How to Develop a Viral and Long Lasting Brand Identity?

It is not a secret that building and managing a strong brand is quite a complicated task. In fact, it consists of a series of interrelated processes starting with brand strategy development and implementation, brand identity creation, as well as a solid brand visual style development. 

In fact, an effective brand strategy assists in creating a unique brand identity for your brand. Let's discover together what actually brand identity is and what are the steps for its development. 

 

What is Visual Brand Identity?

 

Brand identity combines all the visible elements of the brand such as color, design and logo. It is the manner in which the brand presents itself to the public and acquires a differentiated position in the consumers’ minds. Simply put: brand identity is what your audience and perspective consumers can see.

 

How to Create a Visual Brand Identity

 

For understanding what is the right way for developing a brand identity, it is important to understand what comprises it. So, brand identity is made of any design aspect of the brand including typography, key brand colors and color palette, logo, consistent style for images and content, a library of graphical elements, etc. In fact, each and every component of brand identity complements and reinforces the existing reputation of the brand. If we go deeper into the idea we can completely agree that tagline and website can also be considered inseparable parts of brand identity. 

 

Steps for Developing Brand Identity

 

Developing a vivid and easily differentiated brand identity is not an easy task that could be completed in several steps. It is a holistic process consisting of the following phases:

 

• Conducting a thorough market research

 

Thoroughly exploring the market is a crucial factor for identifying the pain-points needing improvement and discovering the “empty spaces” which can be filled. In fact, keeping a close eye on what competitors do will help you learn from their mistakes, better identify potential opportunities in the market and gain a real-time insight on the trends regarding brand visual style components. 

 

• Defining core branding identity

 

It might sound too abstract, but defining your core brand idea is phenomenal for the consistency of brand perception among the public. In fact, a distinct definition of brand identity helps to shape a clear message, drives business decision making process, product development and marketing initiatives ranging from brand strategy creation to content development.

 

• Articulating brand positioning and unique selling proposition

 

Why is it important to have a distinct brand positioning? Well, in the market full of fierce competition your brand will stay unnoticed if you keep it as a conceptual vision or a group of values. All this emotional part sounds really great, but the truth is for winning the competition your brand needs to stand out with a meaningful and crisp articulation of its positioning. 

What builds the basis for a distinct market positioning is the unique selling proposition of your brand. Maybe your products are based only on organic materials, maybe your ideology unites people and builds a strong community, or maybe your brand story would help you stand out. The thing is you need to choose what to develop your unique selling proposition on and keep articulating it.

 

• Developing brand identity design components

 

As mentioned above, some elements of brand identity design components such as logo, color palette, typography, style guide, etc, form the basis for creating a solid brand identity. If you want to get a deeper understanding of the ways for developing a consistent visual style for your brand, visit our website and read “How to Develop a Solid Brand Visual Style” article.

 

• Developing brand voice

 

For building a strong brand you need to keep consistency and talk uniformly about your brand both internally and externally. Truly, choosing a consistent brand voice is the ultimate solution. A well-developed brand voice keeps your communication clear and focused. Moreover, it assists brand differentiation and positioning in the marketplace. 

 

The Importance of Brand Consistency 

 

Brand consistency is the practice of delivering messages that correspond to the identity and values of the brand. To some extent consistency means exposing the audience to the same core message repeatedly.

Remember: the more consistent messaging, the more consistent your branding.

Moreover, brand consistency is directly correlated with brand recognition. Let's consider well-known examples from leading brands. Nike's swoosh and the slogan “Just Do It” are inseparable parts of the brand and we can see them featured in any of Nike's marketing efforts. Do you anybody who would not recognize the swoosh?

Another great example of consistency in brand identity is presented by Google. Just have a look at the fonts the company used over a certain period of time: up to 10 years. As you might have noticed, the core fonts and styling of visuals have stayed the same, but at the same time they got modified by accepting modern trends. 

 

 

As you see, building a viral and long lasting brand identity is a comprehensive process which consists of closely interconnected steps. Sounds complicated, right? But there is no need to worry. If you define the purpose of your brand and develop overall brand strategy based on it, successful resolution of your plans will not make you wait.