Why a strong brand identity is so important

Why is brand identity so important?

Brand identity, or brand DNA is important in order to stand out in your field. A strong brand creates customer loyalty and increase the value of your company which can grow if you keep investing in the brand. You as a company are not the main factor in creating a brand identity, your customers are. With their valuable feedback, they’ll help shape and build your company. Remember: No customers, no business! This is why it is so vital to listen to your customers and take aboard their feedback. And don’t forget to let them know that they are the reason for your success.

Communication

First and foremost, It’s important to identify your target audience in order to know how to communicate accordingly. Once you know exactly who your target audience or target market is, you can start creating content that speaks to them and which will be valuable to them and their specific goals.

Visual identity

A graphic designer is the best person to help you create the visual part of the brand identity. This includes color palette, logo, typography, fonts. They will help you create a graphic manual so that you stick with the theme of the brand. It’s important to be consistent and always use them same colors and fonts when communicating with customers and leads. If you start mixing up colors and using too many different fonts, the customers will become confused. Why? Consistency is important here meaning that you expose your target audience to the same key message continually. Therefore, it’s confusing to use different fonts, colors images. Your audience needs to know who you are.

The basics

• Fonts Don’t use more than 3 fonts. The font choice should complement your brand. If you have a pre-school business, use something more playful. If you have a sales business, use something more clean and professional looking.
• Logo A logo is a must for any brand. This is the face of the company and product. Ideally it should be quite simple and used frequently. It should be visible in your email signature, on letter heads, on your website, business cards, store fronts, merch – you name it!
• Images Avoid using images that are generic or obviously staged. If you can, hire a professional photographer to take some images of your team and business to give people a sense of what kind of company you are.
• Colors Stick to the color palette in your graphic manual (if you have one). This is usually a set of 3-4 main colors and 3-4 complimenting colors. Using too many different colors in your communication gives a feeling of unprofessionalism and you lose consistency.

Strong brands

Examples of a few brands that excel in brand identity are Coca Cola, Starbucks and Apple. These brands have a very clear and consistent identity across everything they do so when you see their products, you instantly know it’s them. If you see a Coca Cola ad, you instantly know it’s them just by seeing the font. How do you know an apple product? They name their products starting with a lower case “i” – iPod, iMac, iPhone, everyone knows it’s Apple!

Cohesiveness

In summary, it is important to have a cohesive brand identity, both visually and how you communicate. If you were to show up at your customers door in a different costume every time, there will be confusion. If you were to change the way you communicate with customers, there will be confusion. A strong brand = strong customer relationships.