Brand Identity: what it is, how to build it correctly and examples

The Brand Identity is how people identify a company, its business, and its products. The identity of a company does not only correspond to the logo or visual design in the various marketing activities but is the sum of all the elements that communicate something about the brand:

• Name
• Products
• Values and objectives
• Promotional channels.

To communicate your identity, in addition to the visual aspect, it is important to be able to engage your audience to excite them and allow them to have an enjoyable experience with your products or services.

Today there are a multitude of channels available to communicate with one’s customers: websites, social media, e-mail, and videos are just a few examples. The brand must be able to adapt and integrate the various forms of communication and marketing with consistency and constancy.

If you are looking for how to build a brand identity for your business or agency, if you want to know what to include for a correct brand identity for your logo and develop a successful business, or if you want to do an analysis of your brand identity, continue reading this article because I will help you understand:

• What it is and why it is important to have a brand identity.
• The elements that make it up.
• The steps to build it effectively.

If you want to learn how to best communicate your corporate identity and find the right strategy for bringing a business online, discover courses in digital marketing.

What is the brand identity and why define it correctly

Brand Identity is all the visual and emotional factors that allow a brand to be easily recognized by people. In addition to the physical appearance, it defines the “character” through the tone of voice, values, and principles conveyed.

It is crucial to be able to communicate, engage and convert your customers because structuring your identity in a coherent way allows your brand’s uniqueness and value to be perceived.

Find out your skill in devising a brand strategy. Take the test now

The 6 elements that make up the Brand Identity

Through the Brand Identity prism of Jean-Noel Kapferer, an international leader in brand thinking and management, we can define the 6 most valuable elements for one’s brand identity.

This considers the identity of a trademark analogously to a natural person by defining all its characteristics.

In detail, the dimensions of the prism are:

1. Physique (physical) – It is all the physical details that distinguish the product and the brand (logo, colors, design, packaging). It is how you want to present yourself and how you want to be perceived.
2. Personality – It is your communication style: your tone of voice, visual design, and content text. Everything needs to be integrated: website, app, e-mail, social channels, etc. consistently and consistently.
3. Relationship – The relationship between the brand and its customers: everything the customer hopes to achieve beyond the product or service offered.
4. Culture – It is the set of values and principles on which a brand bases its behavior.
5. Reflection – Define your buyer personas to tailor your business message to your target audience.
6. Self-image – Find out how the audience wants to look and make sure that their aspirations are reflected in your design.

Defining all these components is very useful for building a project: by adapting the 6 sections to your products, your industry, and your thinking you take the first step towards creating a successful identity needed to develop your marketing. So you can choose a brand management course to improve your skills and do the best for the brand.

How to correctly build a Brand Identity in 3 steps

The process leading to the development of an optimal brand identity consists of three communicative steps:

• Naming i.e. choosing a brand name
• Brand design consisting of the various visual communications
• Brand strategy i.e. the type of communication used.

The naming

The name is what you want people to remember about your corporate identity at first glance. It is the first distinguishing element in the minds of consumers: it can arouse interest, convey an emotion and even tell a story.

Constructing and choosing an effective naming is not so simple, but these three rules on how it should be will help you make the right choice:

1. New: your business and your services need to differentiate themselves from others, and especially today with the web, social networking, and all digital marketing in general, choosing an existing name could jeopardize your site’s findability in search engines.
2. Original: use all the creativity you can, don’t stop at first ideas but get help from mental associations, semantics, and rhetorical figures. The simple name must make it clear to the customer that you want to differentiate yourself from others, and that you have something different to offer.
3. Simple and possibly short to be easily remembered.

Brand Design

The brand design consists of the visual elements of one’s communication: it is the most effective aspect of any marketing strategy because images require less cognitive effort to remember them.

The logo may consist of letters only or be accompanied by an image: it must in any case be consistent with the naming and the idea we want to convey.

Here, too, it is useful to follow the rules:

1. Consistency and simplicity are usually very effective without forgetting originality.
2. Choosing the right color is a very effective form of communication because every color evokes an emotion: brand colors should also be chosen according to what you want to communicate to consumers. Colour is in fact a sensation that provokes certain feelings in our brain. For example, colors such as yellow, orange, and red are positive and stimulating, and green and blue inspire confidence.
3. Consider inserting a Payoff, i.e. a “slogan” accompanying the logo. It is a short verbal element that completes its composition and describes the essence of a brand.
4. Choose the right corporate identity: all permanent graphic works of corporate marketing communication i.e. logos, business cards, letterheads, business envelopes, websites, social sites, shopping bags, etc. must refer to a precise and coherent corporate image.

Brand Strategy

Brand Strategy means the long-term plan to create and develop a valuable business that can communicate with its audience and arouse emotions in them.

It includes all operations that are done to increase the credibility and trust that our customers have in our brand.

In order to plan this strategy in the best possible way, it is necessary:

• Clearly determine the target and typical customer you would like to address (age, desires, demographic, social situation).
• Choose the tone of voice to use: institutional or friendly? Simple and elegant or curious and creative?
• Decide what dream you want your customers to fulfill, the idea they should have of what you sell.
• Be consistent: every element must be instantly traceable to your business because the customer does not like to feel disoriented.
• Be as flexible and up-to-date as possible: make small changes to ensure that your company is always up-to-date, especially when it comes to web marketing.
• Engage your customers through social strategies: ask for ratings and reviews.

Differentiate your corporate brand from the competition. Find out how to make it stand out in the marketplace

DIGITAL STRATEGY COURSE

Brand Identity: Successful Examples

One of the greatest examples of successful brand identity is the Coca-Cola brand.

All of us when we talk about this drink associate the name with the famous white logo on a red background and the distinctively shaped bottle.

The color red arouse confidence, the font used amusement, and the bottle is original: all characteristics that accompanied over the years by targeted advertising make this drink unique and allow the brand to inspire consumer confidence and credibility.

Another important example is Nike, a leading company in the clothing and sports goods sector. Its”‘swoosh”, i.e. its characteristic logo, is no longer even followed by the name, because it alone succeeds in identifying the brand and transmitting dynamism and freedom, precisely those characteristics that products, intended not only for athletes but also used in leisure time or in everyday life, must transmit to customers.

That feeling of movement and speed is further accentuated by the frequent use of the payoff, i.e. their slogan, just do it.

Conclusions and strategic coaching

Knowing how to build one’s brand identity is essential to become recognizable but also to differentiating oneself.

If you want your business to enter the market on the right foot, you must therefore focus not only on the objective and design aspects but also on the psychological and emotional aspects you wish to arouse in your customers.

Start here to design your business, your web, and your social media presence. If you define all these aspects very carefully, you will certainly have excellent results.

Free consultation from one of our coaches can be of great help to you in setting your goals

CONTACT US HERE