients in just the right quantity and the skill of the creator blend and create perfection.
Want to know how to develop brand identity for your business? Contact Litmus Branding your very own brand design agency now.
