Every business needs to build a brand. Often, branding ends up making or breaking the company.
A brand is all about how the company interacts with the consumer, on every level. A brand identity is about taking those interactions and making them part of a larger whole: the culture, employees, goals, and personality of the brand itself. To build a better brand identity, it takes dedication and awareness.
Tip 1: Define Who You Are And What You Do
Putting together a successful business is more than just delivering a product to your consumers. It’s also about the underlying factors: what defines your company?
Every company should have a mission statement. The mission statement drives what the company does. The mission statement translates into the personality of the company which plays a big part in brand identity design.
Is your company serious-minded, dedicated, and trustworthy?
Is it family-oriented?
Is it light-hearted, quirky, and fun?
Having what defines your company clearly in mind will help to guide your creation of a stronger brand identity.
Tip 2: Know Your Audience
Once you’ve defined those vital components of who and what, it should be easier to know exactly who your audience will be, and design your branding and marketing strategies accordingly.
Of course, there will be some overlap as far as demographics are concerned. But most companies, based on personality and product, target specific demographics as their main audience.
Effectively deploying marketing strategies helps you to build your brand identity where it really matters.
Tip 3: Compile A Style Manual
For logo design, website design, marketing materials, and just about everything else, style manuals are invaluable. Define colors, fonts, graphics, and overall aesthetics that fit the tone and personality of your brand.
Your style manual gives you easy access to the overall look of your brand, helping you to make decisions on what fits or what doesn’t. It also promotes the harmony and cohesiveness of your brand identity design.
Tip 4: Create A Brand Culture
Everyone wants to feel included, and it’s no exception when it comes to famous brands. Creating a brand culture not only elevates your brand but gives your customers something in common with each other.
Brand culture is created around the values, goals, and core beliefs of the brand. Do you donate a percentage of all sales to a charity? That’s part of your culture.
Do you participate in community fundraisers? It’s part of your culture.
Are you eco-friendly, handmade, unique? All part of your culture and it helps your customers to further define themselves in terms of your brand.
Tip 5: Create A Community
Communities are another way to help your customers bond more closely with your brand and with each other.
Your website is the “home” of your business, which means it’s the perfect place to foster a community for your consumers. Through the content, customer reviews, contact information, and even FAQs, you can encourage the start of conversations between you and the customer, and between the customers and others. Calls like “Like us on Facebook!” or “Join the conversation on Twitter!” are ideal for this, as well.
And, of course, since you have invited them to find you on social media, it’s important to have a social media presence.
This year there are almost 2.7 billion social media users. Around 63% of them expect companies to use social media in order to offer customer support and conversation, and 90% of those have already contacted brands with questions and comments via their social media accounts.
In short, social media presence definitely merits your attention, to help build an effective brand identity.
Author Bio
Emily Woodward is a digital marketing executive who follows her passion for writing via freelance work.
