Effective Branding Strategies to Create a Powerful Brand Identity
Ashutosh Chandra | 11th June 2020
What is a brand identity
The brand identity of a company is much more than just it’s logo and trademark. It is a collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its customer. It may include its trademark, name, logo, communications, and visual appearance. Brand identity is the sum of how a brand looks, feels and interacts with people. It sometimes also includes how it sounds, feels, tastes, and even smells. With effective branding strategies, brands can stand out from their competitors.
Brand identity is different from “brand image” or “branding” even though people sometimes use them interchangeably. Branding is the marketing practice to actively shape a distinctive brand. Brand image is the perception of the company in the eyes of the world.
Great brand identity design services enable businesses and brands to level up their game. It can also assist them to become one of the top brands in their niche market.
Also, Read | The Psychology of Colours Behind Marketing
Brand identity for effective branding strategies include
The most basic brand identity includes:
- Logo
- Typography
- Colors
- Illustration
- Photography
- Icons
- Interactive elements
- Data visualization
- Web design
The needs may be expansive depending on the brand and the content they are planning to create. They must create a comprehensive visual language that applies to everything from the website to packaging.
The brand should focus on including everything they need to make sure their brand identity translates across multiple mediums.
Keys to a strong brand identity
Now, just designing those elements won’t be enough or effective. A strong brand identity works for everyone from the internal team to the people who are going to interact with it (e.g. customers).
Brands must always ensure that their brand identity is:
- Distinct: It should stand out among the competitors and catch people’s attention.
- Memorable: It should be visually appealing and creates a visual impact. Consider brands such as Apple and Coca-cola. Apple’s logo is so memorable that it doesn’t show the name on the logo anymore.
- Scalable and flexible: The brand identity must evolve and grow along with the brand.
- Cohesive: Each part complements the brand identity.
- Easy to apply: It must be clear and intuitive for designers to use it.
If any of the above elements are missing in the brand identity, it becomes challenging for the brand design services to perform their job well.
How to build a brand identity
At first, the process may seem intimidating, but with the assistance of the right brand design services, brands can seamlessly move through the process. These tips will assist in building a stronger brand identity that sets up for success.
1. Completing the brand strategy
Brand strategy is a detailed plan that outlines exactly what brands want to achieve and how they are going to achieve it. It is comprised of a brand that has:
- Heart – Purpose, Vision, Mission, and values
- Message – Brand Tagline, Voice, Personality, etc.
- Identity – Logo, Color, Typography, etc.
They communicate with the brand visually, and thus support the brand strategy. As such, before diving into the brand identity, it’s important to have full-fledged and effective branding strategies.
2. Assessing the current brand identity
When initiating a branding project, brands must approach each phase from a philosophical and critical standpoint. Brands must inspect until they get to the core of their branding. It requires a full assessment of:
- The present state of the brand’s identity
- How to tweak or craft the brand identity to align with your goals
A full assessment is essential for effective branding strategies regardless of whether they are building a brand identity from scratch or just updating it. The goal is to understand how people perceive the brand, both internally and externally. Honest and accurate feedback is the only way to understand how and where the brand is succeeding or needs a rework.
3. Understanding the personas
Brand identity is the face of any business that interacts with the entire world. Whatever brands create should precisely and accurately communicate who they are. A brand identity is not just informed by what your brand wants to present but also by what your brand’s customers want to engage with. It doesn’t mean the brand’s customers will choose the logo color. It essentially means that brands will make more effective design choices once they understand customer’s needs, wants, and values.
You might also be interested in reading: User Persona: Why and How to Use it
4. Identifying the competitors
Building a brand identity is all about creating a difference. That is, to make the brand visible, relevant, and unique. But without a firm understanding of the competitive landscape, it becomes easy to blend in. Thus, it’s crucial to understand and know more about the competition, and how brands compare with them in perception and presentation.
5. Writing down the creative brief
Once brands have finished the previous steps, they have the information they need to begin the design process. However, it’s not a great idea to jump right in. First, begin with a creative brief that details the pertinent information to keep the team on the same page. Also, ensure to create a visual identity that aligns with the brand.
6. Brainstorming the visuals
At this point, brands have a lot of information for ideation, competitive analysis, brand audit, personas, and brief. They can take all the text-based information and translate it into visual concepts. Often, the text-based information is steeped in emotional language about the brand’s personality, goals, and values. So now the challenge is to figure out a way to communicate and enhance those sentiments through visuals.
7. Designing the elements
The fun and challenging part is to design each element as they influence each other. Those elements are logo, colors, typography, design system, photography, illustration, iconography, data visualization, and additional elements such as motion graphics, video, web design, and interactive elements.
Building the brand style guide
The worst thing than a poorly designed brand identity is a beautifully designed identity that has never been used or used incorrectly. So, a brand style guide becomes an important tool, if it’s crafted the right way.
Conclusion
A strong brand identity doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not like picking a few colors and slapping them together to make a logo. Effective branding strategies require a strategic approach that involves deep thinking, a team with strong communication and design skills, and a clear understanding of the brand.
Oodles brand identity design services have a dedicated team of proficient brand strategists and designers who caters to the needs of their customers. From creating a logo to creating marketing collaterals, they are proficient at capturing brand values.
