How to develop a winning brand identity.

Sandra Fianko
Aug 20, 2016
5 min read

Updated: Nov 13, 2023

According to the business dictionary, “a Brand Identity is the visual element of a brand (such as colors, design, logotype, name, and symbol) that together identifies and distinguishes the brand in the consumers’ mind.” While the

visual elements of a brand may comprise variations of the above, a brand is an experience you create for your consumers. It is how you want your business to be perceived by consumers and it is what consumers say it is through their experiences with your business. Simply put, the brand is the embodiment of all that a business is, stands for, and offers.

Creating a brand takes time, careful planning, and effective implementation of the plans. Creating an identity that reflects the brand is neither simple nor easy; however, we have attempted to simplify the process with these TWELVE STEPS.

1. Find your core purpose - go within and dig deep

When you start any business or get an idea to start one, you are excited, adrenaline rushing, and ideas flowing from all angles; you are in effect pumped to execute the dream. Then you decide you need to design your brand visual; you need a logo. Great! Now take a seat, and find a pen and paper to write down your business purpose. This is not your business plan. You may or may not have a business plan already but this process is painless and believe me, it will come in handy a lot of times during your journey to establishing your business. Write down answers to these questions:

Why are you in business?
What is your core business purpose?
What are the products or services you intend to sell?
Do you have a vision for your business?
How about the mission or goals you hope to achieve for the business? You get the idea. Good! Did we do this for our business? Yes, but the process was not as smooth as I am outlining here. Perhaps that will be in another write-up titled, "Lessons learned on the journey to establishing a business."

2. Identify your target market

Who is your audience? Who are you trying to attract or sell to? Do you have a niche market? Get to know that market. Sometimes what we think we know about our audience is not the reality. Identify what your ideal customer will look like based on the data you have collected and research you have conducted on your potential market. If you want to drill down to granular details of every customer, remember people don’t like to be niched. They don’t like to feel like they have been targeted; therefore, approach this in an unintrusive manner. Furthermore, don’t be surprised when who you think should be your ideal customer actually ends up not being your customer at all, especially in the beginning. Now, this is important, how does your product or service benefit this market you have identified?

3. Define your brand message

What is the message you intend to project about your business, products, and or services? What is the takeaway for consumers when they interact with your business? Does your message resonate well with your prospects?

4. Describe your personality

This is all about you. What drives you, what philosophies do you live by? How has that influenced your business? What philosophy drives your business? Along with that what aesthetics are most attractive to you? What colors do you like? What other established logos do you find attractive? The intent here is not to copy them but to understand your own visceral psyche. This information will be helpful to your designer when it is time to design the logo.

5. Pinpoint your unique edge

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors? What are some of the things that you do better than them? Why should a consumer buy your goods or services instead of your competitors'? There are many elements that can set you apart from your competitors; from technical superiority right down to emotional appeal. Some of these competitive advantages will feed your brand message seamlessly.

6. Bring it all together

Now that you have completed that painless process, bring them all together. What picture does it paint about your business? Do you like it? If not, revise it. Brainstorm with your team of trusted advisers, business partners, trusted friends, and family. Depending on your personality, remember this does not have to be perfect initially. Don’t get bogged down by paralysis by analysis.

7. Hire a professional to refine your message

A brand consultant/designer will analyze the information you have put together and help refine your message. Here is our shameless plug; Hire us. This is where we decide on colors, style, fonts, images, messages, themes, etc. At this point, you may already know what you want and decide that for instance, your business is into healthy organic products therefore you want an organic image. Your designer will employ colors, images, and symbolism to draw out the theme for the logo. There is nothing wrong with this approach.

Alternatively, you may go avant-garde and choose an image that is near and dear to you, and ask to have it incorporated into your design even if it has nothing to do with your business. This is a gamble but one that could pay off handsomely if implemented well. A third option is to have your designer work with the information you have gathered so far and come up with ideas you can both agree on. The important aspect of this stage is to work with your designer to create an identity that will ultimately work for your business, and draw the right attention and emotions about your business.

8. Use your brand identity

This is an easy one. If you want your logo to be remembered start using it on every communication channel that you use. No important message goes out of your business without having your logo on it. Use it on your brand collaterals i.e., business cards, letterheads, postcards, brochures, etc. Use it on your social media platforms and in your ads.

9. Live your brand

Communicate your brand message and philosophy to your employees and any client-facing member of your team. Everyone on board should understand the brand message and be able to articulate it. Remember this is not going to happen overnight. Most importantly, deliver on your brand promise and offer exceptional customer experiences. At the end of the day, you are in business to gain customers, retain them, and generate repeat business.

10. Be accountable

A great logo without the support of a well-implemented brand strategy will simply remain an attractive identity that does nothing for your business or worse. Collect data about your performance and the response from your brand, and analyze them. Measure your return on investments. In the course of your business operations, you are bound to deviate from your core purpose from time to time. It happens to everyone. Use this process as a handy guide to realign your priorities and activities to match your brand purpose and message.

11. Stay flexible

While consistency is vital, it is also important to remain nimble and be able to adapt and change to remain relevant. If something about the brand or logo is not working change it, correct it, rather than live with it. If your brand message is not resonating well with consumers, redefine it. If your logo is obsolete, update it. You can get back to the drawing board to fix elements of your brand that are not working well. Rebranding is always an option. These steps should help you define your overall brand strategy.

12. Your Brand Identity

Finally, the brand identity becomes a strong independent marketing asset when it has achieved the trust, loyalty, and awareness of the consumer. Generally speaking, businesses with high brand equity attract more customers, gain repeat business, and are more profitable. This is after all the ultimate goal of many for-profit businesses.