In today’s fast-paced world, starting a business and launching a brand means competing against household names that have been around for years. This means that standing out and getting recognized is definitely tough, but never impossible. And how, you might ask, can you make your way into the spotlight? Enter: the brand identity. Here’s the thing: developing a unique brand identity is one of the key elements that will help you stand out from the crowd in an already-saturated market.
But how exactly do you develop a unique brand identity? And what are some of the benefits of working your butt off to make sure that you’re putting in the right efforts? Read on to find out!
What is brand identity?
The term brand identity refers to everything that makes your brand unique from every other business out there. A unique brand identity is strong enough that people don’t confuse your brand for any other one in the market but clear enough that people understand what you’re trying to portray.
From your company colors to the logo, tagline, visual imagery, scent (hello, Abercrombie and Fitch), voice, and everything in between, a brand identity is a collection of elements that makes you instantly recognizable. A strong brand identity also helps customers immediately associate any part of your brand with the services you provide or products you sell.
Brands like Coca-Cola, for example, have managed to create a unique brand identity that helps them topple over any competitors in the market. With their instantly recognizable red-white logo and curly script, it’s easy to think of what makes Coca-Cola unique. Their use of Christmas imagery, for one, is one of the strongest elements that people hold onto – even when we’re not even near the holiday season.
What goes into developing a unique brand identity?
Creating a unique brand identity is about more than just picking out a logo and colors that you haven’t seen before. That’s barely even cutting it.
01. Research, research, research
In order to start developing a unique brand identity, you first need to conduct some market research that will tell you what you need to know about where to go, how to get there, and who to reach out to.
The market research necessary for developing a unique brand identity takes into consideration things like…
- Your audience: What they like, what their problems are (and how you can fix them), what they don’t like, and even how they talk.
- Your competition: Chances are there’s probably someone already out there that’s doing what you do. The question now is, what can you offer that your competitors don’t have? Keeping an eye on your competitors will also give you an insight into what works, what doesn’t, and what can be done differently.
- Your mission: What exactly do you want to achieve as a brand? What are you hoping to do for your potential customers and why should they choose you instead of any other brand out there? What are your goals in business? All of these will help define your business’ purpose.
02. Start the design process
Once you’ve figured out the technical part of your business, you can start to plan for what consumers will see: the colors, fonts, and images that represent your business. Keep in mind that your visual elements will be one of the first things people notice about your brand – they’re like an ambassador for your business – so you need to make sure you’re picking the right pieces that will help you gain their attention and stand out.
Some of the visual elements you should include during this process are:
– A unique logo that can represent your brand
– A color palette that can be mixed and matched
– A group of fonts for titles, documents, and other important designs
– Templates that can be used by your team to remain consistent throughout platforms
– A brand guide that partners and affiliates can use when creating content for you. This mentions the do’s and don’ts when it comes to repurposing items like your logo, brand colors, taglines, and more.
READ: How To Create A Brand Messaging Framework For Small Businesses
03. Choose your tone of voice
Once you’ve settled on your visuals, it’s time to bring in the tone of voice that will represent your brand in all forms of written communication.
Are you a stripped-back brand or do you love to be more technical? Are you sassy or do you prefer a more traditional tone of voice? Whatever you choose, make sure it stays consistent throughout your platforms. If your tone of voice suddenly starts changing, people are going to find you less trustworthy and will probably move on to brands that remain consistent.
When looking for your tone of voice, ask yourself: What has worked better in the past for brands like yours? Do you want to continue this trend or are you hoping to break the mold?
04. Find your ideal platforms and get the ball rolling
Once you’ve compiled all of the above, it’s finally time to get your brand out into the world and start connecting with potential clients that might dig what you have to offer. This means you need to find the right platforms – whether digital or not – to start making a name for yourself.
This step is crucial. Not all brands need to be present on all social media platforms, and not all social media platforms were designed for every brand out there. Choosing where you want to be present is, once again, a process of understanding your niche. If you’re selling to older businessmen and women, you might not benefit that much from being active on TikTok. Meanwhile, if you’re hoping to interact with Gen Z consumers, popping up on LinkedIn seems like a waste of resources.
Need an extra set of hands to take care of social media and content creation? Our team is here to help you get started with all the right tools. Let’s work together!
It’s better to work a few platforms and work them well than to try and be present everywhere just because you think that’s the right thing. At the end of the day, if you’re using up all your energy trying to be present in places where you’re not looked for, you’ll be running on an empty tank when it comes to shining where you’re needed the most.
05. Continue to monitor your brand
You’ve found your niche, you decided on your logo and colors, you’ve chosen a personality, and you created a few social media profiles. Seems like the work is done, right?
Think again.
Successful brands don’t just run on autopilot for the rest of their days. On the contrary, there’s always a team of people behind them looking for issues, improvements, and new ideas. Once you’ve released your brand into the wild, it’s important to continue to monitor it and see what can be done down the line.
The top 4 benefits of developing a unique brand identity
There are a few reasons why you should work closely alongside your team when it comes to developing a unique brand identity. From staying “Top of Mind” to establishing a stronger bond with your audience, developing a unique brand identity is important because it gives you a competitive advantage.
Here are four reasons why developing a unique brand identity should be at the top of your to-do list when first starting a business.
01. It makes you and your brand memorable
Developing a unique brand identity means you’ll be easily recognized by customers and that you’ll be remembered next time they need what you have to offer. Think of companies like Apple, Netflix, and Zara. Customers continue to flock to them because they’ve made it impossible for people to forget them. And, when people remember your brand, they keep coming back for more.
02. It helps build trust with your audience
A strong brand identity means that you’ve settled on the tone of voice and the way you communicate with your customers. As such, customers usually start to think of your brand as more than just a business and consider it a “friend”. Creating this type of bond is only possible if your brand has a clearly defined personality that people can relate to. Whether that’s by telling jokes (like Slim Jim), being supportive (like Aerie), or keeping people informed (like most news outlets), people start trusting you more and start coming to you for answers to their problems.
03. It makes new product launches easier
Having an established brand identity means it will be a lot easier to launch a new product and adapt it to your business’s portfolio. Whether you’re a service provider or someone who sells physical products, adding a new item is always a little nerve-wracking. But, thankfully, if you’ve worked on developing a unique brand identity, it’s just a matter of applying all the things you learned in the past to this new item.
Does the new product fit within your niche? Can it be adapted to fit your brand’s tone of voice? Does the style fit your brand aesthetic? These are all questions that can be easily answered!
04. It helps you stay consistent
Much like what happens when customers start to trust you, staying consistent in all of your platforms is another way to prove to people that you’re reliable. Consistency is one of the most important aspects of growing a brand. No one necessarily likes it when a brand acts one way on Monday and a completely different way on Thursday. Why? Because it makes it seem like you’re not sure what you want. And if there’s one thing people expect from a business, it’s reliability and the assurance that they won’t start acting up halfway through a business deal.
To wrap things up…
There should be no doubt that developing a unique brand identity is essential for your business. Not only does making sure you have a clearly defined brand identity help you stand out from the noise, but it also helps you connect with your audience and potential customers in a more authentic way that gives your business a personal touch.
So, what goes into developing a unique brand identity? These are the 5 key aspects:
01. A strong market research
02. Choosing the visual elements of your brand
03. Deciding on a tone of voice
04. Focusing on a few platforms to share your message
05. Monitoring your brand for updates and changes
And, why should you go through this long process of developing a unique brand identity? Well….
01. It makes you and your brand memorable
02. It helps build trust with your audience
03. It makes new product launches easier
04. It helps you stay consistent
All in all, developing a brand identity is essential for any business that wants to make its way through today’s market. More and more people are starting to see past brands that don’t represent anything and are simply in the business to make a profit. And, while that might be the ultimate goal for most businesses, don’t you think it’s important that customers can also connect to your brand authentically?
What are some of your favorite brands out there that are doing a great job of maintaining their identity? Let us know in the comments!
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