A business’s brand identity struggles and ways to get over them

Business owners and digital marketing agencies US hear these concepts every day “Brands” and “Brand Identity”, but rarely do most of them know the difference between the terms.

Majority of us obscure the difference between these terms, brand and brand identity are not switchable concepts. If you are doing the same thing, it’s all good, you are in the majority.

But, your business might be struggling as a result!

We have done it ourselves several times, people most of the time use the term brand to define products.

You may have asked a friend yourself, hey what brand those shoes are from. In situations like these we are not talking about the brand rather we talk about the products by a brand.

A brand is the perception attached, a sentiment or an emotional value felt when people talk about or review a company.

Modern Furniture=Ikea

Smartphone technologies=Apple

What is brand identity?

This is what the consumers sees, an organization’s brand identity is made up by all the visual elements. This includes:

Logos

Color Schemes

Typography

Design

Your signature in consumer experiences

Do you remember as a child we all wanted to be one of the cool kids, the first thing you notice is that we don’t quite look like the cool kids.

So, we got ourselves pair of Nike Airs, got a funky haircut and refigured our style. The things that we changed about ourselves would act as our brand identity.

These changes became the physical features in our control that inspired how others saw us.

Why is it so important?

In order to understand the importance.

Let’s analyze the IT industry

Let me ask me ask you a question. What is the fastest growing industry in the world right now?

It’s the IT industry.

But why is this so? In a survey people from the US identified the top brands they pay the most attention to and the top two industries are related to the IT industry.

This is because the IT industry advertises their products by throwing facts, figures, benchmarks and performance metrics. It’s an industry which is the most competitive therefore every organization of the IT industry has to make the audience aware, how are their products different form other brands.

Performance, graphical capabilities, storage functions, response time and graphical interface are some of the terms we have heard, these are terms people use to measure experiences earned form these type of products.

So, we find IT companies marketing themselves around how are they different from the competition in regards to performance and experience.

Therefore a Samsung experience is different from an Apple one. This experience, this perception, this expectation associated to a business is called brand identity.

Establishing a brand identity gives businesses an opportunity to be associated as something different form the rest. It establishes the authority a business needs to be perceived as a path-finder, solution provider, like no other.

Business and digital marketing agencies who get this concept and execute it perfectly are leading the race and it is evidently clear for all of us to see.

Businesses know this but it is observed they struggle bringing it all into action.

Why do businesses and digital marketing agencies struggle?

Whether its businesses marketing themselves or digital marketing agencies working for a company. A lot of focus is placed on the deliverables, the results and the actions taken to achieve those results but rarely any focus is placed in doing actual research.

For a brand identity to establish itself a lot of work goes into research, the organization’s message, the competition and the type of customer.

Not only is this important but in this digital age the playing field totally changed. Brand Identity extends now, from your internal company culture, the services you offer, the work you do, the value consumers receive, social platforms and online gateways of information exchange.

All of these aspects combine together to bring a brand to life.

Understanding brand identity

How are you seen?

Brand identity becomes the impression your business gives to your customers, and starting from the first impression this approach stretches to the core of your business.

Starting from your logo, everything has comes together to present a perfect picture of your brand for customers to develop an opinion about you.

Also, much like how tastes, wants, needs and people change with time so does the perception a consumer has about your brand. Due to this fact businesses have to maintain a consistent brand identity and overtime consumers become more loyal towards you.

Maintaining brand identity

By working on an identity for your brand you allow it to have a drive and this factor alone helps your customers understand what your business stands for and this is pivotal in influencing a consumer to do business with you.

A great product attracts customers but one the purchase is done people become your customers but what we are looking for is repeat customers or better yet your brand’s advocate. A pronounced brand identity gives the customer a sense of stake in your business.

This is the reason why a consumer would buy from you repeatedly and refer your business to other people. But building a great brand identity does not happen overnight, it takes several approaches to get the best fit and consistency to build brand authority.

So, here are some tips for businesses and digital marketing agencies to turn towards for support when creating unforgettable brand experiences:

What makes you unique?

Put all the effort researching what makes your business different from others out there. This works just like a human, a human with a strong personality is the one who knows the ins and outs of their behavior.

These are people who are grounded, have solid self-judgment, so when they speak they speak from a place of experience and that experience reflects in their words and actions. And same is the case with your brand.

If your brand does not have a solid foundation it gives the indication of confusion and confused brands create confused customers. There are a lot of factors that go into making a brand and it’s essential that each aspect that makes up your brand compliments one another and works cohesively as a well-oiled machine.

For all of these aspects to connect it is essential for your business to figure out its mission and what it stands for.

Identify audiences and read into competition

In this phase working on buyer’s persona is your best bet. The key here is to identify your ideal buyer and develop a persona or multiple personas around it.

When working on this, research the demographics, the pain points, likes and dislikes. Another important aspect to work on is researching where your type of audience exists online and the platforms that can be used to tap into them.

Once, you know who you are selling to, it will be time to dig and find out who is selling similar products to them. Checking out your competitor’s website, social channels and email campaigns is one thing. But when you research your competitor, always try to think like a customer and compile a report about how you can better serve the audience with your business.

Build your identity

This is the design phase, this is where you design your logo and incorporate other features that bring out your brand identity.

I don’t need to mention this, but your logo is extremely important as it is the most recognizable part of your brand, so you need to spend significant time is coming up with a logo that powerfully delivers the brand message while also being visually engaging.

Tone and voice

Just like everything you do reflects on your business, your brand voice also echoed in your social media postings, the way you advertise, the language you use in emails and blogs.

Developing a brand voice is a consideration of a lot of factors, the first one being your tone. The tone that you use comes from the purpose of your business.

Are you an entertaining business?

How professional is professional?

How friendly should we be so that we don’t lose market authority?

Do we need to be entertaining and highlight the pain points at the same time?

How does your audience perceive a friendly tone?

No matter the kind of tone you chose to go forward with, the key is consistency with one tone. If you keep changing your tone the audience will find it hard to understand where you are coming from.

The tone that best defines your business should reflect in every marketing effort you make and should achieve consistency throughout all the communication platforms that you use.

Here we not just talking about the texty stuff, this also includes images, ilustrations, ebooks and website user interfaces.

For example if your brand serves the real estate industry, you have no room to be unprofessional because you want people to trust you with their life savings and investments. Therefore, adding a casual tone in a real estate business is a bad match even though this tone is extremely relevant for other types of businesses.

So, be extremely picky when it comes to this part.

Bring you brand identity to light

Once you have all the tools in your arsenal, it’s time to put your brand in front of the audience. Use your chosen fonts, colors, shapes and symbols and voice and make sure it’s reflected in all your marketing efforts.

To be consistent in this phase, digital marketing agencies use a brand style guide and every business should work to get one developed.

A brand style guide is the holy book your brand needs. It includes every aspect of what makes your brand and why is it marketed the way it is.

Now, a brand style guide works in two ways, internally and externally. Internally, this guide acts as the go to guide for marketers creating marketing material that feels like your brand. Externally, it gives your customers a picture into what you are about so it helps garner trust and bring your customers ever more closely to understanding you.

So, make your style guide as public as possible, it gives a clear message to your audience.

Final Thoughts:

Once your business starts reflecting its brand identity it is essential to monitor and analyze what is working?

The same you monitor your ad campaigns to optimize marketing, you have to do the same for your brand.

However, when we monitor a brand’s performance, it is not as simple as advertisements that provide you the analytics that shape your marketing strategy.

This involves looking at social media discussions, comments, posts, reviews and surveys that pertain to your brand, to find out what the audience perceives when they see you.

This is extremely essential, because one you understand what the audience says about you, you will be able to make the significant changes required to position your brand in a better way.