I speak a lot about brand identity, and when you think about the businesses that really take the time to invest in ensuring they can attract and retain the right audience for their business you can understand why.
If you want to have the luxury, sophistication and exclusivity of a brand like Apple, or the inspirational, exciting, cool personality of a brand like Nike, you need to invest in your brand identity.
For example, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about one of those bell-shaped desk lamps? How about a white lamp that hops around a bunch of letters and stomps down on the letter “I” until it replaces it altogether? If you’re a fan of animation, you’re probably picturing Disney’s Pixar lamp.
The Pixar lamp is a familiar, fun, and quirky design choice that the audience instantly recognizes (even without the word Pixar). However, this lamp is more than just a lamp. By using this type of illustration, Pixar wants you to feel curiosity, excitement, and the down-to-earth warmth that emanates from its work. It uses the lamp to communicate its values and build loyalty with its audience. Put simply, they are communicating their brand’s identity.
No matter what industry you’re in, if you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors, attract your target audience, and turn them into customers, you're going to need a strong brand identity.
A good brand should be memorable and communicate the brand's essence, history, and values all at once. It doesn’t matter if you work for a large-scale company or are slogging away on a part-time passion, the importance of having a consistent brand identity for all of your marketing efforts should not be underestimated.
Understanding Why Brand Identity is Important
It’s hard to capture the attention of a modern customer. In a crowded digital market, our businesses and identities can disappear into the ether, swallowed by millions of pieces of other content which may be more attractive or relevant.
Whether it’s a global corporation that specialises in buying and selling tropical islands or a small business that makes specialty coffees, a lack of effective branding almost ensures that you’ll quickly fall into obscurity. If the information isn't delivered fast and with an engaging angle, it's likely that you’ll either struggle to build an audience or you’ll lose the majority of your existing audience along the way.
Branding helps to define you in detail to your audience. What do you do and how do you do it differently than others? What do you believe in or stand for? What do you represent? If effective branding is in place, all of these questions and more can be answered through attractive visual communication.
Practically, your brand identity is all of the combined elements of your brand, including colours, logo, content messaging, and the overall “vibe,” or look and feel, that identifies you to your customers. Creating a brand identity builds awareness of your product or service, cementing you as unique against competitors in the same space. A strong brand identity has intangible value and an ability to help you stand out, creating a reputation of credibility and trust that extends beyond the problems you solve and the products you create.
This is the power of brand identity.
Your brand identity should be woven through all of your digital assets, from logos to website colours.
At DPS Brand Consultancy, our graphic design services have been created to help you do all these things in association with our design platform of choice Canva. With literally thousands of templates for social media posts, website content, and on-brand images, videos and much more, your business will have the attractive content it needs to ensure you stand out in the best possible way.
Book a free brand strategy call today to learn how we can help you create your brand identity.
