Brand Identity : How to Create a Unique Brand

Starting a business is both exciting and daunting. But what about creating an entire brand identity? Branding tells the world who you are, what you’re about, and what people can expect from interacting with your business. It’s a big deal!

The good news is, that creating a brand identity is fun and easy. You get to turn your business into an entity that will live in the minds of your customers for time to come.?A Brand identity will help you gain customer loyalty and referrals, build trust, and increase the perceived value and price of your?product or service.

We know building a strong brand identity with no design experience seems intimidating, but this guide and worksheet will cover the tools and knowledge you need to build a memorable brand identity you’ll love.

What is a brand identity?

A brand identity is the physical and digital result of branding. It is the collection of brand elements that a company creates to portray the right image of itself to its target audience. These elements comprise the visual branding your audience can see and recognize as yours.

What is a brand?: A brand is a business concept that helps people identify a product, person, or business. It’s the overall perception of your business. Since perceptions only live in the mind, a brand only truly exists in customers’ minds.

What is branding?: To build a brand, you’ll need to practice the art of branding. Branding is the actions you take to create a distinctive, memorable brand. It’s the (hard) work you put into developing your desired image.

Brand assets are the elements that make up your visual brand identity. These are the unique identifying pieces that distinguish your brand from others. Having brand assets gives you a competitive edge by encouraging customer recognition.

Your brand assets are automatically associated with your brand in the minds of consumers, which helps build brand loyalty.?Here are some examples of brand assets:

• Brand name
• Logo
• Tagline/slogan
• Typography
• Color palette
• Mascot
• Jingles

What are brand guidelines?: Brand guidelines (also called a style guide) are a set of rules about how to represent your brand across channels and assets. They include color and typography usage rules, logo use cases, imagery examples, and more.

Why a strong brand identity is important

Here are a few reasons why branding and brand identity are so important:

• Branding builds customer loyalty and referrals. People choose and recommend companies they like and are familiar with.
• Branding helps you stand out from the competition. Stand out from competitors with a strong brand and live up to what it promises.
• Branding builds recognition. A consistent brand helps customers know what quality to expect every time they interact with your business.
• Branding helps you create clarity and stay focused. A clear brand strategy and purpose help you stay focused on your mission and make better decisions.
• Branding helps you connect with your customers emotionally. A good brand makes people feel good when they buy your products or services. Tell a story or stand up for something!
• Branding helps you stay consistent. Brand guidelines save you time and keep you visually consistent.

How to create a brand identity in 5 steps

Knowing the difference between brands, branding, and brand identities, how can you apply this knowledge to your business and brand strategy?

Here’s how to do it in five simple steps, record your research and notes on our follow-along brand identity worksheet!

1. Find your niche and study competitors

A major part of creating a strong brand identity is figuring out where your place is in the market, and knowing if there’s a demand for what you offer. Once you have an idea of this, take a look at your competitors and figure out what they’re doing, and how you can do it better.

• What is their messaging like?
• Which brand colors do they use?
• What is their typography?
• What are their shapes and imagery?

Take the sum of all the marketing touchpoints and business initiatives of your competitors and define how you can do better while staying true to who you are.

2. Define your target audience

It’s not possible to satisfy everyone. So tailor your mission and messaging to your target audience by answering the following:

• What are their demographics?
• How do they get their information?
• What are their hobbies?
• Do they face any challenges?
• What is important to them?

Create a few marketing personas that are hypothetical hybrids of your ideal customer. We’ve set up a chart for you to add your research to in our brand identity worksheet.

Having a visual of who your ideal customers are will give you clarity as you carry on with the next steps of your brand identity.

3. Define your purpose and why

What is your company most passionate about? What’s your reason for existing? Do you stand for a cause?

Your purpose is the driving force behind any and all things that you do. Every single aspect of your branding needs to reflect this to ensure a strong brand identity. Defining the following will give you more direction:

• Vision – the what. This is the sole reason for your brand’s existence
• Mission – the how. The action that your brand is taking to bring your vision to life
• Brand values – the why. The driving force behind your vision and mission

Feeling overwhelmed? Here’s an example:

Let’s take a look at Slack, an online communication platform for businesses. Their vision is to “make work-life simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.”

Their mission — how they’re doing this — is by working with global partners and developers to “Build apps and integrations that streamline work, automate mundane tasks and bring context into conversations.” By reading their vision, you understand the platform’s simplicity and productiveness in a pleasant workplace.

4. Choose a business name

What catchy and creative business name will best describe who you are and what you do? As your main identifier, it’s critical to find a name that personifies your brand.

How do you come up with this key element? Here are a few ideas to get the wheels turning:

• Address the business’ purpose – Example: DoorDash
• Make up a word – Example H?agen-Daz
• Alter an existing word by adding or removing letters – Example: Flickr
• Look to Latin – Example: Volvo (Latin for “I roll”)
• Make a portmanteau – Example: Facebook (a combination of two words, Face + Book)
• Use an acronym – Example: BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke)
• Use real people’s names – Example: Clif Bar
• Choose a place – Example: Amazon (the largest river in the world

Once you’ve decided on a business name, revisit your brand’s vision, mission, and values – does your name reflect any or all three? If so, you’re one step closer to creating a strong brand.

5. Come up with a slogan/tagline

When creating your slogan, keep your company’s mission and purpose in mind. You’ll want to sum up your business purpose in a single sentence that you use in your marketing and social assets. Your slogan should be short and catchy to make a strong impression and remain memorable!

To get started you can take several approaches:

• Make your claim — Example: Carlsberg – “Probably the Best Beer in the World”
• Use a metaphor — Example: Skittles – “Taste the Rainbow”
• Tell ‘em what to do — Example: Apple – “Think Different.”
• Leverage labels — Example: Cards Against Humanity – “A party game for horrible people.”
• Get poetic — Example: Folgers Coffee – “The best part of wakin’ up is Folgers in your cup.”
• Compliment your customers: Example: L’Oreal – “Because you’re worth it”
• Be descriptive: Example: M&M’s – “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”
• Play on emotions: Example: Mastercard – “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.”

TIP: Your slogan should be a direct reflection of your brand voice. If your brand were a person, what would it sound like? Is it going to be empowering? Fun? Silly?

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