What are the best ways to develop a brand identity that reflects your company's history and heritage?

In my experience, there are two things that can help enhance a brand and build on its heritage and culture. First, have a clearly articulated employer value proposition that anchors closely to the master brand strategy. This approach intentionally demonstrates to internal and external audiences that the culture and mission of the company are the underpinnings of the brand, the company's employees become brand ambassadors and your brand identity and heritage come through in the most authentic ways. Secondly, especially for older more established brands, hire a brand librarian or archivist that is part of the brand organization, her role brings the brand to life through rich stories and artifacts that keep the company grounded in its roots.

Dive into your company's archives to uncover key historical elements. Incorporate these into visual elements, storytelling, and messaging. Use design elements that resonate with the era of your founding. Celebrate milestones and historical achievements in your communications, reinforcing a sense of legacy and continuity. Create a brand narrative that weaves historical milestones with the company's values. Incorporate vintage aesthetics into visual elements while maintaining a modern touch. Leverage authentic stories from the past in marketing materials to connect emotionally with your audience. Regularly revisit and update the narrative to stay relevant while honoring your heritage.

Embrace your history and incorporate elements from the past to create a warm and familiar connection with your audience. Acknowledge and celebrate your founders and key individuals who have shaped your company's history. Share their stories, values, and contributions through your brand messaging and visuals. Preserve and repurpose old assets like photographs, advertisements, or packaging from your company's history to add an authentic touch. People want to see where it all started and where you are now. By infusing personal and personable ideas into your brand identity, you can create a meaningful and impactful connection with your audience.

The first and most important thing before starting your work on any brand identity is to understand the story behind the brand. You need to check evry detail and value that the brand is based on, what is its message? Why was it created? and so on...... As this will help you decide which direction your thinking should be going to best describe the brand.

When we wanted to infuse a DTC brand with their company's rich history, we started by diving into the company's roots. That's where you should always start. We defined the core values, revamped the visual elements to honor the past, and told the company's story through marketing. This authenticity helps resonate with customers and reinforces the connection with the company's heritage while staying relevant in the modern market.

Crafting a brand identity is like painting a masterpiece with the strokes of your story. It's not just about visuals; it's about breathing life into the essence of your brand. Your brand identity becomes the canvas where your history and heritage intertwine with strategy. Think of it as a visual poem, a verbal symphony, and an emotional dance that resonates with your core values and benefits. Tools like vision statements, value propositions, personality traits, and archetypes are your artistic instruments, shaping a brand identity that doesn't just speak but sings the epic tale of your journey.

After you decide the dirction you will be thinking in or -lets call it the style for now- you will be able to then select the appropriate components of the identity like the visuals the tone of voice that will be most suitable to deliver the message of your brand and best represent it.

Audio branding is a key brand element that’s generally overlooked. When music is tailored to accurately represent a Brand’s personality it can build emotional connections with the audience. Consistently applying these audio assets to all audible touch-points strengths brand identity.

The next step you will need to do is designing the elements you selected for your brand, and starting to work on the tiny details and tweaks to personalize those details and link them to the brand and its customers.

Applying a brand identity is like navigating a ship through ever-changing seas: it requires a flexible yet consistent approach. Imagine your brand as a vessel where core elements act as the compass, guiding you through various marketing channels. To test this, create three brand items: a common application like your website, and two at opposite spectrums, such as a dynamic video and an employee uniform. This not only challenges your brand to maintain its essence in different forms but also ensures adaptability across all platforms. If you can make those hold together while meeting the specific needs of the individual applications, you’ve probably got a winning brand system!

One of the most defficult yet underrated steps in the branding process is actually applying the branding to the brand. Most people think it is an easy step of sticking the logo on everything, yet when they do so they find it veary repelling and doesn't look right. It's most probably forgot about balance and how to use it in the branding process. Imagine as if your driving a motorcycle it's not just using the throttle right? you have to know what are you doing, when are you doing and why are you doing it, in order to really master the balance and the whole branding process.

Before you deliver the identity you designed and make it public with the brand's customers you need to evaluate it first. You can do that by showing it to some people randomly selected and ask them what they think about this brand. Then you compare their answers to the main values and the story behind your client.