Pixbrand Team
Published: 02/08/2024
Introduction
You might have heard the word brand identity. Organizations spend a lot creating and maintaining their brand identity to survive the competition. From Coca-Cola to McDonald’s, from Spotify to Bumble every company is conscious about what kind of image is reaching out to people when they hear their brand’s name.
Brand identity is the rudimentary aspect of any marketing effort & for making decisions. Unlocking the key to building a robust brand identity can assist companies in standing out and creating a better image.
But what is a business brand identity?
It is every tiny detail about your brand. It refers to all the visual and non-visual aspects of your brand right from your logo to your business card. A brand identity depicts the goals and vision of the company. Organisations are not just confined to selling mere products or services but they sell ideologies, inspiration, and experiences.
To sustain the market and competition, organizations are adapting practices like gender-equity working cultures, environment-friendly solutions, and sustainability approaches to increase their reach & create a brand reputation.
Brief History of Brand Identity
Are you thinking “What is branding and identity?” It takes us to a brief history of where the term brand image came into existence. You’ll be surprised to know that the origination of brand image was almost thousands of years ago when the farmers used to depict their ownership of cattle by stamping them & marking unique symbols onto artisan goods to identify their inception.
Several years later, the nineteenth century marked the emergence of brand identity. Companies started using logos to stand out from the crowd, to identify manufacturers, and to give an indication of quality and authenticity. It skyrocketed in the early twentieth century & continued to bloom steadily in the last century.
In the current times, brand image has become a paramount element for companies to reach out to potential customers and express themselves.
Why is Brand Identity Important?
Brand image is an image any company makes its brand recognizable to the audience. One of the major reasons why brand image is crucial is that it separates the company’s mission, vision, and personality from others. It is one of the deciding factors between competitors for returning customers and new ones.
Additionally, a brand identity is a type of communication that a brand is trying to channel through emotions, stories, or establishing between people and the brand. It is vital to create brand trust, loyalty, and authenticity that customers can relate to whenever they hear the name of your brand.
Key Elements of a Brand's Identity
A brand image comprises all the tangible and non-tangible aspects that represent your company’s core values and mission. Let’s go through all the elements in detail –
It covers various aspects of creating a web design, like:
1. Color Palette
Color palette plays a major role as it helps associate your brand and its image. Different colors have different impacts on the audience. So the color palette should be in alignment with your business and should be used across all the marketing materials.
2. Packaging and Presentation
Packing & presentation of the products is vital as it’s the first thing a customer notices when he sees a product. Packaging & presentation is a deciding factor whether a customer will purchase it or not.
3. Typography
Fonts & styles of text written on the packaging, business cards, and other marketing, materials help the customer identify the brand. It creates a perception of the brand in the minds of customers.
4. Tone of Voice
The tone of voice is the way the brand interacts with the audience. The slogans, language, style, and customer communication constitute the tone of voice. It ultimately comes to how a brand looks, feels, or sounds.
5. Brand Name
Talking about what is branding and identity, a brand name is how a customer will remember your brand. It is the most crucial aspect that aids a customer recall the brand image. It also helps to distinguish itself from the competitors by creating a brand’s personality.
6. Logo
A visual element that symbolizes a brand and creates an identity. For instance, some strong brand identity examples are, McD has an M symbol that helps people recognize the brand. Likewise, a swoosh mark is Nike’s logo that differentiates it from the rest.
Building Brand Identity
Building a brand takes a lot of consistent and creative effort. It requires a lot of planning and understanding of basic needs to make a brand into something huge. Let’s hop on to the process where you can define what is the core identity of a brand and what roadmap you can follow to simplify the brand-building process.
1. Characterize the identity of your brand
You should know your vision, mission, and objective to build a brand. Knowing what will be the personality statement, USP, & position statement.
2. Prepare visual aspects of the brand
It entails aspects like logo, color palette, style, fonts, and such visual elements that make your brand go big.
3.Develop brand awareness
After meticulously working on the visual aspects, the next step is to use marketing strategies to enhance awareness among the audience. This is done through advertising, content marketing, social media campaigns, and PR efforts.
4. Deliver consistent brand experience
These steps ensure that any interaction of the brand with your customer whether it’s through customer service, products, or online presence – aligns with your brand image.
5. Monitoring & Adaptiveness
Lastly, remember branding is not a one-time thing. It evolves continuously with changes in the market. A business needs to hold on to what is the core identity of a brand and reiterate rapidly through various marketing approaches to remain relevant.
The Brand Identity Measurement System & Brand Identity Examples
Now you know what is a business brand identity, you must know there are certain metrics to measure the effectiveness of branding efforts. It typically involves qualitative and quantitative metrics to ensure whether your branding efforts are enough by gauging the strength, consistency, and impact.
You can measure the performance of your brand through various tools like ESPs, semrush, and social media metrics to measure mentions, sentiments, and conversations about the brand through Hootsuite, Brandwatch, or Sprout Social.
Tracking brand identity helps you know where your brand stands in the market and what changes you need to make in the strategies. Also, these metrics depict how the target audience perceives you & measures to improve the brand personality & performance.
A few examples where companies have displayed strong brand identity examples are –
1. McDonald’s
This well-known fast food chain has established an incredible brand identity. Its coherence with market trends & resilient efforts made the brand the number-one choice for Burgers. The quality and brand identity are a treat to watch for brands seeking inspiration.
2. Airbnb
Founded in 2008 with an elementary idea of letting people open their homes to travelers, Airbnb has some top-notch branding strategies that spin the whole hospitality industry. From a user-friendly interface & creative logo to listening to the customer needs it has made its branding game strong!
3. Wix
Wix left no stone unturned with their branding game. Entrepreneurs, business professionals, and self-creators can create their own platform thus it offers a reliable product and consistent branding assets. Its minimalist touch to the logo helps as a distinguishing element along with a diverse identifiable color palette that adds to its beauty.
Conclusion
Every brand image has its story. This story is a sum of all the tangible and intangible elements together making it recognizable. Right from its logo, tone, slogan, language, and imagery all these points should be carefully set in place to create a loving brand. A robust brand identity resonates with people where they feel belongingness.
Building a brand is not just a process but the major decisions & efforts lie on the strong foundation of brand image. So choose wisely and keep a keen observation on how your company will make a lasting impression on the target audience.
If you are looking to build a brand that ticks all the right boxes and delivers the message you intended to deliver, Pix Brand is just the agency you want. Feel free to contact us to grow your business today.
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