What is a Brand Identity, and Why Does it Matter?
A solid brand identity is the critical groundwork for developing customer loyalty and retention, which can be a huge competitive advantage. Without a well-crafted and maintained brand identity, your marketing will always feel flat and one-dimensional. A lot of people equate brand with logo, but the thing is, a logo is part of a greater brand identity that encompasses every consumer touchpoint. What do we mean by that? If you have a fun and adventurous logo, you will also want your copy to be fun and adventurous, and customer service interactions to be fun and adventurous, and to do that, you need to really understand who your company serves and what you stand for. Think about a well-known brand like Nike. Every time you experience the brand, you likely feel motivated to get out there and do your best even if you’re just sitting on the couch watching TV.
How a Great Brand Identity Can Help Your Company Stand Out from Your Competitors
An appealing and effectively applied brand identity is one of the most important things you can create for your company. To have a successful brand, you need people to want to be a part of what you are doing. This is about so much more than a single product or design. It is about creating an experience through look and feel, fonts and colors, mission and values, and writing tone. All of these elements can come together to invite your target audience into a social club that centers around your product. Keep in mind that people are loyal to brands, not products—just ask anyone whose junk drawer is filled with Apple chargers and old iPods. Defining your brand and weaving it authentically into everything you do will foster trust for the long term. Apple is a great example of a brand that makes people feel cool and creative. Apple’s customers are extremely loyal, often purchasing all of their electronics from this sleek, progressive brand.
Here are a few ways your brand identity can improve your business
Brand Recognition
Consistency increases brand recognition and awareness. It also conveys a clear message across all marketing channels. Does your child get excited everytime the Disney+ logo slides across the screen? That is brand recognition at its finest.
Differentiation
When it is time to make a purchase, a strong brand identity helps you be remembered by would-be consumers while ensuring your brand stands out from the competition.
Connection
All brands convey a personality. A well-executed brand accurately speaks for the brand while connecting with its audience. It is a powerful tool that builds on an initial attraction and fosters trust.
Loyalty
People are loyal to brands, not products. And customers are attracted to brands that they feel comfortable with and trust. Effective brands build these relationships.
What is the Brand Experience?
When a company has a tight brand identity that is applied across all customer touchpoints—images, colors, copy, in-person interactions, customer service, internal culture, and everywhere else, it becomes a brand experience. The number one question when considering your brand experience is how does interacting with your company’s design, people, and products make potential and current customers feel?
Ideally, any interactions with your brand make people feel special and that they are a part of something bigger than themselves. The human component of the brand experience is becoming increasingly important as company interactions trend toward being fully automatized. Aside from draining your wallet, Whole Foods is an example of a brand that creates a really specific brand experience. When you shop at this grocery store, you likely feel healthy and part of a community that’s doing good for their health and the planet.
Why Your Brand Identity is More Than Your Logo & Why Logos Matter Anyway
Your logo is one aspect of the brand experience, but it’s so much more than that. Your logo is the entry point into your brand; it is the visual snippet that invites in potential customers and says, “Hey, you and I are on the same wavelength.” In fact, 75% of customers say the brand’s logo is the most identifiable company identifier.
For new customers, a logo is a statement about who your company is, what it does, and what it stands for. A logo appeals to your target audience and stands up against the test of time. For returning customers, your logo is an essential tool for brand recognition. If you provide a solid and cohesive brand experience, customers will begin to feel they can trust anything that bears your mark.
A lot of small businesses view logo design as a one-off project. Maybe they hop over to Fiver and have someone whip up something cheap and quick. They might end up with a decent-looking mark, but it’s not enough if you want a brand that will be recognizable and invoke a feeling and desire every time potential customers see it.
Your logo is just one component of a more holistic system that makes people feel proud to be a part of what your company is building and conveys an ethos that extends through every consumer touch point.
Brand Identity Creation Process
Creating a great brand identity is more about learning about you and, more importantly, your customers than it is about creating an objectively pretty brand design.
Whatever your brand personality, we won’t start the brand design process until we have a deep understanding of who your clients are, who they aren’t, and what drives them to buy your products or services.
Our process starts with a discovery period that includes research, competitor analysis and a target audience review. From there we create a mood board and move into the design elements, including the logo as well as color palette and fonts. We always create brand guidelines and spend extra energy walking our clients through applying the brand in a cohesive identity.
All of this aligns to create a brand experience— that je ne sais quoi that makes people feel like they need to be a part of your club.
Which Companies Need Branding?
The obvious answer to this question is new brands. When a company is founded, they need to create a personality and creative aesthetic to attract customers to buy their product or service.
When we created Hire Elite’s brand identity, we helped this new safety staffing agency create everything from their name to their logo, color palette, and website. Every choice we made from the black and yellow matte color to the angular font choice was based on extensive industry research and designed to demonstrate professionalism, masculinity, and a corporate look and feel.
Here is what went into some of the decisions we made about Hire Elite’s visual brand identity:
Typography:
We selected a big, bold, angular font for headlines for the trust factor. It’s strong and sturdy and leans toward the masculine. We chose the body copy to balance the headline font so it wouldn’t appear too heavy.
Colors:
We wanted a singular brand color that would stand out, just like the cones, tape and vests in a safe industrial or construction environment. We chose gold/yellow to be bright and recognizable, as well as a dark background to make sure the typography stands out.
Images:
We wanted to associate an image style with Hire Elite—a treatment that could be used in marketing materials to better represent the brand. We made a duotone filter of the gray and yellow that help give imagery a unique, cohesive, corporate look.
Taking part in The Marketing Dept.’s branding journey helped establish Hire Elite as a trusted brand from the starting gate.
Companies can also rebrand to help their businesses stay relevant. Design trends are quickly evolving, and can become outdated quickly, causing business to suffer. No matter how careful you are to create an evergreen logo, most companies find themselves in need of a rebrand around every decade or so. A business might also need a rebrand to turn around a negative perception or adhere to new corporate standards after a sale.
Two examples of rebrands by highly successful, recognizable companies include the rebrands of Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks Coffee— each of these rebrands took a well-known brand and simultaneously simplified the imagery and opened up the brand for more product lines (Dunkin’ is more than just donuts, it’s also coffee! And Ben Affleck!; Starbucks is more than just coffee).
The Marketing Dept. Colorado’s Brand Identity Difference
We do create beautiful logos for companies across a range of industries, but we also help companies develop their brand identity—the story and personality that makes people want to be a part of what you’re selling. A logo is simply an extension of this overall (heavily researched and curated) vibe.
When creating a brand identity, we ensure our client is prepared to use it in their marketing materials. We create brand guides that outline fonts, colors, photography guidelines, logo applications, and how to combine them across various platforms to present a cohesive brand identity.
Ready to explore how The Marketing Dept. can help you create or refresh your brand identity? Schedule a free discovery call today.
