How To Create A Unique Brand Identity In 2020

Do you think you are selling just a product?

Ahh… Don’t be stupid. 

BMW is more than a car. Starbucks is not just a coffee. iPhone is never just a phone. Coca Cola is way more than a soda. 

When saying just “Coke,” you can imagine that red color logo or that ribbon-like white line on the bottle or a campaign like shake the coke.

Yes, that’s what we call a brand.

Make no mistake- Your brand is way more than your logo and color palette. It’s an experience!

Brands can never be built overnight. It is the experience that we provide to our customers, and those who create a brand remain crystal clear in terms of the experience that they want their customers to go through. 

If you have a startup, then don’t forget that companies are selling the same thing with a huge marketing budget.

Hence, the only thing that can help you in surviving in this big ocean is your “Brand.”

The BIG Question – What Is the Brand Identity?

From your logo, your Instagram caption, your infographic to your product packaging everything that you do, which is visible to people, is your Brand Identity. 

In simple terms, your brand identity is the reputation of your business. 

So you can say that your brand identity is what you show and tell the world differentiating yourself from your competitors and creating an experience compelling enough to make people engage with your brand.

Key To Strong Brand Identity

Just because you make that doesn’t mean they will buy it. You have to add value to your product. 

While working on your brand identity, you have to keep some key points in your mind. 

• Make it easy for people to remember.  
• Stand out and catch the attention. 
• Make a memorable impact of your brand.
• Stay cohesive and let everything remain connected with a single thread.
• Be flexible while expanding your brand.

How to Build a Unique Brand Identity?

1. Define Your Brand Purpose

There are a few things that you have to do before going deep into building your brand identity: 

• Why does your company exist?
• What differentiates you from others?
• What problem are you trying to solve?
• Why should people choose you?

The best way to define the purpose of your brand is to take the help of the Golden Circle. 

Image Credit: Smart Insights

Once you answer your What, How, and Why, finding your soul purpose won’t be a difficult task for you. 

All you have to do is to keep going through your purpose. 

2. Research: Your Target Audience And Competitors

For any marketing activity, the most important part is performing marketing research. 

While developing your brand identity, you have to keep your eyes and ears open regarding: 

What are your competitors doing?

What your target audience is looking for?

Understand Your Target Audience

You can’t help everyone at a time, right?

The foundation for any brand is determining their target audience. 

But as in the space of marketing, where every day there is something new to learn about, do you think that only determining your audience will work?

Hell No!

In 2020, you have to move ahead of just “Determine Your Target Audience ” to “Determine Your Niche.”

Let me help you- 

Instead of all parents, don’t you think, the parents of teenagers who are looking for some extra classes for their kids will work better?

Defining the audience will definitely help you in finding your way, but defining your niche can decrease your searching time. 

Make sure that while collection your buyers’ persona, you make a list of these too- 

• Motivation to buy your product 
• Goals of buyers
• Pain points of your buyers
• Who are the influencers for your buyers?
• Your brand affinities

Perform A Competitors Research

It’s always necessary to keep an eye on your competitors. So keep looking where they are master and where they fail. 

Your brand needs to fill the failed part of your competitors. 

This way you give a reason for people to go for you and question their existing choice. You can start by creating your brand competitor spreadsheet for comparison like this-

Image Source- Aha!

Then, answer these fundamental questions.

• Are your competitors consistent with their messaging across all the channels?
• What are people saying about the quality of the competitors’ products/services?
• What are the ways do your competitors market their products?

Notice all the gaps and start filling these gaps with your brand strategies. Start the process with 2-4 competitors and see the magic that you create in the perception of your audience. 

3. Define Your Brand Mission

Why you wake up every day?

Every brand needs a mission to perform. You have to decide your passion that you want from your brand and have to be very clear about what you want your company to run for. 

If you go through the mission statement of Nike, it says- Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. 

They have made it very clear that they are for the athletes. Their mission is crystal clear that they are here in the market to inspire and innovate the athletes. 

Now here comes the turning the point:

Yes, this is how they expand their target audience without getting their brand identity affected. 

By adding *if you have a body, you are an athlete, they have made their brand flexible for everybody without losing the essence of the athletes in their brand.

4. Develop Your Brand Voice and Personality

To develop a brand identity, you have to make sure that your brand looks similar all the way around. 

The way you spread your content, either it is your video content, infographic, podcast, or your social media hashtags, everything should sound similar. 

There is no fixed strategy of choosing your brand voice, it could be Friendly or Technical or Professional or any way you desire. 

Just make sure you follow the same pitch everywhere, whether it’s your social media or your customer support desk. 

Harley Davidson is one of the best examples of maintaining a rough brand voice throughout their brand. 

All their ads or campaigns make people feel that they are worth handling Harley Davidson rather than begging or pleasing you to go for it. 

They are badass, and it works enough for them. 

Same as maintaining a brand voice to maintain your brand identity, it’s really important to take care of your brand personality also. 

No one is looking for the same veg- cutter that everybody is providing. They want some personalization to define their tailored needs. 

Image Source: Sight Marketing

Taking your brand voice into consideration, go for a particular brand personality, and let it shine everywhere.

5. Focus On Your Brand Logo And Tag Line 

When we talk about a brand, the first thing that comes into our mind is the logo of our business.

Building your brand logo and the tagline is the most interesting and creative part of your brand building process. 

Be prepared to invest your time and money with an open heart when it comes to creating a visual perception of your brand in people’s minds.

A lot of people make this mistake while getting their logo built, they forget to build a brand book for their business. 

A Brandbook is a guideline for your brand, which consists of the essence of the brand in terms of color palette and fonts that can be used as your brand colors. 

It is very important for your brand to look consistent in every platform, whether it’s your social media or your office. This is how you can make people recall your brand again and again. 

A quick suggestion- Try to hire a designer or onboard a Marketing Agency with good expertise for this work. It will definitely ease your pain. 

Focus On Your Brand Story

While working on your brand logo and tagline, you should also take care of your brand story. 

Creating a brand story can make people get connected with your brand in a much easier way. 

TOMS never fails to educate you that with every purchase, you’re also helping a needy. This is how they portray themselves.

Find your own story and let the world know it. 

6. Integrate Your Brand In Your Business

In terms of building a strong brand, sometimes we start making people confused. Integrating your brand into your business is much like using Tinder. 

Suppose you find a person on Tinder, you liked their humorous and funny way of chatting. When you finally decide to meet them in person, you find that they are completely different people.

Would you like to date such a person?

No!!! It’s creepy, right?

So, stop making your brand a suspense thriller for your audience and manage a single personality and voice everywhere. 

Starbucks does it very well. 

That green mermaid immediately takes us to the ambiance of Starbucks. Whether it’s coffee with your name or free wifi or the atmosphere with chit-chatting, Starbucks gives its own feel. 

Yes, it’s not only your logo but anything that is tangible, and people can see it, whether it’s your office, your packaging, your events, it should emit the same kind of voice and personality. 

Same goes with your digital media, try to manage a singularity in terms of your brand voice and personality. 

7. Maintain Consistency

Consistency is the key!

Once you select your brand voice, try to make collateral for it and educate your internal stakeholders so that they can shout out loud everywhere with the same voice. 

To maintain consistency in your brand, keep all the guidelines of your brand documented.

Never try to change your brand identity on a regular basis. Trust me, it won’t give you anything else than a confused audience base.

Take Away

Once you have built a brand for your small company and it’s actually working for you. Then, this is the right to become the advocate of your own brand. 

Yes, nobody knows your brand better than you!

While hiring your valuable employees, make sure that they are culture fit for your brand. 

Also, guide your employees to maintain their own personal brand that can complement your company’s brand. 

Give your loyal customers a platform to spread good words for you. 

SOURCE: https://theblogginggrind.com/how-to-build-brand-identity/#.XrY4cUZTJuY.linkedin