A brand identity is a set of tools or elements used by a company to create a brand image. A brand image is a customer's perception of the brand, consisting of various associations related to it and memories about interacting with it. A brand identity and its elements stem from a company's mission, value proposition, long-term goals, competitive position on the market, and relevance to the values and interests of the target audience. These factors have a foundational nature and, in the branding process, describe what a company wants to communicate. Meanwhile, a brand identity describes how those foundational elements are communicated. The most commonly agreed upon elements of a brand identity usually include:
- A brand name
- A tagline or a slogan
- Colours and graphic styles
- A logo and a wordmark and their variations
- A voice and a tone
- A style and a typeface
These elements can be grouped differently, and there are many perspectives on which specific brand elements should be included in this list and in which order they should be presented. These differences are usually explained by the context in which a brand identity is being discussed and the perspective of a particular expert. For example, a designer who is developing a brand identity for an existing company would omit a brand name and a tagline from the creative process and would put more emphasis on the visual part. In contrast to that, a fuller span of brand identity elements is usually involved during the process of creating a new brand, rather than rebranding an existing product or company.
Begin With a Brand Name
The first and most important element that links a brand to associations and memories stored in the minds of an audience is its name. Using language as a means of communication and processing information is an intrinsic trait of all human beings that is not typical for other species. Particular words and names allow access to a wide variety of meanings, emotions and associations related to objects, events and people. From the marketing and branding perspective, a brand name is a word or a phrase that personifies all information and knowledge a target customer has about a company and its products. For those who do not know about a brand, its name gives cues necessary for customers to relate it to their needs or a specific industry and to be able to recognise it in the future. Functionally, a brand name may serve many different purposes which determine a set of requirements that should be considered when naming a company or a product. The most common features of a good brand name are:
- Easily pronounced and memorable
- Relevant to a specific industry or a need of the target audience
- Relates to customer expectations and evokes strong positive associations
It is not always straightforward to follow all of these requirements simultaneously. Brand identity elements are determined by foundational factors such as a mission, value proposition, competition and target audience. No two industries are alike, and it is important to set priorities for what is most important in a specific case. A useful illustration of how these functional requirements work in a specific industry is the world of ID badging services. Some names of the top companies providing ID badge printing and related services include InstantCard, XpressID, QuickIDCard and ExpressBadging. It is not hard to notice how, besides being easily pronounceable and memorable, all of these names relate to the industry — through terms such as "ID", "Card", "Badging" — and emphasise one important competitive characteristic determined by customers' expectations of fast turnaround, such as "Instant", "Xpress", "Quick" and "Express".
Make Sure Your Brand Is Honest and Congruent
Although brand identity is a tool that conveys a message about what a company actually delivers to its customers, it is no less important to help customers make their buying decision and to ensure their commitment. Many companies that were unable to communicate the value of their products and services to the end consumer have failed in comparison to their competition. The ability to communicate a distinct and recognisable image through various elements of brand identity and deliver this message to end consumers has become more vital as buyers are overloaded with information and are unable to hold their attention on one subject for extended periods of time.
Ideally, a brand identity should give a quick presentation of a company or a product to prospective customers, or serve as an analogue of the elevator pitch that explains what a company offers, how it is different from what is already available in the market, and why customers should consider buying that product or service. The common rule is that the clearer and easier to understand the messaging is, the higher the chance of success it will have in forming a positive and desirable brand image in customers' perception.
Brand identity and the messaging it is delivered through is not the end-all-be-all to define a brand's success. Overpromising or not being fully congruent with what a business actually has to offer can be even worse than failing to communicate it. In the best-case scenario, a brand identity that is disconnected from the actual positioning of the brand gets ignored by the audience. In the worst, it undermines trust and damages the reputation.
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