Your brand identity is a vital part of your business and brand strategy. In simple terms, brand identity is defined as the unique characteristics that influence the perceived personality, behavior, and appearance of your brand. It is similar to how your identity works. Just like how your identity is a combination of your name, personality, values, beliefs, story, physical appearance, etc., the brand’s identity combines diverse elements to present a unique picture of the business.
An important aspect to understand is that the brand identity is developed by you (the business), while the brand image comes from the audience and their reaction to your business. Establishing a strong brand identity will help align the brand image and audiences’ perspective with your vision. Furthermore, brand identity helps in the personification of your brand and creates a strong emotional connection with the audience. It helps you stand out among the competitors and strengthen your brand reputation.
In this blog, we’ll read more about brand identity, its benefits, and the ways to create a compelling brand identity for promoting brand loyalty and reputation.
Understanding Brand Identity
The following are the key elements in determining the brand identity:
Logo
The business logo is the most visible part of your branding strategy. It helps in brand identification, brand differentiation, and brand recognition. The logo has to represent your brand but also be unique enough to set you apart from other businesses. It can have a design and a logotype (the brand name) or just a design that may or not include the initials of your brand. While logos are physical identifiers of the brand, they can be changed as a part of rebranding strategies.
Color Palette
Statistics show that 90% of instant judgments about products are based on color. Just imagine! Choosing the right color scheme for your brand can increase your sales and revenue by a great margin. However, choosing a color based on people’s reactions may not always be effective. The color palette should align with your products and services and fit seamlessly into the overall branding strategy. You can use more than one color if necessary. For example, Chrome and Slack have multiple colors in the brand logo and still have a simplistic and appealing look.
Typography
Typography is the font chosen for your brand. While it doesn’t get much notice compared to the logo and colors, a wrong font will be spotted and can harm your brand identity. With so many options like bold, cursive, capitals, serif, sans serif fonts, etc., finalizing the most suitable font can be time-consuming.
You want a style that blends with your brand personality and appeal. You can also pick two or more fonts for different purposes, such as logos, website headers, letterheads, advertisements, etc. For example, Uber uses its proprietary font called Uber Move (simple letters). Cisco does the same and has developed its own font.
Brand Voice
Brand identity is not limited to visual brand elements alone. It also includes your brand voice and how you write, aka talk, about your business. Do you prefer a formal tone? Do you like passive voice? Do you want a chirpy and active voice? Will a casual and humorous tone work better? The tone and voice of your brand, the way you use punctuation, the writing style (abbreviations, slang, etc.), and other similar aspects help establish a unique brand voice that syncs with your overall brand identity.
Role of Brand Identity in Brand Perception and Recognition
Brand perception is how the customers and audience perceive your brand. This will define your brand image, irrespective of what your brand identity is meant to be. Your focus should be aligning all three to create a consistent and reputed brand presence in the market. Not keeping your promise to customers will adversely impact the brand perception and lead to a lack of trust. This happened with Coca-Cola many years ago.
Examples of Successful Brand Identities
Apple and its slightly bitten fruit in a grey palette with custom typography
KFC’s tagline of ‘it’s finger-licking’ good’ and bold letters in all caps
McDonald’s with its simple red sticker with an M in yellow (that looks like arches) and the tagline of ‘I’m loving it’
Benefits of a Strong Brand Identity
Building Trust and Credibility
The biggest importance of brand identity is the building of trust and credibility for your business. 81% of customers say they need to trust a brand to buy its products or services. However, trust and credibility cannot be achieved overnight. These are a result of brand consistency and your ability to keep your promise to the customers.
Differentiating from Competitors
Every business has competitors. You are a competitor to other businesses in your niche. Your brand identity serves as a tool for effective brand differentiation. This applies to the logo, typography, color scheme, tagline, advertisements, etc. By establishing your brand personality, your business becomes a relatable and recognizable entity in the market. For example, Apple has crafted its brand identity based on innovation, simplicity, and expert design. It stands apart from other businesses for being pricey, exclusive, and offering premium quality products.
Fostering Brand Loyalty
Another benefit of brand identity is to foster brand loyalty among customers. While you can hire celebrity brand ambassadors, nothing beats the results of customers becoming ambassadors of a brand they love. This can be due to your exceptional service, quality, pricing, social responsibility, sustainability, transparency, ideology, etc. A comprehensive brand identity strategy will promote a greater emotional connection between your business and customers. This leads to a sense of loyalty, where customers will recommend your brand and take your side despite the competitors’ offers.
Attracting Target Audience
Brand messaging is part of brand identity that makes your business attractive to the target audience and converts them into customers. Brand recognition also plays a role, as people will immediately identify your brand based on the products, color scheme, logo, tagline, or voice. A strong brand identity will help you reach out to your audience and get the right message to them through the right channel.
Impact of Brand Identity on Business Growth
Influence on Customer Perception and Purchase Decisions
A robust brand identity increases customer trust. This will lead to more sales as your brand name alone will positively influence their purchase decisions. For example, Nike has been a popular brand for decades. Its ‘just do it’ slogan introduced in 1988 became a hit among the target audience.
The brand’s logo, a stylish swoosh, indicates agility, speed, motion, and performance. Nike has become synonymous with high-quality athletic footwear with guaranteed performance. The brand identity influences customers’ perceptions and makes them more willing to spend extra money on comfortable and worthy athletic gear.
Enhancing Brand Recall and Recognition
Brand identity impacts how well people recognize your brand and can recall your products even when faced with multiple choices. Can the target audience remember your brand even if they have seen the ad only once? Is the logo strong enough to make an impression in a couple of seconds? If yes, your brand identity is positively impacting your brand growth by becoming a familiar name in the market. The next time a person sees your brand name/ logo, they will be more inclined to buy your products due to the sense of familiarity they feel with your business.
Expanding Market Reach and Opportunities
Developing brand identity also helps with market research and makes you proactive in grabbing the opportunities before competitors. It is essential to develop strong marketing and advertising strategies. For example, a well-known brand will gain more followers and engagement in social media than lesser-known brands. In today’s digital world, it also helps you collaborate with the top influencers and expand your market share.
Developing a Compelling Brand Identity
Conducting Market Research and Audience Analysis
Developing your brand identity is not different from starting a new business or project. It requires groundwork like researching the market trends, gathering opinions from the target audience, understanding their likes and dislikes, etc. Your primary intent is to promote brand authenticity by establishing its identity. Hence, it is vital to share the message in a way the target market would interpret correctly.
Defining Brand Values, Mission, and Vision
What is your business vision? How did you define your mission when planning the business? What values do you abide by? What is the most important element that makes your business special? The answers to these questions will form the guidelines for your brand identity strategy. Your brand values should be reflected in your logo, marketing, advertising, website, infographics, posters, etc., to create a consistent brand identity.
Creating Visual Brand Elements
Once you have the data on paper, it’s time to convert it into output. Start by creating visual elements like the logo, tagline, website, social media profile, etc., to take your business to the target audience. While you can build an in-house team to handle the project, it will be easier and more cost-effective to work with a third-party branding company. That way, you can use their expertise and get faster results.
Crafting Consistent Brand Messaging
Consistency is the key to a strong brand identity and greater recognition. All your communication and promotional material has to follow a set template, color scheme, tone, language, and voice. Even your social media posts and responses have to use the same format. This will make the audience recognize your brand and connect to it.
Implementing Brand Guidelines and Standards
Brand guidelines are also called brand style guides and include instructions about how to communicate your brand to the target audience. It deals with visual and sensory elements like color, font, format, voice, tone, and other imagery. You should set a standard for these and follow them religiously to avoid confusion and miscommunication.
Lego is not just a brand name. It is an emotion for kids and adults alike. The company focuses on fun, creativity, and innovation. Parents grew up playing with Legos and now buy toys for their kids. The brand has created a strong sense of loyalty and connection with people of different ages and cultures.
Case Studies: Examples of Effective Brand Identity Implementation
Coca-Cola has been in the market for decades and had many makeovers. Though not all developments were successful, the brand continues to be popular even today. It evokes a sense of happiness and refreshment even as we hear the name. Moreover, Coca-Cola is responsible for the cuddly, cute Santa Claus we see everywhere during Christmas.
Tips for Enhancing Your Brand Identity
Regularly Reviewing and Updating Brand Elements
Establishing brand identity is not a one-time process. You should monitor and review the results to make the necessary tweaks and fine-tune your strategies. Similarly, you should be open to updating the elements if necessary. Even minor changes can amplify positive results when done right.
Maintaining Consistency Across All Brand Touchpoints
We emphasize consistency because it is absolutely vital to building your brand identity and sustaining it in the long term. Consistent messages and communication are one of the must- follow brand elements. Inconsistency can confuse people and make them wary of your business. That will impact conversions, sales, and revenue.
Staying Authentic and True to Brand Values
Are you staying true to your brand values when presenting a picture to the audience? This goes beyond the logo and website. It includes your response to social topics, the brand ambassadors you choose, the kind of ads you create, the materials used in your products, and so on. Everything has to align to convey the same message.
Conclusion
Brand identity is a combination of various elements, visual and voice. It defines how you communicate with the audience and the way you share the message. Essentially, brand identity defines what your business is and fosters an emotional connection with the customers.
In today’s competitive markets, you cannot ignore the importance of taking the right message to the audience in the right manner. It has to be well-thought-out and executed with the same precision and commitment to get the desired results and become successful.
Talk to us to convert your ideas into actions and establish your brand identity.