Many times, we find brands and automatically can see or feel what the brand is all about, which means they built the right brand identity. You first need to know that your brand identity will be your business’s face and ask yourself, does your brand says what you sell?
Every brand has a personality, and to build it you will have to think like you’re describing a set of human characteristics. The main objective of creating a brand identity is to define your brand’s personality and make customers connect on a visceral level to have an emotional impact.
4 ways to develop your brand identity
1. Decide who you are first
Many brands decide to know who they are after they launch the services or products they offer to their customers. That kind of action will only affect the brand identity and waste time, money, and resources.
First, choose your core values before coming to the market, your priorities, specialties, and emotional appeal. This will sell your brand as a unique brand, and it will stand out from the direct and indirect competitors. Second, from a business standpoint, the slogan will emphasize the value and will clarify your brand´s mission.
2. Nail your brand voice
Internal and external communication will determine your brand personality, your brand voice can make or break any effort on your brand. To create and decide what will be your brand voice you have to think about being unique and what you want to show to your audience.
Do you want to be a funny brand? A sophisticated tone or casual, old school, or always in trend? Depending on your style, audience, industry, and other factor remember your brand voice will exist and need to be recognizable and memorable no matter where people hear it.
There are different types of brand voices based on the tone and objective of your brand:
- Professional
- Corporative
- Informal
- Humorous
- Explanatory
- Emotional
- Empathic
3. Get to know your audience
What is the public perception of your company? Does your brand say what you sell? No fortune tellers, it is hard to get an accurate read on your own company, instead of assuming it is necessary market research to find it out.
As much as your brand personality has to do with who you are, it also relates to who your audience is. Your brand needs to be the perfect reflection of what your business is all about. So don´t develop your branding and choose your audience based on assumptions, speak to current and potential customers, observe them, and then weave into what you learned.
4. Follow a graphic design-line
The last but more important part of your brand identity is to follow a graphic design line, the efforts that you already made of thinking about what you want to share with your customers, and the type of communications that will be added to the visual content of your brand.
The visible elements you must care about such as color, design, and logo will distinguish your brand from the others, and it is imperative to be congruent with your company’s main message.
Great examples of brand identity
North Face
Gucci
The ordinary
Bad examples of a brands identity (and good rebrands)
