8 concepts to build a brand identity for your business
Developing a cohesive and professional brand identity is an important part of any effective brand strategy. The creation of a brand identity requires research and attention to detail to develop a style that successfully meets the objectives of a company and generates the appropriate message. These 8 concepts will help you quickly underestimate what is behind creating a brand identity.
Personality
A brand identity is the visual representation of the values and the “personality” of your brand. Identity design essentially sets the tone of your brand, and can be used to evoke specific feelings in your audience.
Your brand identity must be designed to communicate the general message of your company and promote your business objectives.
Consistency
Developing a brand identity allows you to create a consistent message across all marketing materials. Each piece must have the same basic styles and design elements, creating a consistent brand package.
A mission statement should summarize succinctly what it does or what its goals are. The declared mission of Google is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.
Differentiation
A brand identity helps you differentiate your company from the competition and properly position your brand. Developing a professional and creative identity design can help you stand out to potential clients in your market.
The skill lies in developing and applying the most effective brand differentiation strategy in a way that appropriately reflects the personality, values, promise, way of doing things and the key characteristics of your brand.
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Philosophy
The philosophy of your brand is a support by which you are governed by your life and the lives of others. It’s what you bring to the market and the biggest world that distinguishes you from being just a service or a product. Capture a part of the heart of what you do.
The creation of a brand identity package ensures that your brand is at the forefront of all your marketing materials, which helps increase brand awareness. The more places your brand has, the more contact you have with consumers and the more memorable it will be.
Loyalty
An effective brand identity can help generate customer loyalty and trust in a brand, as it allows customers to establish a connection between a product and the company.
A code of ethics or code of conduct is further extended in philosophy and mission statement to deal with specific types of situations and behaviors. Google, for example, establishes its policies on, among other things, conflicts of interest, customer service and confidentiality.
Niche
You should never imitate exactly what the big brands are doing in your industry. However, you must know what they do well (or where they fail). The objective is to differentiate from the competition. Convince a customer to buy from you. We are always thinking about how to make a brand stand out. Do not skip this step in the branding process.
Niche products or services have a built-in brand differentiation, and marketing for them must reflect that niche. A good example is GoPro, which makes video cameras mounted on the body and sells them to athletes.
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Logo
The next step is to create the appearance, feel and voice of the brand that will be transmitted through all marketing channels, from the website to social networks, ads and packaging. You need a logo of the visual icon of the brand that can reflect the philosophy of your business.
You can hire a designer or use a service like Tailor Brands that allows you to create the logo yourself to be distinctive, resonate with your clients, be consistent and stay true to your company’s values.
Audience
Making a brand from scratch, promoting or cultivating a clear strategy is almost impossible without understanding the audience and the clientele on the receiving end.
For budding companies, this could be the audience of your dreams. For veteran companies, you may have a gold mine waiting for your audience to distance yourself from. Closing that gap is crucial to the success of transmitting the mission of your business and maximizing the positioning of your brand in the brain of a client.
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