What does brand identity really mean?

BY ERNA CLAYTON

Guest Author

Brand plays a vital role everywhere, from the food industry to mobile development applications. Why is brand identity is so important? Let me answer this in brief, brand identity represents the company or organisations perceptions to attract the customers. A brand identity consists of major elements like visuals, product or service name, customer and prospect interactions, and language. Today we are going to discuss elements of brand identity and factors that every business should follow while building their own identity. For example you can take android tablets for design and drawing; we know that android is a brand that offers various products and devices. To know more about brand identity, read the article completely.

What do you mean by brand identity?

Brand identity is the visible elements of a brand, such as colour, design and a logo that identifies and distinguishes the brand in consumers' minds. 

Some of the important factors that matter in brand identity:
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• Choosing the correct name to brand your products or service
• Logo design
• Complementary colours and layout
• Using craft language 

How to build an effective brand identity?

As I said earlier, a brand identity is a collection of elements that create their own brand image. Brand elements are mandatory to build a company’s mission, long term goals, brand value and competitive positions in the market. 

Below are the foundations of any brand identity:

1. Brand name to attract customers
2. Caption or a tagline (if the brand name doesn't say what the business does)
3. Colours and graphic design 
4. A logo
5. Tone of voice
6. Style of typeface 

Start with a brand name: This is the foremost and more important brand element; A brand name forms memories and associations stored in the audiences mind. Here the language is used for better communication and understanding the brand intrinsic. The specific words and brand name allows us to connect with meanings, emotions, events, and association to objects. The common features of any good brand name are:
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1. Easily pronounced and memorable
2. Relates to the target audience
3. Relates to customer expectations and strong positive association with audience.

Don’t assume that it’s an easy task and you should ideally consult experts but please keep in mind that no two companies are alike, and so it’s important to set your expectations and priorities in a specific brief.

Make sure your brand is unique, congruent, and honest: Brand identity is a type of tool that helps to convey a message about a company and its products or service. Many businesses fail to convey the right message, product values, and services to the end user. Always remember that good communication can be achieved by using distinct and recognisable images while creating your brand identity.

These two factors are mandatory and brand identities have the ability to provide a company presentation, and customer prospective. Your brand tells your customers about how different your products are and why customers should try your products or services. You should follow a few rules while creating a brand identity, they are;

• Clearer brand image with a good tagline
• Easier language usage to understand their messages leads to great success
• Should not go for overpromising the services that you offer
• Over confidence may also disconnect the brand identity and sometimes customer may ignore your products
• In worst case scenario, brand identity also undermines the audience trust and damages the company reputations