The strength of your brand identity will dictate the success of your business. Brand identity goes way beyond figuring out your logo and business colors. It is your no. 1 way to access and connect to your customers. Good brand identity will dictate how your customers will receive you. It will be the very rock where the credibility of your brand will be founded. If you’re not taking brand identity seriously, the time to act is now.
To help you get on with mastering your brand identity, we’ve prepared this fool-proof guide. All you have to do is follow the steps and your business would be set.
You simply need to do the following:
Step 1: Do Good Research
Do you know what your customers are after? Do you know what fancies their interest?
Before even beginning to figure out the identity that you want to create, you first need to think about your customers. What do your primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences want? What makes them tick?
You need to enlist in clear and quantifiable terms their:
- values
- likes
- dislikes
- hobbies
- interests
You need to have a deep understanding of your customer if you want to truly connect with them. Your brand identity, however solid, will not be a success if it does not connect with your customers. Researching will answer all your needs to make this happen.
You should also research your competitors: what are they doing? What are they not doing? How are they positioning themselves? Take note of their:
- themes
- visual elements
- personalities
- tone
Assess such attributes and evaluate where and how you can place your business in the picture. If a competitor is targeting older markets, will you do the same? Will you instead target young buyers? This stage of research is very important.
You should also get data from your employees. They have a unique perspective on how your brand is received as they get to interact with customers themselves. Ask them the following:
- How do you want the company to be portrayed?
- What branding techniques were effective in the past?
- What branding techniques failed to connect to customers?
Step 2: Asset Creation
After a lock-tight and intentional research, you can then proceed with creating assets. This is the fun part as you get to apply everything you’ve learned into creating the following assets:
- Typography
- Color palettes
- Logo
- Graphics
- Photography
- Iconography
- Brand identity style guide on proper logo usage, proper branding tone, and etc.
Coming up with promotional merchandise is part of this process. If you’re looking for pad printing Perth services, you should check out Bladon WA. Their pad printing services will allow you to print your business logo on any kind of item.
Take note of the 3 Cs when creating your brand assets:
1. Clarity – you need to be clear with your message. It’s not your customer’s job to figure out what you want to offer. Your message needs to be clear. You need to rework your branding if your customers end up getting confused with your identity.
2. Consistency – your materials should be uniform. Your website should have the same voice as your Twitter account and Facebook page. Consistency creates brand confidence. If all is consistent, customers will feel that they can expect the same level of service and excellence from your brand at all times.
3. Commitment – you need to be realistic with your timeline. Building a brand identity takes time. The easiest way is to go viral but going that lane can only take you so far. You should commit to a continued effort. Anything worthwhile takes time.
Step 3: Have a brand story.
The best way to solidify your brand identity is to come up with a brand story. A brand story will narrate the why and heart of your business. It will make your brand identity clearer and stronger.
You should take note of the following questions when creating a brand story:
- What values does your brand stand for?
- Does your brand believe in anything? What does it believe in?
- How can your services help your customers?
- How can your products help your customers?
- How does your brand help in solving problems?
- Why do you want to help?
- What made you want to help?
- How do you see your business in the future?
Know that an effective brand story should have a heart. It should be able to connect with your customers. It should not feel generic and cold. It should be human and real. Don’t make it into just another elevator pitch. Your brand story will allow people to see the essence of your business.
Step 4: Repeat and calibrate.
Your brand identity should continuously be repeated and recalibrated through time. You should have it duly adjusted as you interact with your customers. Be ready to see your initial brand identity transform into something else. This is perfectly normal because evolution and change is the secret to any kind of game. Always take note of the following:
- customer feedback
- marketing effectivity
- lead conversion
In recalibrating, you should explore new tactics and strategies. Test different taglines and stories.
Know that you’re free to change and recalibrate but your brand identity should still be consistent at its core. Always be sensitive to your customer’s needs. The more in tune your brand is, the more and more your customers would feel that they are seen. To be seen, you need to have your customers feel seen.
