How to create a Unique Brand Identity
When you hear the name Coca-Cola, what comes to your mind? I can bet you are picturing its iconic logo, red colour and its bottle shape. What are these? These are the elements that Coca Cola have created and built over years to create a unique and distinct identity for itself. Most of the successful brands today are able to create a unique brand identity even though they run multiple ad copies for different sub-brands. Just communicating the commonalities of the brand is not enough and there are other things also that we need to keep in mind when developing a new commercial for the brand:
1. Owning a Colour- Color is one of the most important decisions to make in differentiating your brand while, at the same time, making the right first impression and reinforce a brand’s identity. It not only helps call attention to your text, also evoke emotions. Selecting a right colour for the brand and being consistent with it helps in instant association and recall for the brand irrespective of what the communication is. For eg. Dove owns white, Garnier owns Green and so on.
2. Distinct Fonts – The font you choose tells a lot about your brand than you imagine. Depending on the font that consumers see, they start to form a perception about the brand because of the visual appeal that it creates. The fact that many brands such as Google and Coca Cola just use typography alone in their logos highlights the impact fonts can have. So its important to pick the right font and be consistent with it so that over a period of time, people start associating that font with your brand.
3. Memory Structures – If you are able to create a distinct memory structure, that goes a long way in creating a strong brand identity. Fr eg. Slurping of Noodles by Maggi, Santoor mom and daughter hug, Kit Kat break and many more.
4. Brand assets- Some brand assets can become powerful tools in communications. Brand assets can be a logo (Nike, Pepsi), Shape (Coke Bottle), Mascots (Amul Girl) or anything that is unique to the brand
5. Signature Audio tune – I am sure you remember the iconic tune of Britannia and Airtel. A signature audio tune serves as a unifier that connects all commercials to the brand
6. Executional Consistency – Sometimes we are able to guess the brand in a commercial without even seeing the brand name. This is because we associate a particular advertising style with a particular brand. For eg. – Girl in a waterfall in Liril ads, Couples dancing in Engage deodorants ads etc.
Creating a brand is easy but creating a memorable brand is not. It requires consistent use of colours, fonts, sound, language, tonality and advertising style but its worth the effort. When consumers instantly recognize who you are and what you stand for all based on a logo, you've become more than just a name and a symbol.