In today’s world, companies need to differentiate themselves from the competition. Having a well-defined brand identity can help you stand out from your competitors, build a positive reputation, increase sales, and grow your business.
What is a brand?
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.
Think of your brand as your promise to your consumer. It’s how you communicate your promise, and it’s what you say about yourself.
What is branding?
Branding is the process of creating a brand. It’s the art of creating a story that resonates with consumers and triggers an emotional response. Brand identity is the result of this branding process (or brand strategy), which includes:
- Establishing your target market, who they are, and how they want to feel when they interact with your product or service
- Developing an engaging narrative for your company that explains who you are and why people should care about what you do
What is brand identity?
The difference between branding and identity can be summarized by their definitions – Brand is what you say about yourself; Identity is what others say about you.
Brand identity is the overall brand that identifies and differentiates the brand in consumers’ minds. It includes logos, names, messaging, and visual branding such as color palettes and designs used on promotional materials (like your website). Brand identity is what consumers see, hear, feel and experience when they come into contact with a company or product.
Brand identity is also what they say about you, either implicitly or explicitly. When we think of branding as being synonymous with logos and marketing campaigns, we miss the big picture – building a successful brand requires more than just good logos and catchy taglines; it requires a solid understanding of our audience and how their needs can be met.
Most importantly, a good brand identity helps define your company’s brand personality in order to establish trust between your company and its customers.
Where do you begin?
If you’re still unsure about how branding and identity work together, think about what you’re trying to accomplish with your brand.
Are you trying to get people to buy from you or create loyal customers? If so, then your branding efforts should focus on communicating what makes your company special in order to generate demand for your products or services.
On the other hand, if it’s about generating awareness for your company’s brand as an established player in its industry, then those efforts should revolve around developing an identifiable persona through visual cues like logos or colors that stand out above others in consumers’ minds when they’re making purchasing decisions.
Get started building a brand identity by downloading our free Brand Kit.
It includes:
- A step-by-step process for building a strong brand identity
- Easy tips and tricks to start planning and shaping your website marketing
- Social media suggestions to supplement your brand guidelines
