What is the single most important thing every business must do?
We bet millions of thoughts are going through your mind, so let us answer the questions right now: A company has to build a unique brand identity in order to succeed. This is the only chance you have to distinguish your organization from competitors and grow your business steadily and long-term.
But how do you build a brand identity?
Well, this question has more than one answer as it requires a fair share of planning and strategic thinking to come up with a memorable brand identity. Our job is to help you with that, so here’s a complete guide on how to build a brand identity.
The Basics of the Concept
The sheer phrase ‘brand identity’ may sound obvious and self-explanatory, but it is actually vague and convoluted.
There are many definitions of the concept, but we like the one claiming that the brand identity is a set of ideas and features that a company wants people to connect in their minds with its products or brand. It is a broad explanation, but that’s just because brand identity is a broad phenomenon. Here are the major components of brand identity:
- Logos, color schemes, fonts
- Visual templates and graphic design
- Images and iconography
- Data visualization patterns
- Videos materials, GIFs, animations, and illustrations
- Content writing style
But the sum of all elements is not enough to make a great brand identity. On the contrary, it also needs to fulfill certain criteria in order to reach the desired level of quality.
Jake Gardner, a web designer at the best essay writing service, explains that brand identity has to be specific and different than competitors’ brand identities: “It also needs to be appealing and memorable because you want customers to remember it quickly. Besides that, it must be simple enough for different kinds of designers to apply it to their products.”
Practical Tips to Build the Brand Identity
Building a brand identity is obviously complicated, but it gets a lot easier if follow a few basic rules in a step by step manner. Here are the most important tasks on your to-do list:
1. See where you are right now
If you are about to launch a totally new company, you can skip step one. But most companies don’t think about brand-building from day one, so they need to reconsider it somewhere along the way. For this reason, it all starts with a question: What is the current status of the brand identity?
Our advice is to analyze the opinions of your employees, business partners, and clients in order to figure out how they perceive your company. This helps you distinguish between the pros and cons of the existing brand identity.
2. Make a plan
Now you know how all parties involved in the process see your business, but what is your point of view? How do you want people to perceive the brand?
It’s a critical step because you are the one who makes the plan and decides which way to go. This is exactly why it’s necessary to analyze the purpose of the business, its values, mission, and vision. It is also important to determine key brand messages and come up with a unique selling proposition.
3. Create a buyer persona
Who is your typical client? Is it a 15-year old girl or a retired police officer? Target groups vary significantly, so you have to create the average buyer persona and learn what really inspires this person to show interest in a brand and to take action.
4. Analyze your competitors
The next step is to analyze your competitors and see what they are doing to build a unique and memorable brand identity. Do it the same way you would analyze your own company. In other words, try and check all elements of their brand identities one by one.
The point is to pinpoint common features that you have to add to the strategy, too. On the other side, you also want to identify their weaknesses and learn how you can do better than other companies in your niche.
5. Create brand identity visuals
After everything you’ve done so far, creating brand identity visuals should be much easier for you and your team of designers. For instance, if the audience consists of young and passionate individuals, you know your visual messages need to be direct, clear, upbeat, and energetic.
The logic applies to all elements of the brand identity, but the most important thing is to make it work for the official logo, color scheme, and website.
The Bottom Line
Building a powerful brand identity is a key marketing task for every organization or company, but it’s not as simple and obvious as it may seem at first. In this post, we showed you a step by step guide on how to build a memorable brand identity. Do you think you can do it like this?
Author Bio:
Alice Jones is a full-time digital marketer and a part-time blogger from San Francisco, CA. As a member of the professional dissertation writing service, Alice is making blog posts about branding, entrepreneurship, and personal development. Besides that, she is a passionate traveler and a dedicated yoga practitioner.
