Creating A Brand Beyond Visual Identity
The idea of branding and brand identity is often associated with logo design and how brands are presented through typography and imagery but branding goes a lot deeper than that and is more than just the visual identity and aesthetic of the brand or company. Behind the scenes of every great brand is a great story and mission which states what they aim to change in the world, a lot of brands will also follow a set of brand values which are a set of rules the brand will live by and refer to on every decision throughout the brand. Lets take a look into some elements that help define a brand without having a visual identity to associate with it, this can even help with the logo creation phase of the branding process as you will be influenced by the meaning and definition of the brand itself.
Building A Story
Building a story to your brand is crucial as it allows other people to build an emotional connection with your brand, building a connection with your customers is possibly the best way to develop and build your brand as they will talk highly of you when you are not in the room — word of mouth marketing is the best kind of marketing. Jeff Bezos statement about branding is a good way of defining this when he said “your brand is what they say about you when you’re not in the room.”, this has a direct connection with build a connection and relationship with your customers. Having a story that fits your brand and the targets you are trying to hit is also a crucial part to any successful brand as it allows your customers to clearly see your aims and what direction your brand is going, if the brand has no meaning behind it it’s unlikely it will do well when placed next to companies that have an established connection with their audience.
Focus on the story of your brand first, the rest will follow.
I have included a list of questions to get you started below:
- What is your brand about?
- Why do you want to do what you aim to do?
- Where did you/your brand come from?
Stating Your Mission
Just like creating a story for your brand you also need a solid mission statement so its clear to your audience what your brand is about and what you aim to do, without a target it’ll be hard to keep the ship from sinking — the ship being the brands reputation. Im currently reading the book Shoe Dog written by Nike founder Phil Knight which is a memoir of his life and how he started one of the most recognised brands in the world, Nike. In the first chapter of his book he states his initial thoughts on the company when he was younger and how he was tired of getting good running shoes from China as opposed to America so he set out to create a brand that offered high-quality, low cost sport apparel and running trainers. This initial mission statement was the drive for the brand and the foundations of what the brand is today, since the development of Nike they have worked with Michael Jordan, Virgil Abloh, Travis Scott, Supreme and Dior alongside many other designers and well-known brands.
Defining Brand Values
Having some core values for your brand to follow is common within branding and brand identity, these are usually a set of rules and/or morals that the company will live by and refer to. Having these morals will allow the company to stay consistent with the brand and maintain the emotional connection with the audience as they may share the same beliefs and/or ideas, these can be a variety of things ranging from sustainability considerations and environmental issues to customer service, trust and honesty. Brands will often choose to have trust and honesty as their core values as they want their audience to trust them so having this as the core of their brand will show they’re willing to make the effort to gain the customers trust through being open and honest with them. Following on from the Nike example I mentioned previously I know they focus heavily on sustainability and protecting the environment by creating products that are environmentally friendly, this is a good idea if you brand tends to focus more towards physical products like clothing, print or technology as these products will end up in the bin at some point.
People are crazy about the environment at the moment so this will ensure a good emotional connection from the get go!
Creating Brand Personality
Creating a personality for your brand is extremely important as it can help your brand stand out from other companies in addition to giving your brand a voice in terms of the way you talk and how you present yourself to your audience, the brands personality will heavily depend on what the brand is about, what they aim to do and what products and/or services they will be offering. Nike focus on sporting products so their personality and tone of voice comes across as motivational snd inspirational in order for them to get their customers motivated and moving, their slogan “Just Do It” is a good example of how they created a personality for their brand and utilised it throughout the voice of the brand and they way they talk to their audience. It’s important that the voice of your brand matches everything else though, having that same tone of voice that Nike has and using it for a law firm may not be the best fit for that particular branding project. Your target audience is going to be a key factor in the personality of your brand too, if you have a younger age group as your target audience you may want to consider a more light heart language and tone of voice in order to establish that emotional connection with the customer.
