It’s often spoken about, and much referred to in marketing meetings by company executives and brand design agency creatives around the world. But what exactly is brand identity? If you have a company or a product that needs some serious attention and sales figures to go with it, read on.
Here’s our quick take on what brand identity is and how that relates to your products.
A Quick Definition
A brand identity is all the different elements a company needs to create to portray what it is, what it believes in and what its image is to the world. In other words, it’s how a company is perceived by the world.
Brand identity is not the same as branding, which refers to how a company or product is marketed to the world. Imagine you’re the brand. How you look, what you wear, what you listen to and watch, and what you believe in are all part of the brand identity you project onto the world. It’s what makes you different from other people.
Back to your company or product. By having a strong brand identity, you’ll be instantly recognisable to your audience. Consequently, you and your audience have formed a hopefully long-lasting and loyal bond.
Before We Go Any Further
Before running ahead, however, to get to your brand identity, you really have to know your company and its products. This isn’t all deep and meaningful, we simply mean that you have to be able to answer the following questions:
- What’s your mission?
- What are your values, what does your company believe in?
- What personality does your brand/company have?
- What makes you different from your competitors? If you don’t know, how can your customers?
- What’s your company/brand’s voice, and how would you communicate to your audience?
- How do you want your target audience to see you?
Working with the right brand design agency will be much easier if you can answer these questions. This doesn’t have to be a painful process or like handing in your homework. If you collaborate with the right agency, they’ll work with you to get this just right.
ZAK has created bold, beautiful and memorable brand identities. Check out our work with Topdeck Travel, where we helped create a brand proposition for Topdeck. Here we helped them to establish a fully-fledged brand identity as opposed to something superficial and artificial.
Devil’s in the Detail
If you’re launching a fresh product or you have something that needs a fresh take, creating a new brand or rebranding is essential. It’s part of your company’s mission, long-term goals, values and relevance to your target audience. Your brand has to look, feel and sound just right.
The recipe for creating the right kind of brand identity has many ingredients. Above all, here’s what your brand needs:
- A name
- A slogan/tagline
- A logo and possibly several versions of that logo that says who you are
- A font
- A colour palette
- Creative copy and style guide that determines your tone of voice
- A website and social sites
If you go ahead and work with a brand design agency, the above list of ingredients are what will make up your brand or rebrand. But before that happens, your design agency has to demonstrate that they understand both your brand and your desired audience.
Take a look at our work with New Balance Lifestyle. Here we created their first-ever global brand guidelines. Or, our work with Vodafone, where after a total brand transformation, we helped Vodafone launch Busy 4G in Ghana.
Designing A Brand Identity
Once you have foundations in place, it’s time to sit down, collaborate and breathe some life into your brand and create the ingredients that make up your brand. This is where your chosen brand design agency steps in to work with you to create all the elements that you can then use to promote and market your products.
We can’t stress enough the importance of working with a brand design agency that understands your brand identity and perhaps has already helped you work that out to start with! Even if that isn’t the case, if your chosen agencycan demonstrate they understand:
- Your audience
- Is creative in its approach
- Listens to you
- Creates relevant campaigns that truly resonate with your customers
…Then you’re onto a winner.
ZAK has created bold, brave and relevant campaigns that are consistent and true to a brand’s identity. Just one example is our visually striking and copy-driven work with historic brand Fortnum & Mason.
Wrapping Up
Your brand identity has to make you relevant, create space between you and your competitors and set you apart from a very crowded marketplace. It’s got to be positive, memorable and authentic. Let ZAK help you achieve that. Want to know how? Get in touch and say hello.
