What is brand identity?

People often mix up brand identity and brand values. From a design point of view it’s brand identity that matters, as it is the visible elements of a brand – the colour, design and logo – which identify and distinguish it in your customers’ minds. It is the message they subliminally receive from the look and feel of your website, business card, social media profile and all forms of written communication, such as flyers, hoardings or brochures. It’s so important to get this right and at Spoken we are the experts at helping establish your brand identity.

Any business, big or small, needs a memorable and consistent brand identity. In the long run it can safe you a fortune, becoming one of your company’s most valuable assets – because it will speak for you in ways that words cannot, distinguishing you from your competitors.

Before creating your brand identity there are a number of things to take into account:

• Do a SWOT analysis of your company and the market within which it operates, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This will help you nail your brand’s USP (unique selling point), from which the brand identity will grow.
• What are your key business goals? Your brand identity should help you fulfil them. If you are aiming for a particular market, your branding needs to tick all the right boxes for potential customers and this will influence your choice of colour and font.
• Who are your customers and how are your products or services useful to them? How do you fit into their lives? Think about their lifestyle and values so you can understand how best to communicate the benefits of what you offer.
• Work out the personality and message your brand identity should communicate. It’s impossible to convey every single positive aspect of your company – you can’t, for example, convey ‘playful’, ‘luxurious’, and ‘useful’ all at once –  so don’t try and throw everything at it. Stick to being consistent and coherent in the message you convey via your words, colours and images.

Once you have done your prep it should help to narrow down your choices of logo, colour and font – but allow for this to take some time and try a variety of different versions.

Once you have two or three options for your brand identity, test them on people you can rely on to give honest feedback. Rather than whether they like a particular option, ask them what kind of personality it would have if it were a person. Does it align with the values of your company? Don’t make any snap decisions. Stick the different options up around the room and see what your response is after a day or two.

It’s important to get your brand identity right, because people will forever more associate it with your brand and you need that to be for all the right reasons. Need some help? Let Spoken help you create the perfect brand identity.

Lisa Seymour, Spoken