“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” - Seth Godin
We couldn’t agree more with this quote. Branding is subtle yet cunning. Branding quietly shouts your story. Branding is critical! So, how can you achieve brilliant branding? Let’s take a look at some of our top tips.
How to Create a Strong Brand Identity
Define your brand's mission, values, and personality
Before you start designing a logo or choosing colours, take the time to define your brand's mission, values, and personality. What is your company's purpose? What do you stand for? What are your company's core values, and how do they align with your customer's values? What kind of personality do you want your brand to have? You can create a clear and compelling brand identity that resonates with your audience by answering these questions.
Don’t be afraid to stand out. That’s what’ll set you apart. Don’t overlook the choice of colours for example. Do your due diligence and make sure your colours align with the tone you want to set.
Conduct market research
This involves conducting thorough research with time and dedication.
To create a brand identity that resonates with your audience, you must understand their needs, desires, and pain points. Conduct market research to learn more about your target audience, including their demographics, buying habits, and preferences. This information can help you create a brand identity that speaks directly to your customers' needs.
Before making a pizza, you’d without a doubt consider the preferences of your guests, to please them. Treat your customers and target audience the same! What do they like? What do they hate? Are they pineapple on pizza fans? Getting these answers involves research.
Choose your brand's visual elements
Once you have defined your brand's mission, values, and personality, it's time to choose your visual elements, such as your logo, colour palette, typography, and imagery. These elements should reflect your brand's personality and be consistent across all your marketing materials. Let’s look at some recent examples of excellent visual elements and branding:
What do these brands evoke? What can you learn from them? Can you take inspiration from them?
Create a brand style guide
To ensure consistency across all your marketing materials, create a brand style guide that outlines your brand's visual and verbal identity. This guide should include your logo, colour palette, typography, imagery, tone of voice, and messaging guidelines. Creating a brand style guide ensures that everyone in your company is on the same page regarding your brand identity.
A brand style guide will facilitate you and your team when you want to make new content and marketing material. Having everything you’ll need in one place is the way to go! Stay on brand throughout all your mediums! Including printed copy. That involves...
CONSISTENCY!
Consistency is key when it comes to branding. Use your brand's visual and verbal identity across all your marketing materials, including your website, social media, email marketing, and advertising. By being consistent, you can reinforce your brand identity and build trust with your audience.
It’s as simple as that!
What next?
Are you ready to take your business to the next level and stand out from the competition? Creative Pod can help with this! Our team has extensive experience in understanding our clients' customer bases and building strong brands front scratch, or working on full rebrands. We’ve renovated and embarked on some epic rebrands over the years.
Contact us at 01293 908 100 to see how we can help you cut through the noise and achieve your business goals.
