Think of some of your favorite brands. What's the first word that comes to mind when you think of each? If you thought of Mercedes Benz, you might think of class. If you think of BMW, you might think about performance. When Tesla comes to mind you might think innovative and environmentally friendly. Each of these brands have diligently developed their image so that they produce a certain feeling and have a direct impact on your perception.

In this article, we will discuss some principles involved in effectively developing your brand. 

Your Brand is More Than Your Logo

While a logo is very significant and can make an impactful first impression, branding is much more than that. Branding involves how you want your company to be perceived when people see it or think of it. It comes down to the colors you use, the type of communication that your company produces, and the events that you choose to associate with. Overall, the work of branding is necessary in crafting a unique identity for your business. 

What Are the Components of Brand Identity?

Your brand identity takes into consideration your company's logo, typography, colors, packaging, and messaging. These are all to be optimized in a way that it complements and strengthens the existing reputation of your brand. Your brand identity will do the work of attracting customers to you while making current customers feel a sense of belonging. 

Brand identity also helps the internal processes and decisions of a business. There are some business decisions that may be profitable but will be contrary to your brand identity. This will have an overall negative impact on your company in the long run. Make decisions and plan marketing strategies that are in line with your brand identity. This is the time for our personality and values to shine through.

What Constitutes a Strong Brand?

Bear in mind that your brand is how your company is perceived by the world. This means they must be able to help your brand stand out in the midst of other noise. You should utilize strategies such as powerful imagery or simple taglines to ensure that your brand is memorable. A strong brand is also scalable, flexible, cohesive, and easy to understand.

How to Create a Strong Brand Identity

The task of developing a strong brand identity goes to the root of why you started your business. Some questions you should ask yourself are:

• Why did I start this business?

• What are the beliefs and values that are important to my business?

• What do I do better than competitors?

• What makes my business special? 

• What are the three words that best describe my business?

• What are the three words I would want my customers to use to describe my business?

The answers to these questions will furnish you with what you need to define your brand. This includes the purpose, vision, mission, and values of your brand. 

You will also be in a position to establish your brand messaging. This refers to the value proposition that you desire to convey along with the language you intend to use in your content. 

What is Your Current Brand Identity?

If you have been already operating for some time, you will have naturally developed a brand identity. The questions are, are you comfortable with your current brand identity, and is it effective? You can discover how your business is currently perceived by analyzing how your customers relate to your brand. 

A more direct approach is to conduct research and have clients answer questions pertaining to your brand. The findings from your research can help you in crafting a more effective brand identity.

Be Sure to Have a Clearly Defined Client Persona

Your client persona or customer avatar is critical in developing an appropriate brand strategy. A client persona describes exactly who your ideal customer is. This person will represent your target market. It also features information about what these customers like, dislike and what they are attracted to. Building your brand identity around what appeals to your ideal clients is a wise move to ensure the success of your business. 

Observe the Branding Strategies of Your Competition

Study the brand identity and messaging of existing players in your niche. This will give you some insight into what is effective in your desired market. It is always said that it is always wise to learn from the mistake of others. Studying the branding strategies and overall marketing of your customers is a powerful strategy.

Pull it All Together - In Writing

After you have answered the above questions necessary to developing your brand identity, you need to pull it all together. If you have a large whiteboard, this could be helpful for jotting down all the ideas that came out of your brainstorming and investigation sessions. After you have gotten all your thoughts down, spend some time to bring it all together. Write this down in clear statements that define all the previously stated components of a brand identity.

Don't Forget Your Graphics and Visuals

All this thinking, research and brainstorming will produce a brand identity that will effectively attract customers. This will then be communicated through graphics and visuals. These components of your marketing are a lot more effective when they are driven by a specific, well-conceived brand identity. The choice of colors, fonts, and images to include in promotions and the wording that accompanies your graphics and visuals are all influenced by your business' brand identity.

Create A Standard Guide for Your Brand

When you arrive at a definition of your company's brand identity, you will now need to develop a system or a guide for how your business should operate to ensure that this identity is consistent throughout all your business processes. This may take time to develop, but once it is prepared, it will be an invaluable tool.

Your brand is an essential part of your business. It will be what customers think about when your brand name comes to mind. Creating your brand identity will influence every aspect of your business, from your logo and colors to your messaging and marketing. These are the things you will build your business around.