When you think about famous brands like Apple, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Google, etc. you probably can recall their logos. In addition to that, you have made some associations with these brands. Whether it’s good or bad, whether, through your own experiences, or advertisement, there is a certain way you feel about these brands right when you see their logos or you hear these brand names.
What is a Brand?
People might use the word “brand” interchangeably to talk about logos, but a logo or a brand identity is not your brand – It’s much more than that.
“Brand is a set of intangible assets of a company, service or product.” It is a definition of an emotional relationship between customers and the business.
Every day we come across new products and new businesses, it may be a new product at the supermarket or a new tech company you must have come across; Competition creates infinite choices and companies look for ways to connect emotionally with customers, become irreplaceable and create lifelong relationships. But also, that being said, a brand is not what you say it is- it’s what your audience and customers say.
Hence, a brand is a way your customers perceive you which is why how a brand is perceived; affects its success.
There are many strategies and tools to help you shape the perception of your brand. This process is termed ‘Branding.’
What is Branding?
Branding is the process of building a plan on how you’re going to go about shaping that perception in the minds of your target audience. It is a disciplined process involved in creating a memorable name and an image for a product, company, or service in the consumer’s mind. The process of branding is done mainly through advertising campaigns.
Brand Identity is like an iceberg, what the audience can see is the surface with the logo, name, tagline, colors, and all the visuals. And everything that they cannot see but can feel about your brand is below the surface, which is the branding and its components like brand purpose, vision, values, target audience, positioning, and so on. So, when you’re branding your business, you’re trying to use all these elements to influence people’s behavior. Hence, branding is about seizing every opportunity to express why people should choose your brand over another brand. Branding involves both; managing tangible and intangible attributes of a product or service. And it’s up to the business owner and the marketing team as to how you communicate those attributes. Image and consistency i.e., brand identity play a huge role in branding.
So, what is Brand Identity?
Brand Identity is tangible and it appeals to the senses. It’s basically what you can see and hear – It’s the logo, name, colors, typography, the imagery you use the way your brand sounds, the packaging of a product, your website layout, your social media, and every single touchpoint. {Every point at which a customer comes in tangible contact with your brand.}
Brand Identity fuels recognition and amplifies differentiation. So, everything that is visual about a brand, we call it a brand identity. The key to building a successful brand identity system is consistency and consistency is achieved by having guidelines on how you should use your visual assets when designing new touchpoints.
That’s why it is important to start with the intangibles, your purpose, vision, mission, values, positioning, and so on.
