Brand identity is the visible elements of a brand, such as color, design, and logo, that identify and distinguish the brand in consumers’ minds. Brand identity is distinct from brand image. Brand identity is distinct from brand image. Brand identity is a set of the collection with elements which a brand build to portray its right impression and image to its audience. Brand identity is a set of visible aspects of a brand, which include design, colour, and logo, which will identify and distinguish the brand in consumers’ minds. Brand identity is distinct from the brand image. Another important aspect of brand identity is the shape and form of different elements that represent your brand. This effective yet subtle element can be utilized for branding purpose. For instance, if your logo comprises soft edges and circles then people will react differently to it compared to when they see a logo that is square and sharp.
Elements Of Branding Strategy
By | January 25, 2016
A brand is a complex organism. This is part six in a series of articles in which we examine a successful brand’s component parts.
Ah, the poor, misunderstood logo. People put a lot of pressure on its narrow shoulders. Let’s begin by sweeping away a couple of common misconceptions. Your logo is not your brand. And it’s not a portrait in miniature of your business. So don’t expect it to communicate much, if anything, about what you do. Those disclaimers aside, a logo can be the anchor of a firm’s visual identity and a critical component of a successful brand.
As part of an overall brand approach, firm logos serve three primary functions:
- Identification
- Differentiation
- Aiding recall
Let’s look at each of these attributes in turn.
1. Identification
A logo exists to represent and identify a company or product. The brand name tells us what it is called. The mark (if there is one) helps us recognize the brand the next time we encounter it.
2. Differentiation
An effective logo visual separates a firm from the rest of the field. Perceptions are built little by little over time, and a logo that takes a different tack from the competition will contribute to the distinctiveness of a firm’s brand image. In addition, a logo design sometimes can convey aspects of a company’s personality or attitude (for instance, fun, warmth, or energy).
3. Aiding Recall
A distinctive logo is a memorable logo. Being noticed and remembered is the first step a firm must take en route to eventual selection and brand preference. The logo’s mark, if any, provides a shortcut that helps us identify a company or product in a hurry. We are all in a rush these days, and a well-conceived mark makes recognition easier.
Logo Anatomy
Most firm logos can be broken into two parts: the name and the mark (sometime called its symbol or icon). The name is obvious enough: it’s the company or product name rendered in type. Skillful logo designers will spend a great deal of time choosing a typeface, often customizing its letter forms to make the name more personalized and proprietary.
Elements Of Branding And Definition Brainly
The mark, usually separated slightly from the name, supports the brand name and offers a visual dimension to the brand identity experience. Some marks have become so well known that they’ve practically replaced the brand name itself (think Nike’s swoosh and Apple’s apple). The danger here is that eventually the connection to the brand name may become disengaged. Anybody remember a certain musician from Minneapolis formerly known as a symbol? Well, that didn’t last long — once Prince got his name back, we knew what to call him again. Whew!
Not all firm logos have marks. In fact, many successful businesses do just fine without one: Deloitte, IBM, and Oracle, for instance. This type of identifier, in which the name is the logo, is called a logotype. Logotypes do have a couple of drawbacks. Because they have to be read, legibility is critical, whether they appear on the web or in the distance on the side of a building. Logotypes also have a generic quality to them, so if a competitor were to adopt a similar-looking typeface it could create confusion in the marketplace. Nevertheless, many great brands have dispensed with marks and still gone on to do great things.
SEE ALSO: How to Choose a New Company Name, Logo and Tagline
The Redesign Dilemma
So is a logo redesign worth the effort? If you care about giving your business every advantage in the marketplace, you should consider your logo as a starting point. We live in a visual world, and every prospect that you contact is likely to see it. So pull up your website and ask yourself these questions about your current logo:
- Does it reflect your firm’s personality?
- Is it different from other logos in your industry?
- Is anyone going to notice it and remember you because of it?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, you may want to think about revisiting your logo and taking your brand image in a new direction. A logo redesign is not a small undertaking — it will affect every piece of collateral and signage you have. But it takes an upfront investment to reap long-term rewards.
Download the NEW Rebranding Guide – Second Edition
Classifying Logos
Logos can be sorted into a few basic categories. The five categories below will give you a way to think about your current logo and what you might want your new logo to be.
- Logotypes | A company name rendered in distinctive typography is the primary graphic element in these logos. Successful logotypes are bold and easy to read. Accenture, Deloitte and Exxon are good examples.
- Monograms | A monogram is a mark made up of a company’s initials (think IBM, McDonalds, and GE).
- Abstract Marks | Nonrepresentational marks that accompany a business’s name. (Sometimes, however, these marks can reflect a company’s name or other non-service-related attribute: Apple, Cisco, Dewberry.) Examples of abstract marks include Chase, BP, PWC, and Symantec.
- Descriptive Marks | Iconic representations of a company’s products, services or defining character. Because these marks can be limiting and generic looking, they are becoming rare in the corporate world. The National Cotton Council of America logo is a well-executed example.
- Seals | Type and an icon are contained inside a shape, usually a circle, oval, shield, or rectangle. Because of their limited legibility and dated appearance, seals are becoming less common. Many state and federal agencies still use seals, but they are rare in the business world.
Read Earlier Posts in This Series:
Additional Resources
- Our Rebranding Kit gives you the tools and knowledge you need to lead your firm through a rebranding.
- Get strategies, tips, and tools for developing your firm’s brand with Hinge’s Brand Building Guide for Professional Services Firms.
- Download a free copy of the book Inside the Buyer’s Brain to learn how to build a powerful brand to help your firm close more sales.
How Hinge Can Help
Develop rebranding strategies that better connect with existing clients and prospects. Hinge’s Branding Program can help your firm stand out from the competition and build a brand that drives sustained growth.
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The first week of January, we made a New Year’s resolution to write a for the year, and we’re going to stick with it. This set of articles will help you follow a deliberate series of inputs that will complete your plan for the year, and help to grow your . Stay with me week after week and watch where it takes you!
But before we dig in, we must first establish some fundamentals about your business, and some basic building blocks about your . If you don’t have these in place, it’ll be difficult to fully write and execute a marketing plan. You’d be writing it in the dark, with nothing to ground it.
Related: How to Get Customers Raving About Your Brand
You must first have definition, positioning and tone ironed out before you can write a marketing plan.
1. Brand definition
How do you define the business you are in? What’s your line of work and how would you describe it? What do you do for a living? If you can’t quickly and succinctly define your brand, then you can’t possibly write a marketing plan for it. And if you can’t describe your brand and your business in a few sentences, then you haven’t given it the focus it needs. It’s pretty simple, actually: how do you market your brand if you don’t know what you do?
2. Brand positioning
This is quite different than your brand definition. The definition describes what your brand does, and what you provide to your customers. Positioning describes how your brand makes your customers feel. You need to get them both down before you can take pen to paper on your marketing plan.
3. Brand voice
There are many ways to cut at brand voice, but for the purpose of a marketing plan it’s important to decide up front the kind of tone you want your brand to take to the marketplace. Aggressive? Care giving? Community? Competitive? Laid back? Get your voice down before you ask others to join.
Related: 10 Quick Tips for Better Business Writing
With these three simple components down, now you can tackle your marketing plan. You will know who you are and what you do, you will know how customers feel when they work with you, and you will know to interact with them on a daily basis. Or at least you’ll know the basics.
Let’s take a look at an over-simplified example from a big brand: .
Coca-Cola is in the beverage business, that’s how the company “defined” the brand. Granted, Coca-Cola has expanded the types of beverages that carry the brand name through the years, but they are all beverages -- or at least somehow linked to the beverages that the brand sells. Coca-Cola is in the beverage business, and the brand managers have to market it as such.
The Coca-Cola brand, however, is all about making people feel happy, refreshed and connected. That’s how the brand wants to make their customers feel. So while they are indeed “selling” a beverage, the emotional benefit that the brand provides goes well beyond the functional attributes of the products.
The brand’s voice, at least as it appears to me, has the tone of inclusion, aspiration and hope, leaving a consistent mark on every piece of its marketing communications. That may sound obvious to you, but I can also think of many beverage that are exclusionary, trendy or extreme -- which is how they chose to be. Coca-Cola, however, is very different than all of those brands and their voices.
These three brand elements -- the definition, positioning and the voice -- lay the groundwork for your brand’s current marketing plan this year and beyond. Without those elements in place, there’s no way you could write a plan.
We get to that part next week. Meanwhile, you have some homework to do!
Related: Can You Find the Hidden Images in These 40 Brand Logos? (Infographic)