10 August 2024

How to Build a Strong Brand Identity that resonates: A Step by Step Guide for your business (Part 2)

Creating a memorable brand identity is not a task to be overlooked. It requires thorough research and much effort to build a brand identity that gains brand awareness and differentiates your brand from the competitors.

In Part 1 of our ultimate guide on creating a strong brand identity, we talked about how an effective brand identity helps set your business apart and today we continue with the next stages in building a cohesive brand that resonates with your target audience.

Here is a short recap of what we discussed so far before we get started!

How to Build a Strong Brand Identity: Step-by-Step (Part 1)
- 1: Know Your Brand Foundation and Brand Guidelines
- 2: Researching Competitors, Market Trends, Audience
- 3: Assess Your Current Identity vs the One you want
- 4: Build a Brand Name, Slogan and Brand Story
- 5: Define your Brand Image and Visual Direction

In today's second part of our guide, we will present in more detail the following steps:

How to Build a Successful Brand Identity: Step-by-Step (Part 2)
- 6: Design your Visual Identity
- 7: Create Brand Guidelines
- 8: Implement and Maintain a Strong Brand Identity
- 9: Evaluate and Adapt
- Bonus 10: 5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts in Building Brand Identity
Conclusion

6: Design your Visual Identity

During this step, the subtle mastery of design takes centre stage! It’s time for the designers to roll up their sleeves and show creativity.

Design your Logo

We discussed the importance of a strong logo as a cornerstone of your brand image in our previous article [Link or next article specific to logo in future]. This visual element is likely the most memorable and easily associated with your business in the eyes of your customers, so there is no space for slip-ups. Make your brand resonate with your target audience.

The logo needs to be memorable, distinct, and adaptable because it would be distributed through various channels - from your website to your blank documents, email templates, social posts, etc.

The logo incorporates different elements. It’s not just about a simple graphic, mascot, emblem, monogram, icon or something the designers made up by chance. The colours, fonts, shapes, and typography all contribute to a cohesive and recognisable visual identity… Even the slightest detail that looks irrelevant at first sight makes a difference and has an impact on the overall result.

Choose your Colour Palette

The colour palette and its impact on your overall brand identity is huge. The colour choice can differentiate your brand and enhance your identity and it's crucial you know the following specifics about colours:

There is meaning behind every colour and we should choose it wisely;
Colours have psychological effects on people.

Colours are powerful! They are the silent speakers for your brand and yet one of the most significant for brand awareness. Colours have a proven psychological effect on people and in the business world, you should know what perception you want to convey to your customers via your choice of brand colours.

Some colours convey the feeling of being strong and powerful - something suitable if your business sells luxurious cars, let’s say. Other colours make us feel safe and evoke calmness, while others symbolise freedom or pleasure.

Select colours that reflect your brand’s personality and values, and think carefully about what your primary colours would be, and the way they will be combined with the secondary ones (the complementary ones we typically use for a background for example). Your colour palette should be cohesive and adaptable and represent your brand philosophy most properly.

Select Your Typography

When choosing your brand fonts, don’t be tempted only by the fancy ones. Think about its readability and alignment with the other elements of your brand identity. Is your brand playful or serious? Fonts like colours convey certain tones and represent your identity. When to use small and capital letters, bold or italic, serif, san-serif fonts… A lot of detail to think about but you know the devil is in the details. Think of how you feel when you chat with someone and they suddenly start typing in capitalised letters. It always scares me and makes me feel like the person is shouting at me through the screen. Think of typography as a tool for attracting attention, impressing, and convincing - your goal is to be eye-catching - not annoying.

PRO TIP:

Again, similarly to choosing colours, the recommendation is to have:

A Primary Font: for conveying significant textual messages in logo, slogan, headings, etc.
A Secondary Font: no less important but used mainly for body of articles, website sections, marketing materials, etc.

Try to ensure and maintain a consistent brand image, voice and identity through all the different media and channels you use in your marketing.

At the end of this step, you might logically wonder how you can ensure consistency in visual designs (imagery, fonts, colours) over time and across different media. It's a valid question, though.

The answer is simple - document it in your brand guidelines!

We will talk about the brand style guide in our next article and will discuss in detail a few more important steps for a memorable brand identity that builds brand loyalty.

7: Create Your Brand Guidelines

The key to maintaining a consistent brand identity, that resonates with your audience, is thorough documentation. Creating a set of comprehensive brand guidelines ensures that everyone in your company, from new hires to seasoned employees, adheres to the same standards. This uniformity helps preserve your brand's integrity and makes onboarding new team members or collaboration with external suppliers more seamless, fostering a recognisable brand across all touchpoints.

What to Include in Your Brand Guidelines

Examples and Use Cases:

Provide concrete examples and detailed use cases for various mediums such as print, web, and social media. This will help your team understand how to apply the brand elements correctly in different contexts;

Regular Updates:

As your brand evolves, so should your guidelines. Regularly updating the document to reflect changes in your brand identity ensures that your branding stays current and relevant, representing your brand accurately.

A well-crafted brand guideline document and brand identity examples act as a reference point for your team, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and that your brand identity and brand values remain consistent across all channels.

8: Implement and Maintain a Strong Brand Identity

After completing the foundational work, there's one crucial final step: implementing and sustaining the brand identity you've established through a detailed brand style guide, including all key brand assets. You need to set a system for quality control to preserve your brand's integrity and ensure steadiness.

Maintaining consistency across all platforms where your brand is present—be it your website, social media, packaging, or physical stores—is vital. Consistency helps reinforce your brand's identity and makes it easily recognisable to your audience. It builds trust and reliability, as customers know what to expect from your brand every time they interact with it.

How to launch and maintain a successful brand rollout?

Here are some tips:

Training:

Educate your team on the new brand guidelines and ensure they understand the importance of maintaining consistency. This could include training sessions, workshops, reference materials, and whatever you think is useful;

Pre-Launch:

Consider a pre-launch to test the new brand identity on a smaller scale before a full rollout. This allows you to gather feedback and make some adjustments if needed; creating a brand requires continuous improvement through feedback;

Monitor and Adapt:

Continuously monitor how the brand is being implemented across various channels. Use customer feedback, performance metrics, and regular audits to identify any problems or areas for improvement in your brand identity design, ensuring the face of your brand remains appealing;

Communication:

Keep ongoing communication within your team to address any questions or issues related to the organisation and brand identity. Regular updates and reminders about the brand guidelines can help keep everyone aligned;

Quality Control:

Implement a system of checks to ensure that all marketing materials and activities you hold adhere to the established guidelines, protecting your brand assets.

By diligently implementing and maintaining your brand identity, you ensure that your brand remains strong, cohesive, and effective in connecting with your audience.

9: Evaluate and Adapt

While consistency is vital for maintaining a strong brand identity, it's equally important to remain adaptable in a constantly evolving and turbulent market and economic environment. Being flexible means being able to make necessary adjustments to your ad campaigns, voice, or even your overall brand identity, ensuring you keep your audience engaged and interested. Yes, you read it right - rebrand if circumstances require it. Don’t fear the change, and don’t stay stuck losing customers, money and time if things go wrong.

"But when is the right time for changing the course? Should we wait situation gets better or should we move forward?", you may ask.

There is no easy and ultimately right answer, but one thing is certain - you should better monitor, evaluate, and adapt proactively, rather than waiting for situations to become problematic.

Monitoring and Adapting

Monitor your brand performance metrics:

Regularly track performance metrics to assess the effectiveness of your branding efforts. This can include website traffic, social media engagement, sales figures, and customer feedback.

Adaptation based on customer and market feedback:

Use the insights gained from your performance metrics to make informed adjustments to your branding strategy. Responding to market feedback and consumer behaviour helps you stay relevant and meet your audience's evolving needs.

Evolve Your Brand Identity:

Continuously refine and modernise your brand identity to stay competitive. This can involve updating visual elements, refreshing your messaging, or launching new initiatives that align with current trends and consumer preferences.

By balancing consistency with flexibility, you can maintain a strong, compelling and memorable brand identity while also staying agile and responsive to changes in the market. This approach ensures your brand remains relevant and appealing to your audience over time, reflecting your brand consistently.

Bonus 10: 5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts in Building a Strong Brand Identity

Who doesn't like bonuses? And what about some bonus tips for what to do and what to avoid in building brand identity process:

Do’s:

Know your strengths: if you have no clear idea what you can do, there is no way to do it well. Evaluate your strong qualities and take the most advantage of them; these qualities can help build your brand;

Be authentic: this is the easiest and quickest way to connect with your customers and establish brand loyalty, creating a recognisable brand. If your brand stands out, you're already halfway to success;

Listen to your customers: What's the point of creating a brand or service no one wants to buy? Effective brand messaging is essential. Incorporate brand marketing strategies to enhance its appeal. What seems perfect for you doesn’t mean will be appealing to your audience and trying to sell them something only for the sake of selling is absolutely waste of time and money. A clear brand identity includes these considerations to avoid such pitfalls. Listen carefully to what your customer's pain points and likes are - this is the surest way to be among their top choices and reflect this in your brand identity design;

Be consistent between all channels to maintain a cohesive brand identity: it’s not ok to follow different paths in your online and offline brand presence. Even more - it’s quite misleading for your customers and you give them mixed signals if you don’t follow one consistent line of behaviour whenever you sell online or you sell in your physical store. I prefer to research a brand online first (its social channels, posts, customer feedback, etc.), but I also like to physically experience it. If there's a physical store, I make sure to visit that too. A cohesive online and physical presence is important to me. And if there is inconsistency, it can leave me feeling confused and disconnected from the brand;

Strive for improvement: there wouldn’t be improvement if you don’t want to grow. Evaluating and adapting, identifying gaps and problems and eliminating them are the key to your business and brand identity progress.

Don’ts:

Don’t underestimate the whole process: There is no business whose brand identity was established for a night; it takes time to make your brand strong. At least a successful business. Don’t underestimate the efforts and resources needed, the initial thorough research, the professional help, the continuous monitoring, etc. Each of the above steps has its significance and skipping some phases means you will shorten the initial brand-building process but you will have to deal with any unexpected challenges in a long-term period only because you underestimated the initial process;

Don’t mislead your customers: it’s ultimately important to be genuine, authentic and consistent with your audience. Customers are very sensitive to all messages we send them, they strictly keep an eye on our behaviour and our reputation. If they feel betrayed by your company, product, or anything else, they barely give you a second chance to fix things;

Don’t be like anyone else. Ensure your personality and brand messaging are unique: it’s tempting to copy-paste a successful competitor’s logo and visions, brand voice and tone, colours, and even product characteristics. It may sound like saving time, effort, and money and you probably think that their brand identity will automatically prove to be successful for your business too. Our advice is to follow your own path, and take inspiration from other successful businesses, but not copy them because customers don’t like “knock-offs”; create a unique brand instead;

Don’t lose your unique identity: this is related to the previous one, but because I find it quite essential I highlight it again: don’t blindly copy others and don’t lose your uniqueness trying to be someone else. In this competitive world, there is a niche for everyone - you just need to find yours and then use the brand as your most powerful tool;

Don’t give up on building your brand: there will be tough times, and there will be times you want to give up and throw away everything you have done so far. Be sure you are not alone! Every business struggles, especially when it’s a new one and needs to build an impeccable reputation and surrender every storm. Remember this is how the steel is tempered!

Conclusion

Ultimately, a well-crafted brand identity is a valuable asset that drives long-term success for your business, as part of your brand strategy. By following these steps and continuously refining your approach, you can build a memorable brand identity and create a cohesive brand that resonates with your audience and stands the test of time. Your identity includes tangible and intangible elements of your brand, such as your brand logo and visual brand design, as well as brand voice. Don’t be afraid of trial and error, learn from your mistakes and constantly strive to do things better for your brand and presence in the market.

Create an identity that matters. Believe in your brand, believe in your capabilities and your success will come sooner or later, because having a brand identity that aligns with your brand values is your key to success.