the blog

What is a brand identity?

A brand identity is what your company means to people. It includes the name of your business, its logo, choice of colors, graphics designs, messages, type of language and perceived tone of voice.  These factors are usually determined by your company culture, value proposition, and target audience.

A brand’s identity is different from its brand image, which is the outcome of these factors. So, what does your brand say you are?

Your brand should be one of your company’s most valuable assets, communicating who you are and what you do. It should also reflect your personality and your value system. All these will determine how your consumers or clients, perceive you as a company.

A strong brand identity is one that is easily recognized within and outside its target audience. This explains why top corporations like Adidas, Amazon, Apple, Coca Cola, KFC, and Starbucks set aside millions of dollars yearly to invest in building and promoting their brand. The returns are evident in the volume of sales they consistently accrue.

What makes for a strong brand identity?

There’s no one big determining factor. Rather, it’s a combination of several amazing elements such as your uniqueness, product quality, philosophy, clear message, targeted marketing, and customer service. Beyond the logo or tagline, one way to gauge the strength of your brand identity is to find what people say about it when you’re not in the room.

You, however, do not need to wait until you become a big brand before you start paying attention to your brand image. Irrespective of your market size, there are a whole lot of benefits that come with having a strong brand identity and they include;

• A price premium

The average consumer wants to buy from a company they know, like, and have come to trust. In the midst of many options, they will select yours because it has your logo, even if it is a new product. A strong brand, therefore, gives you a competitive edge in the market that you can always leverage on. This means that if you put in the work in building a strong brand identity, you can increase the profit margins of your products and customers will gladly pay for it.

Brand identity is what determines a price-premium. It is the element that will make a consumer be willing to pay a thousand times more for an Apple product when there are other products just as technologically good, with the exception of certain additional features. The symbolism of the Apple brand backed up by its premium price is enough to attract and retain customers for life.

For small and medium scale businesses, strong brand identity will make you become appealing to customers that can pay more for products on offer. It’ll simply position you with a clear message of providing premium value for money.

• Differentiation

A smart company is always on the lookout to ensure its brand identity is different from its competitors.  Strong brand identity will give you a unique advantage and set you apart in a crowded marketplace and from the many others in the same business. If your business is new or still small, you should invest in building a brand identity to help you get ahead of other competitors and carve a niche in your industry. This, in turn, will communicate perceived quality and can also allow you to charge a price premium for your products.

• Communicates stability

It does not matter if you’re the best in your field as long as your brand identity says otherwise. A clearly defined brand identity conveys to its audience, a feeling of sustainability. Your consumers will get the impression that your brand is here to stay and can, therefore, trust you. Do away with concerns about your solidity by letting your brand identity communicate in clear and concise messages, the strength of your brand.

• Customer recognition

The power of familiarity is not one to be underestimated. A customer is likely to pick out and buy a well-known brand when shopping, thanks to the obvious colors and images that define it. A great branding may be subtle or wild, but it’ll always click “see me” in the mind of customers and tug at their hearts to go for it. Existing customers will always remember your business while potential customers will have you in mind when the need for your product or service arises.

These are the building blocks of customer loyalty and they will easily refer you to others because of the good feeling they have about your brand. Consistently building and projecting a strong brand identity will help customers remember who you are. Potential customers as well will be more likely to contact your business for its products or services because they like what they see. Every time people interact with your business should be an opportunity for you to create a memorable brand experience.

• Eases launch of new products

One of the major advantages of a strong brand identity is that it facilitates the introduction of new products and services to the market. People will be naturally open to such because they are already familiar with the brand. Think about Coca Cola, whose consumers are always excited about any new product it launches, much more they help to spread the word about it. What else can a brand want from its consumers?

With a strong brand identity, you can always afford to introduce something new to the market place as your identity will establish you and earn you enthusiastic customer followers you can bank on to try something different.

• Increases credibility in the marketplace

A strong brand identity gives the impression that a business is established, experienced and reliable in comparison to an unbranded business. It will also increase a business’s credibility with its customers and within its niche.  Pair this up with creative marketing and excellent customer service, and you will have a brand to be reckoned with in its industry. This will position your business to better noticed by bigger corporations and work with them as well.

• Boosts Confidence

Good branding will promote your products and services while making your consumers feel good about patronizing you. It projects your brand forward by making your target audience and even the general public pay attention. This will also make you as the actual business owner feel great about the time, energy and work that goes into creating such value. Good branding is not just for the consumers, but for the business owner to also appreciate what they are building.

You’ve created your brand identity. What’s next?

Once you’ve established strong brand identity, the next step is to publicize it. Apply this new messaging and graphic identity across every medium onboard your marketing strategy. There may be a need to re-evaluate and redesign in the future but starting off strong will provide clarity for future revisions. Ensure that you are fiercely consistent so that your business is the go-to brand when anyone is in need of what you’re offering.

Be sure to stay on top of your game and in tune with your audience so that you’ll know when it’s time to evolve. This is crucial to keeping existing customers and attracting new ones as your business grows. If you ever get stuck, do well to ask a professional branding agency for help, and you’ll be fine.

• Creates a positive outlook

Prospects always lookout for companies with the resources to help them succeed.  They will also be willing to pay for a more established company. Thus, when they see the brand quality you project, they will see you as deserving of their patronage and the fees you charge.

This explains why many independent professionals who offer consulting services end up building a brand around themselves instead of the business. However, if your goal is to develop the business and project it in the best possible light, you will need to give it a strong brand identity.

• Talent recruitment and retention

There is no business that invests in its brand identity and goes unnoticed. Better still, the right caliber of people always notices and will want to be a part of what the business is doing. This gives the company access to a talent pool of creatives and brilliant minds.

This reward is beyond what consumers can offer you. It’s more of a long-term benefit from your present and future employees; stakeholders that value a strong brand identity and want to be a part of its sustainability.

Every one likes to be associated with success. So, a brand that clearly communicates its mission, values, and personality in a way that resonates with its audience stands a chance of attracting and retaining the best minds in the workforce. If you keep this up, your employee turnover will be low and your brand will be around for a very long time to come.