So, what does this mean for business owners? It means you must take a multi-faceted approach when building and marketing your brand identity. You need to do more than simply choosing the perfect colour palette. In this post, we’ll define brand identity and provide a step-by-step guide to developing one.
What is Brand Identity?
Brand identity is a combination of all the features and elements that represent your brand.
It’s important to note that this doesn’t refer to the visual elements only (like your logo and colour palette). It also comprises your brand’s personality and core values. In a nutshell, it’s anything that makes your brand recognizable, distinct and memorable.
Ultimate Guide to Develop Brand Identity
1. Perform a Brand Audit
Before developing your brand identity, you should have a good idea of its current status. The best way to determine this is to perform a brand audit.
Don’t worry; this isn’t an overly complicated process that requires you to enlist the help of experts. All it means is you should understand the market’s current perception of your business. Here’s how to go about this:
- Examine your visual representation tools – start by analysing your brand’s visual elements, such as your logo, imagery, typography, social accounts, and website. Ask yourself:
- Do they represent my brand accurately?
- Are they consistent on all marketing platforms?
- Are there any of the elements that need a revamp?
- Gain a deeper understanding of your audience – you can achieve this by sending out surveys and inviting customers for interviews. This is an excellent way to determine what people like or don’t like about your brand, the words they associate your brand with, and how your company stacks up against others.
- Analyse your competition – the last step in the audit process is analysing your competition.
Examine the strategies they employ to build their identity and the lessons you can draw from that. At the same time, look for elements or methods you can incorporate to make your brand stand out from the pack.
2. Define Your Brand Personality
In this case, personality refers to the values that guide your brand, influencing how your day-to-day operations are carried out. Identifying these values will help your brand attract the right audience. They will inform the decisions you make when choosing different visual elements.
3. Create a Unique Value Proposition
If you have not done this before for your brand, you’ll want to get on it immediately. I’m talking about identifying a business’ unique value proposition (UVP) or the main thing that differentiates it.
Are you struggling to identify your brand’s most significant selling point? If you are, start by listing your brand’s strengths (the areas it seems to excel in the most). Next, narrow down that list to just one feature. This should be the most unique value that you offer your audience.
To give you an idea of this, here are examples of UVPs from some of the most renowned corporations:
- Uber promises to offer travellers the smartest way to get around
- Slack claims that it can help workers maximise their productivity with minimal effort
- LessAccounting’s slogan is facilitating bookkeeping without any struggles
4. Work on Your Brand’s Creative Elements
And now to the fun part: it’s time to work on your visual representation tools. This includes elements like the logo, typography, colour palette, and imagery. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of each:
Brand Logo
One of the most critical aspects of brand identity is the logo. It should be aesthetically appealing yet simple and memorable. You can sketch out some concepts and take them for a test run.
Determine your Colour Palette
The next thing you’ll want to do is to pick your colour palette. This should complement your logo design and evoke the right emotions from the intended audience. For instance, if you’re trying to convey happiness and excitement, you’d opt for radiant hues.
Choose Your Typography
This element might not be as crucial as your logo or colour palette. Still, it plays a vital role in influencing people’s perception of your brand.
As you did with the logo and colour palette, do some due diligence before deciding which font to use. Familiarise yourself with the psychology of typography and choose the most suitable for your brand.
Pick the Imagery Style
The last decision you’ll have to make relates to imagery. You have numerous options, ranging from photos to illustrations, abstract shapes and more. Experiment with different formats and choose one that represents your brand well.
5. Execute Your Branding Strategy
You’ve done the largest portion of the work, which is choosing all the visual elements. So, all that’s left is to put them into action. Integrate them in all your marketing media, ensuring they’re consistent and legible. Update your website, emailing software, brochures, business cards and socials.
In addition to integrating these elements, it’s also good to communicate these changes to your audience. While you’re at it, be sure to use a consistent voice.
6. Analyse and Modify Accordingly
Once you’ve developed your brand identity, keep a close eye on its performance. Set up a couple of tracking tools to monitor changes in metrics. This will help you determine whether your new brand identity has drawn new customers or led to losing followers.
Another thing you can do is gather feedback. Figure out how your audience feels about your brand’s new look and identity. Depending on the feedback you get, you can choose to make further changes or leave it as is.
Conclusion
Developing your brand identity can seem hard at first. But as soon as you master the basic steps, you’ll realise that it’s not.
Start by auditing your brand, researching your competition, and gaining a deeper understanding of your audience. Next, identify your brand’s unique value proposition, choose your visual elements, and implement them on all your marketing channels.
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