How to define a clear brand identity?

Think of any brand identity. It could be a personal or organizational brand.

Your default thought is actually the brand image for that organization. It is actually how YOU perceive the brand. By its products, services, quality, and other intangible factors. As a result, organizations have dedicated considerable resources to building and developing a brand image. Why? In order to gain favor with their customer base and earn trust. But more often than not, these actions are seen as hollow or meaningless marketing gimmicks. Also seen as a ploy to acquire new or retain existing customers. So, is there a better way for you to do things?

The answer is obvious, YES! With 2 words:

Brand Identity

Establishing a complete and clear brand identity gives a brand character. Additionally, it brings out cherished values that establish a culture. At least for those associated with the brand. It aligns with the organizational mission and vision. But also with business goals and functional objectives. So there is a true representation of the brand in all facets of its application.

Thinking of brand identity as just the logo, color scheme and visual representation of the brand is outdated. It’s also ineffective for perpetuating a positive brand image. It’s the same as designing the perfect cover for a novel. But then filling the novel with blank pages. Customers, as a result, will be forced to judge the book only by its cover. Obviously, this is an incomplete and unfair representation of the brand. Furthermore, enough is said about judging a book by its cover. 

So what is a brand identity? And how do you establish it?

According to HubSpot,

A brand identity is made up of what your brand says, what your values are, how you communicate your product, and what you want people to feel when they interact with it. Essentially, your brand identity is the personality of your business and a promise to your customers.

Questions to ask before uncovering brand identity

There are questions you can ask yourselves or the founding/ C-level team to uncover the brand identity:

• Why did you start or get into this business/industry?
  
• What beliefs and values are paramount to defining you?
  
• Why are you the better option vs. your competitors?
  
• What makes you special?
  
• If you could describe your brand in three words, what would they be? 
  
• What are three words your customers use to describe you?

The answers to these questions help define the characteristics that set the base of your organization, including but not limited to the mission and vision statements, USPs, long-term brand goals, internal company culture, and even the brand voice. And that’s just for organizations. Even with a personal brand, this could apply! So let’s take a look further at a few key tenets of the brand identity:

Vision & Mission

Your vision statement outlines the aspirations of your organization, how you envision seeing the world, your community, or your way of doing business in the future. It is the equivalent of answering the overdone interview question: “Where do you see yourself in X years?”

Your mission, on the other hand, is a declaration of HOW the organization aims to contribute or attain the vision you hope to make a reality. It could include broad objectives, defined standards, or the direction your organization chooses to take in order to fulfill its vision.

There are sometimes overlaps between the vision and mission or the possibility of having a hybrid statement to encapsulate it all. The question of which comes first is as practical as the chicken-and-egg dilemma. What matters is that your organization finds a way to attain or inch towards its vision with accountability defined into its mission, since it would only be logical for your organization to envision a future where it can be a valuable contributor.

Values & Culture

For your personal life, values are a collection of your motivations, thoughts, and behavior. These steer and design your decisions, actions, and opinions. For your organization, you develop a shared set of values. These define how your entire group would ideally behave and interact with customers or partners, even each other.

Implementing these values can be a twofold approach. Step 1. Would be articulating key values that your employees must undoubtedly reflect in all interactions. and Step 2. Would be ensuring an alignment of these values with the vision & mission of your organization. But also trickling it down to your functional objectives, short-term SMARTER goals, hiring process, and marketing campaigns.

Culture in this context is the environment within which all stakeholders interact, relate, share and behave. Once your organization operates within the shared value set. And all stakeholders exude the associated behaviors. It is time to internalize the behaviors and turn them into a workplace or organizational culture. This becomes vital to your identity. As the culture is lived by everyone from the leaders to associates.

Voice & Behavior 

You use your voice to speak. You ask questions, to initiate conversations or relay your needs. And you routinely communicate opinions or give feedback to those around you. This isn’t just limited to what you express vocally anymore. It’s also your shares, likes, reviews, retweets, comments, and posts that are an extension of your voice digitally. It has become increasingly easier for your voice to be heard, in today’s world. The same applies to your brand or organization!

Your brand can use its voice as a springboard to share its values. Also, to showcase products/services, discuss its mission & vision, and exhibit its culture. It is your brand voice that sets the tone for communication with customers and understands them better through engagement. There are ever-increasing ways in which brands’ voices can participate in today’s world.

Your brand voice can choose to address local, national, or international issues. You could support movements and charities and actually help make a difference! On the whole, your brand’s voice is what you want it to be. You choose the personality you want it to embody in all your communications.

Your behavior focuses more on how your brand acts or reacts to the world around it! Does it have a playful personality? Is it serious and authoritative? How interactive does your brand choose to get with its audience? How does it choose to entertain or educate through content? All of those contribute to the overall brand behavior!

Communication & Design

There was a time where PR and communications for your brand and its products/services were limited to print media, TV advertising, billboards, and field marketing. Nowadays, there’s a lot more power in your hands to choose where and how you display and promote your brand. A brand communication strategy is integral to exhibiting your brand identity. Proper channel selection, development of customer personas, catering to the right message, and connecting with your audience are essential to success with your brand communication strategy.

Last, but not least, the visual representation of your brand factors into your identity. Your logo, color scheme, themes, website design, packaging, posts, and marketing material are elements of brand design. The look and feel of your product itself say a lot about your brand so anything a customer can touch, see or feel should be treated with careful consideration and alignment to the brand design parameters.

Conclusion

Each tenet of the brand identity aims to answer questions that push customers to establish and nurture a connection with the brand and what it represents. Brands that do it exceptionally well are household names. Apple and Ben & Jerry’s are great examples of this. High quality of products and high customer satisfaction for services will always be the best ways to form long-lasting trust with customers, but the brand identity turns the otherwise transactional relationship into an emotional one where consumers can truly connect with the brand, turning them into promoters for its products and services.

Despite how essential it is to define the elements that make up the identity of your brand from the get-go, parts of your brand identity can undergo revisions and fine-tuning. Brand transformations are more common with legacy brands. They are adapting to current times or trying to innovate and re-calibrate their line of business. Some transformations may just be a modernization. Probably of the existing logo along. But others aim to shuffle entire divisions to align with a new direction for the organization. We see this with a new wave of purpose-driven individuals and brands.

Thus, your brand identity is consistently evolving. It is an essential component of your organizational elements. So it requires constant assessment and modifications! If you want to develop your brand, here are 5 brand development exercises you can run to get started.