Building a strong brand identity requires a thoughtful strategy, not just choosing colors or designing a random logo. It requires deep thought, an experienced communication and design team, and a comprehensive understanding of your identity and what you offer.
Of course, this isn’t easy, but it’s essential to the success of any brand. If you’re going to do it, you’d better do it right. Yes, it can be confusing, but with the right guidance, you can navigate the process effectively.
We’ve created a step-by-step guide with tips and tools to help you build a beautiful and functional brand identity.
What is a brand identity?
A brand identity describes the external, visible elements of a brand that distinguish it in the minds of consumers. These elements include visual aspects such as colors, design, and logo, as well as the language and interactions the brand engages with its audience.
Building a cohesive, strategic identity requires analyzing the market and competition, defining the company’s and customer’s goals, and defining the brand’s positioning. When creating a brand identity, it’s essential to consider how it will be expressed across multiple channels, such as social media.
The Benefits of a Strong Brand Identity
A successful brand is one of a company’s most important assets. Although its value may seem intangible, companies can build significant value through distinctive design and unique branding.
Among the most important benefits of a strong brand identity are:
It is easily recognizable by consumers and helps a company stand out from its competitors.
It embodies a set of values and attributes that align with its target audience.
It expresses itself consistently across the company’s various channels.
It enhances the company’s popularity and presence in the market.
It contributes to building a positive reputation for the company by communicating characteristics such as quality and reliability, which contributes to building trust with consumers.
Why Do You Need a Brand Identity?
A strong brand identity isn’t just pretty packaging; it’s an effective way to communicate your brand story. Design is a powerful tool that can transform how people interact with your brand in three important ways:
Distinction:
How can you stand out in a crowded market? Your brand identity can play a huge role in this. Whether you want your product to stand out on the shelf or your ads to stand out on Facebook, creating a consistent and cohesive presentation is the key to success.
Connect:
The more effective you communicate with your audience, the easier it will be for people to engage with you and ultimately join your community of loyal fans.
Experience:
Everything you create reflects your brand, so if you want to deliver a consistent and cohesive brand experience, you must deliver a consistent and cohesive identity.
From your website to social media, all the way to brochures, a strong identity is key to enhancing your brand experience.
What does a brand identity include?
When you create a brand identity, you’re essentially building a set of visual elements to help you communicate effectively. These elements can be as simple as they are comprehensive, depending on your brand’s needs.
Regardless, every brand needs a core identity, which includes three main elements:
Logo.
Color palette.
Typography.
If you produce a variety of content (or plan to), you can also design additional elements to express your brand across different media, including:
Photography.
Illustrations.
Icons.
Data visualization.
The good news is that you don’t need to design everything at once. If you don’t have a lot of resources (or don’t know what your future needs will be), start with the basic logo, colors, and typography. You can expand on additional elements as needed.
Steps to Build a Brand Identity
To simplify the process, we’ve broken it down into 10 steps that take you from start to finish. We’ve organized these steps in this specific way, building on the foundation of other elements.
Whether you’re building a new identity from scratch or planning a redesign, follow this sequence to design a strong brand identity that will boost your chances of success.
Step 1: Know Your Foundation
Before you begin the steps outlined here, know that the visual aspect of your brand identity isn’t the first thing you should focus on when building a brand; in fact, it’s the last.
A brand is like a house; it must be built on a solid foundation.
First, you need to know who you are: What is your personality? What do you care about? What do you do? How do you communicate what you do? These are the core elements of your brand, through which your visual identity will communicate.
If you don’t have this foundation to build upon, you won’t be able to design a visual identity that properly tells your brand story.
Step 2: Evaluate Your Current Identity
A good brand ultimately depends on good communication. To ensure that your visual output aligns with your brand values, reflects your personality, and conveys your brand’s full story, you need a deep understanding of your brand.
So, you should start with a brand assessment to understand the current state of your brand identity and how to shape or modify that identity to align with your future goals.
By taking a critical look at your brand, you can gain the insights needed to build an identity that accurately represents your brand.
Step 3: Evaluate the Competition
Building a brand identity is all about differentiation: making your brand visible, relevant, and unique. Therefore, it’s essential to understand who your competitors are and how your brand identities compare in visual presentation.
By conducting a competitor assessment, you can compare your brand to each competitor, and to your competitors as a whole, which may reveal surprising insights.
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