A Strong Brand Identity Is More Than a Logo
Your brand identity is so much more than your logo.
It’s how your business shows up everywhere and how others perceive and judge your business.
A strong and positive brand identity program attracts new customers, makes it easier to identify and differentiate businesses, inspires customer loyalty, and boosts employee morale.
Whether people visit your place of business in person, speak with you or your employees on the phone, search your website, or engage with your business at an event, your brand identity reminds them of your business.
What is a brand identity?
Just like a cattle brand identifies the owner of an animal, a business brand identity identifies something as belonging to a specific business. The brand identity can be incorporated on a storefront sign, a company vehicle, employee uniforms, promotional giveaways, print materials, websites, banners, and more — wherever people interact with a business there’s an opportunity to incorporate brand identity.
In addition to a logo, visual elements used to make up a distinct brand identity include a tagline, a color palette, type fonts, photos, and customized icons.
Why should your business have a brand identity?
Brand identities provide an opportunity to engage consumers and communicate marketing messages about the business. Even if people are not aware that they’re forming a first impression about a business, the brand identity is influencing their perception.
Professionally designed, appealing, and coherent brand identity materials result in positive, emotional reactions that carry over to customers’ perceptions of the business itself. The care and attention to detail that goes into creating and maintaining a business identity signal the business owner’s pride in the business.
People interpret brand identities as a sign of stability, and on the flip side, the lack of a brand identity suggests a business is not well established in the consumers’ minds.
A highly attractive brand identity creates good feelings in consumers and consequently they want to be associated with your brand. If they love your brand identity, they’ll become your brand ambassadors by wearing baseball caps, carrying tote bags, and putting stickers on their cars with your logo.
Brand identities only work when used consistently and applied wherever consumers interact with a business. When consumers encounter variations of a business’s brand identity or when they don’t see any brand identity associated with a business, there’s a risk they won’t recognize the business. Further, highly visible inconsistencies in branding signal carelessness and a lack of attention to detail on the part of the business.
Once you have a brand identity for your business, look for every opportunity to leverage it in your products, marketing, and communications. Also, don’t save your identity just for customers and external interactions — incorporate it in internal-facing materials for your employees to foster a sense of identity with your business.