How Brand Identity Will Make a Difference in 2021
The business landscape has become more diverse than ever as no matter what the industry, there are thousands, if not millions, of brands to compete with. Establishing a strong brand presence is bound to be challenging. The global crisis makes it even tougher to stand out because markets are unpredictable and budgets are shrinking.
Having an amazing logo or brand name wouldn’t be enough to give your business a strong and unique identity. In fact, you will have to take a different approach altogether for the coming times. Whether you do it by embracing cloud telephony solutions to elevate customer support or by adopting other innovations to take customer experiences to the next level, thinking outside the box is the only way forward.
Before you start looking for novel strategies to realign your brand identity in 2021, there is a need to understand what a brand actually is. At the same time, you must also know what it takes to create one.
What is Brand Identity?
Identity is a core component of a brand. It expresses how you want your existing and prospective customers to perceive. Essentially, such an identity includes your messaging and values that define the real personality of your business and the promise you deliver to your customers. It is the first impression that you make on the buyers, which stays with them throughout the lifespan of your business.
Typically, brand identity appears in the elements of your business, from logos to tone of voice, colour palette, style guide, typography, and iconography. It has to be consistent, across all products, service offerings, and marketing channels that your business leverages to interact with the customers and make money.
The Value of Brand Identity
Although brand identity has always been associated with advertising, there is much more to it. The modern customer is smarter than ever and it isn’t easy to impress them only with a great-looking logo. You need a powerful story as well.
Here are the facts that make your brand identity all the more valuable in the coming time.
- Typically, the logo is the face of a brand. For example, logos like those of Coca Cola and McDonald’s are immediately recognisable, no matter where they are seen.
- By investing in a unique identity, you give your brand a purpose and personality of its own, something that it stands for. Customers are happy to associate with businesses that have a mission statement in place.
- A brand that establishes a face and personality, and maintains it consistently, develops trust and credibility among its customers and stands out in the competitive landscape.
- A strong brand identity helps businesses attract new customers and retain the existing ones. In fact, happy customers that trust your products and business are likely to serve as advocates and get you more business by word-of-mouth recommendations.
- A well-defined brand identity serves as a template for all promotional initiatives of the company—whether in print commercials, online ads, or even YouTube videos.
Building your Brand Identity in 2021
When it comes to building your brand identity today, you would require an innovative mix of the traditional and the modern. While you cannot miss out on the basics, blending them with technologies like cloud telephony would make your plan future-ready.
- Discover your Purpose
Every brand has a mission or purpose, something that you need to understand right from the start. Whether you are a startup or an established company, getting a clear direction about your purpose would make a great start for your branding journey. If you are struggling to find it, consider questions like why does your brand exist? What problem does it solve? Why is it different from others? Why should buyers prioritise it?
The answers would give you some good ideas for creating the best taglines, slogans, story, messaging, and other content elements for your brand. Remember to keep your ‘core purpose’ or ‘key messaging’ intact for the sake of consistency, credibility, and identity. So, it is vital to dig deeper and identify your purpose if you haven't already.
2. Research your Audience and Competition
Branding in the modern world is based on facts rather than assumptions; so researching your market gives you a head start. There are different people with diverse expectations and you cannot expect to sell your products to all of them with a cookie-cutter approach. Learning and knowing what they want from a business is the only way to create a brand they will like.
Pay close attention to your USP or the unique offering that you can provide your customers that others cannot. A thorough analysis of your competitors is equally important. It will not only let you know the competitive scenario better but also provide an idea about strategies that work and ones that don’t so that you can align your plan accordingly.
3. Build a Buyer Persona
Customers are the mainstay of a brand’s existence. Unless there are buyers interested in your offerings, you cannot expect to survive and thrive. Hence, it is essential to know your customers in and out, and that is best done by building a buyer persona.
Typically, it happens to include elements that define buyer personalities, such as their gender, age, location, income, and education levels. You can go a step further by retrieving details like their motivations, goals, pain points and influencers. The more you can develop a real personality, the better. Try to step into their shoes and solve their problems.
Knowing your target audience is crucial for a successful brand building process. Rather than wasting efforts on random people, you would want only the qualified buyers to read your content, click on your ads, and opt into your subscribers’ list. A clear idea of your target audience goes a long way in fine-tuning your digital banding strategies and ensuring that you invest efforts only where they matter.
4. Create a Logo that gives your Brand a Face
When it comes to brand building, nothing matters more than giving it a face that the audience would recognise. Further, creating a tagline that defines your personality and mission is equally important.
It makes sense to invest time and money for creating an exceptional logo as it the presentation of your business and defines its mission statement, products and personality.
5. Go the Extra Mile with Customer Service
Needless to say, excellence in customer service and support can be a key differentiator when it comes to consolidating the identity of your brand. After all, the hard work invested in research and the creation of a buyer persona would go waste unless you match their expectations. Thankfully, solutions like toll-free numbers (so that customers can call you for free) and IVR (automated calling menus for customer self-service) can be of great help when it comes to ramping up the level of customer service and support.
A move from the traditional call centres to cloud contact centres is recommended for all businesses to stay ahead on the customer support front in the pandemic era. It lets your agents be available to the callers at all times, regardless of their location and timelines. The trend will continue to be one of the vital components of the branding strategy of businesses in 2021 and beyond.
Consolidating your Brand Identity
While the aforementioned ideas have you covered when it comes to building your brand identity, you cannot just rest on your laurels. It is important to keep a consistent track of your identity and enhance it on every available opportunity. At the same time, there are certain things you should steer clear of. Keep your messaging clear and know what you want to communicate to the audience. Avoid conveying mixed messages and use only the appropriate tone and language that the audience would like.
Copying your competitors is another thing to avoid, no matter how exemplary their approach is. Brand identity is all about being unique, so doing something that others are doing wouldn’t get you any benefits. Make sure that the online or offline branding initiatives are consistent at all times. Creating a memorable brand identity doesn’t need to be hard, provided you take the right approach and follow a strategic plan.