Brand Identity What Does It All Mean?
Your brand identity is extremely important to your business, as we have discussed a few times. Having a brand identity means that you can establish your business and make it stand out from the crowd. The hardest part of building a business is making your brand unique. This is why is important to build your brand early and set up your visuals as soon as possible. First of all we need to establish what the difference between a brand and an identity is.
Brand
Your brand can be many things. Understanding what the word brand means can help you when you establish your company. A brand is defined as a name, design, symbol or any other way in which you identify yourself to your clients and customers. There are of course many definitions of a brand. A brand can be what people say about you, a brand is a feeling, a brand is intuition. It can be a very grey area. As you can see, the different definition can make it quite unclear what exactly brand means.
The most clear and valuable definition of a brand is this one: Your relationship between your company and your audience.
First you need to discuss what you want your relationship between your audience to be. Do you want it to be fun and quirky? would you want it to be strictly business? Do you want it to be personal? Etc. These things are what can take your brand identity to the next level.
Brand Identity Works in Harmony With Design
Logo
A logo is a combination of a symbol and lettering that are used as a way for potential clients to identify your business. Good logos use typography and graphic design to create an iconic logo. Your logo should reflect what your company stands for, what you do and how you do it. All the questions you asked yourself about your brand should be mirrored in your logo.
Identity
Your identity is how your company is remembered. While your brand is what establishes your relationship with your customers, your identity is what continues that relationship. It is about how you engage. It is all about how you conduct yourself through written and spoken word. The brand is somewhat of a visual representation of your company, the identity is what the company is like behind those visuals. It goes from the articles you produce all the way down to a simple reply on Facebook.
Brand Identity
A brand identity can change. If you have already established yourself you can go through a re-branding if you feel that the branding you have already got does not match the identity of the company. This is where it becomes more clear that your brand and your identity are two different elements.