Brand Identity: How To Build a Strong Brand and Make a Name For Your Business
Building a brand identity goes beyond choosing a fancy name and building a logo. You need to approach your brand-building process strategically to build an identity that reflects your business.
If you're working on building a brand identity for your business, it's critical to understand what a brand means and what is involved in building one.
This is what this article is about. You’ll learn why brand identity is important for your business, and how you can develop a unique brand for your business. We'll also share some examples to serve as inspiration in your brand-building process.
Here's what we'll consider:
- What is a brand identity?
- Why do you need a brand identity?
- Examples of companies with a brand identity
- How to develop a strong brand identity
- Building a brand identity that resonates with your customers
What is a brand identity?
A brand identity defines what your brand is made of, including your values, your message, how you communicate your business solution, and what you want people to feel when they interact with your business.
In other words, you can think of your brand identity as the personality of your business. A business with a great personality is memorable and attracts great customers.
Note that your brand identity is not your logo. A brand includes a set of elements that separates it from other organizations. A brand typically comprises a name, logo, design, brand voice, and more. As you go further in this article, we'll explain the importance of building a brand identity and the major elements of a strong brand identity.
Why do you need a brand identity?
A unique brand identity is about communicating your brand story effectively.
With a brand identity, you can differentiate your business in a crowded marketplace and elevate your brand experience. A strong brand identity can also help you create an emotional connection with your customers, which is a solid foundation for building a lasting relationship with a business.
Examples of companies with a brand identity
Here are some companies that have built a strong brand identity.
1. Coca-Cola
When you hear the name Coca-Cola, what comes to mind is probably a refreshing chilled drink. You may also think of its iconic logo colors – red and white, polar bear, or its share a coke campaign. The company has delivered many successful campaigns that have contributed to a great brand identity.
2. Spotify
Spotify is another company that has made a continuous effort to maintain a strong brand identity. Its logo and brand color are easily recognized anywhere in the world. The company has created a strong impression on the minds of people by putting music front and center.
3. Glossier
Glossier is a beauty powerhouse that is based on transparency and honesty. The brand focuses on providing high-end products without the use of artificial ingredients. For this reason, when people use Glossier, they know that they are using a product that is made with the best quality ingredients.
The company also communicates strong visual language. Its website, packaging, and social media share the same language, hence maintaining consistent branding across all platforms.
4. Burt's bees
Burt's bees focus on providing natural and sustainable products. The company stands out from its competitors by getting its product ingredients from nature-friendly sources. It also uses recyclable packaging and donates to green initiatives and conservation products.
How to build a brand identity
Building a brand identity involves proper planning. There are many factors to consider that go beyond choosing a color or font.
In this section, we've provided some tips to help build a brand identity for your business.
1. Define your identity
Before you start the process of building a brand identity, you need to know what your business stands for and set a solid foundation. Think of building a brand like building a house—you need to build a strong foundation first.
Firstly, you need to know what your business stands for: What is your business solution? How do you communicate your business’ solution? What’s your business's personality? Even though you're not branding a person, it doesn't mean that your brand can't have personable characteristics. Use your color and imagery to highlight what your brand represents.
As you ponder on these questions, you'll gain more clarity on what your business identity means.
2. Analyze your audience, competition, and value proposition
Building a brand identity involves standing out, making your brand relevant, and building a strong name for your business. You can start by figuring out how your message will resonate with your target audience.
Firstly, find out their pain points, then figure out how to communicate your company's message in a way that helps them.
Another aspect you need to consider is competitor analysis. It's crucial to know how your business compares to other companies in your industry. What can you offer your customers that others can't? What makes your business unique in your industry?
Knowing the difference between your business and others is key to developing a successful brand.
3. Plan a visual direction
Now that you've defined your identity, and analyzed your audience and competitors, you need to visualize the direction you want to go in.
In other words, you need to figure out how you plan to bring your branding to life. What kind of colors would you use to represent your brand? When choosing colors, you need to remember that colors convey power and varying emotions. The way one person will perceive your color will be totally different from others.
Even the tone of language and words you use to describe your brand can be perceived differently by people.
Here are some questions to help you during this process:
- What are the major traits that you want to express through your visuals?
- What kind of visuals can help reflect these traits?
- How do you want people to feel when they see your brand?
As you answer these questions, they will help you identify the path forward and how you want to express your brand.
4. Design a logo for your brand
Designing a logo is another aspect of the branding visual process. While your brand identity comprises different design elements, your logo is a vital element in the branding process.
It's the most recognizable part of your business. People can see it on your website, social media pages, and marketing ads. A strong logo can help you reflect the essence of your brand and make a visual name for your business. When you decide to create your logo, you can outsource it to a creative designer capable of expressing your brand identity.
5. Integrate language you can use to connect and advertise on social media
After establishing a visual direction for your brand, then you're ready to integrate your brand within your community.
One way you can achieve this is by sharing quality content. Think of your content as your brand online. It represents your sales process, marketing department, and online store.
Your content tells your story and every piece of content that you share defines your brand. So it's important that you work on creating great content that your audience can connect with.
6. Monitor your brand to maintain its brand identity
Just like other aspects of marketing, it can be challenging to identify what's working right and what's not without the right performance analysis. That's why you need to monitor your brand by using the right performance metrics.
Monitor social media comments and group discussions, use Google Analytics and online surveys to know how people perceive your brand. As you monitor your brand, you'll gain a complete view of your brand performance. You'll be able to know how to implement changes to your brand as needed. If something is not working, you can easily fix it and improve your brand identity.
In this process, the goal is to test, learn, and optimize. If your brand lives up to the name that you create, you'll start to build a loyal customer base that believes in your brand.
Building a brand identity that resonates with your customers
Building a brand identity can be a challenging process of choosing the right color, type, language, and logo but it's worth it.
When you build a consistent brand across all platforms, customers will easily recognize you and all that you stand for. Use the tips mentioned above to guide you as you build a brand identity and make a name for your business.
At Engage, you can use our customer experience platform to send personalized push notifications, in-app messages, and emails.