In a world witnessing an overwhelming number of entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs, it is tougher than ever to achieve success. And this is applicable to all types o personal ventures and businesses. 

Every organization has unique goals, strategies for growth, and ways to deliver messages to potential clients or customers. But the first step in accomplishing each of the goals is common, and it is to create a memorable and unique brand identity.

What is brand identity?

The brand identity essentially comprises of: 

  • what your company says
  • what are the values
  • how you choose to communicate the product
  • expected reaction of people to the product or service

Precisely, the brand identity is the basic personality of the business and what you promise to the customer. 

It is good to say that branding is what the people will say about you once you leave the room. The product or service will leave a long-lasting impression on the customers long after you have sold the product. Brand identity goes a long way to shape up that impression.

Elements of brand identity

Business owners often use the terms “logo” and “brand” interchangeably. However, the logo is not the entirety of the brand. It is the symbol of your business. It can be a crucial aspect but not everything about the brand. 

The brand includes everything from the colors, packaging, fonts. And the style of service to the customers. It is like a big jigsaw puzzle. You compile all the pieces together, maintaining consistency, and the audience will understand you better to connect strongly to the particular product.

It is not easy to set any one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to creating brand identity. There are these elements that are vital for the process. It is up to you how you would like to do the permutation-combination of each element to establish an impactful identity for your business. 

  1. Name of the company/ brand
  2. Logo
  3. Colors
  4. Positioning and purpose
  5. Tone and voice
  6. Photography
  7. Typography
  8. Illustrations and graphics
  9. Website
  10. Iconography
  11. Video
  12. Signage
  13. Interior design/ décor
  14. Staff
  15. Customer experience styling
  16. Packaging
  17. Senses like smell, sound, and more.
  18. Social media profiles

How to be innovative 

The brand will be the “face” of the business. So it would help if you created a comprehensive visual language that will communicate with people everywhere. Thus. The design process will be time-consuming, but you have to ensure that the result is worth the energy input. You can make the brand identity innovative by concentrating on a few crucial attributes:

  • Uniqueness: there should be something special that will make it draw the attention of people, even in the crowd.
  • Adaptability: the identity must grow and have the scope of evolution as the company grows.
  • Transferable: designers must experience convenience in applying the brand identity.
  • Individuality: each piece of the puzzle should have individual meaning.
  • Unforgettable: it should be so impactful that the audience will remember and recognize it every time. 

It is time to get into further detailing.

Colors

While many business owners focus on creating the logo first, it is better to focus on the colors even before delving into the logo design. The colors that you select for your brand should reflect the intent and purpose of the brand along with conveying meaning and emotion to the audience. 

As a potent tool for brand identity color palette generatoryou can ask yourself a few questions:

  1. Which shades will best reflect the values of the brand?
  2. Are there any colors associated with the industry? Do you want to follow the tradition or prefer to stand out?
  3. Which colors compliment each other and appear the most attractive?

Creating the right color palette will always enhance your identity. 

Logo

And here comes the most recognizable element of the brand identity. The small logo can tell the complete story about your brand. An effective logo must have the following key attributes:

  • Timeless: it should not seem old-fashioned even after a few years.
  • Simplicity: The simpler it is, the easier it will be to be in the memory of the first-time viewers.
  • Versatility: should apply to all contexts.
  • Appropriate: avoid any element that can be the center of debates. 

Choose the right tone

How do you want the target audience to perceive your brand? You need to maintain the tone similarly. Customers have become conversant with brand communication. So if you want a simple approach that will welcome the customers to our world, it won’t seem like a forced attempt to convince customers forcefully. 

 There can be a significant change in how a customer embraces your brand depending on how you send the signals to the clients.  

Making your mark

Imitating some strategies of another brand is absolutely not a good way to prosper. After all, there is no prize for the “second best” in the industry. Carve the individual identity of the business. 

  • Study the potential customers and check what makes them most happy about the brand. 
  • Include the most preferred aspect of your company in the logo or the icon. People can trust a company more when you show them what they want to see the most from your product. 
  • There should be some distinct presence of the brand in the market for which it is important to know why customers choose your brand, and more importantly, shy they don’t.

Portray the idea

You know what the basic elements that will help you to build the brand are. But you should begin with the very idea! What was so amazing about this concept that made you open up a company? Even if you sell something commonly available in the market, you must show something that will speak for the brand’s character and promise.  

If you look up the Starbucks branding and brand identity case studyyou will notice that the company has apparently put the logo as simple as possible. Also, they are selling coffee primarily, which you can also get elsewhere, even if there is a difference in quality. Then how have they gone viral?

The sole reason is how the company understood that selling something as simple as a cup of coffee will need to maintain simplicity in the brand but meticulously implement all the elements that make them stand out in the industry.  

Simplicity works

Beginning from the logo to the packaging and, of course, the quality, you will be amazed to find how branding strategies can change the face of the company. The logo shouts out loud that the company sells the best coffee. The message is so strong that consciously or unconsciously, people believe in the brand blindly. 

 Final thoughts

The process will certainly be challenging and elaborate. But if you work on each piece of the puzzle at a time, it will be easier to create the brand identity. You should take the help from the professionals who can guide you in every step to create the identity from scratch.

If your product is good, it will generate customers. But if your brand is good, it will surely generate advocates. Make the right decisions and develop the best identity for your company.