What is Brand Identity?
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
Seth Godin
The term ‘branding’ is so commonly used these days, you may have even heard people discussing wether things are on-brand or not.
People in business might think a logo is a brand but it is not, well not entirely, let me explain.
Some elements of a brand may be typography, colours, logo, icon, website, app, packaging, voice – separately they play their part to market a brands message and together they create an overall brand identity.
When these elements are aligned strategically they make for a memorable brand identity with a following of loyal customers who fell in love with the experience.
The 9 Steps Needed For Creating a Memorable Experience
Below is the process from start to finish I go with my strategy and branding clients.
It all begins with … strategy
By building your brand with strategy, your are more likely to see the results you need and in turn, grow your business.
Using strategy you are more able to articulate your business offerings and message to your audience. With carefully considered and consistent branding that is aligned to you and your businesses foundations.
The pillars of strategy I focus on are:
1
Your purpose
Craft your brands purpose, mission and vision statements that build your brands foundation.
2
Your audience
Research demographics, geographies, buyer persona (may be more than one), to identify who you serve and how, when and where to communicate with them.
3
Your niche
You can’t sell to everybody and if you try you end up selling to nobody. Using competitor research and unique positioning can identify what you have to offer that is different to everyone else. Tighten your offering and get clarity on what you offer.
4
Your message
Define your tone of voice to communicate in a way that connects so you can build a community and tell your brands story to.
5
Your Visual Identity
Mood boards, typography, colour palette, photography that attract and inspire your audience.
Once you have your strategy done you can move onto the design of your logo. It’s always so much easier putting in the strategy leg work first as it makes designing the logo, or creating the brief to have one designed, that much easier.
6
Brand Design aka Logo
The logo is the mark that encapsulates the brands beliefs, meaning and feelings of the business, easy no? Logo design combines typography and graphics. A full logo suite has a range of variants, icon, word mark and sub marks for flexibility of uses.
7
Brand Guidelines
Once you have your logo files you can populate a brand guidelines, a document that is used to ensure brand consistency. It has your brand fonts, colours,
8
Brand Identity
Brand identity is the visual representation of your brand. These are all the tangible things that is marketing your business. Think business collateral like brochure, business card, e-Book, flyer, website, and app design.
9
Marketing Content Pillars
Drawing from the above strategy content pillars and an advertising strategy can be created for social media and other advertising channels that fall into these three categories: growth, awareness, promotion.
That is basically the branding process in a nut shell and then some with the marketing content pillars as a juicy extra that I provide my clients who collaborate with me on their strategy and branding.
As you have gathered strategic branding is quite involved and hiring a professional is an investment that will continue to pay off for your business. Of course, you may have found this article because you are looking to DIY in which case I hope it has shed some light on the process, from concept to creation.
