Abasiakan DennyBrand identity is beyond a catchy slogan. Your brand has a voice that informs others about who you are and what you do. Building a strong brand is essential to connecting with your audience and honing your potential. You will not be paid for doing everything. Your uniqueness is what will carve out a niche among other brands. As a startup, freelancer or a long-standing company, you must learn to build a strong brand to stand out. This guide explores the step-by-step process of crafting a credible brand from scratch.
What Is Brand Identity?
Many people get it all wrong because they do not understand the meaning of brand identity.. Don’t mistake branding for brand identity. Branding is all about how people perceive your company. Brand identity is the way you condition people’s perception of your brand. This is possible through visuals, customer service style, logo, videos and experience. Brand identity is sufficient to evoke memories and patronage.
Define Your Brand’s Core Foundation
A credible brand must be built upon a strong foundation. This foundation includes what your brand is known for. The vision and mission of your brand must be clearly defined. Another thing to consider is your core values. Your core values include the principles that your brand prioritises. Other factors to include in your target audience, e.g. age, gender, location, income, interests, etc. These specifics must be clearly stated to build an identifiable brand identity. These foundations give your brand a direction.
Craft Your Brand Personality and Voice
The next thing to consider is giving your brand a personality and voice. Your brand should go beyond the logo. Brand identity in this regard involves giving life to your brand. Brand personality is what your brand is known for. Choose your brand’s personality traits. For example, Rolex, Harvard Business Review, and Mailchimp have personality traits of luxury, authoritative and friendly, respectively. Your voice must align with your audience preferences and your company’s values.
Design Your Visual Identity
Beyond crafting a brand personality and a voice, you must be seen. Getting seen involves creating visuals that resonate with your audience. Your unique voice should be seen in your visuals. Examples of visual identity include logos, colours, typography(fonts), imagery and graphics. People associate different shapes and symbols with specific brands. It is important to keep your logos unique and simple. Choose a unique colour that resonates with your company. Blue exemplifies trust, e.g., Facebook, and red, for energy, e.g., Coca-Cola and Netflix. Use at most two to three fonts for consistency.
Apply Your Brand Identity Consistently
To be known, you must be seen and heard consistently. Apply your brand identity consistently to all your platforms and products. Document your specific logo, colour, typography, and voice. This ensures consistency in rules and mode of operations. Consider creating a catalogue of your unique logo, typography, and colour to easily access them. You can use tools like Canva Brand Kit and Frontify to store your brand’s assets.
Test and Refine Your Brand Identity
Yes! A credible brand is flexible. Gather customer feedback to know where, when and how to make adjustments. Study the trends and adapt to suit the changes in your field or the market. For your brand to be trusted, you must be flexible and grow with your audience. Flexibility ensures that your brand remains relevant. Accept criticisms and fine-tune your brand to meet new market trends.
Brand identity is not about mimicking competitors, but working on your brand’s voice, personality, visuals, core values, etc. Your brand should have a story with its unique plot and setting. Go ahead and create your unique brand.
