Understanding Brand Identity
Brand identity can be termed as the collection of brand elements that a company created to bring out a desirable image of itself to its clients. All the things that are related to a service, product, a person or a company constitute the brand of the product. Some of these components are the name of the company or business, the logo, tagline, tone, typeface, and the shape. Brand identify deals with the message that a particular product or a person from a particular brand sends to the consumers.
Guttulus is one of the major brand managers who can ensure that the identity of your brand creates a positive impression to the eyes of consumers. A good view of your company from the eyes of consumers and your target audience is crucial in ensuring the growth and success of your company. Some of the important ways in which a strong brand helps impacts positively on your business include:
1. Helps improve your company recognition in the market
When you have a strong brand identity, people will know you exist hence broadening the knowledge of the public on the presence of your business. A company logo is one of the main brand components that help a business stand out in the market. The biggest and most successful companies usually have a logo that stands out. When someone sees them, the first thought that comes to their mind is the company that owns the logo. This is the same approach any other company looking to scale the ranks should take.
2. Support advertising
Having a strong brand identity can help you put the right focus on advertisement strategies employed. An advertisement aims to create a positive and definable impression about a company in the minds of their target audience.
3. Creates trust
When you have a brand that makes your company appear professional to the consumers of your products or services. This is because people prefer making purchases from businesses that are legitimate and trustworthy.
4. Helps generate new customers
With a strong brand identity, your advertisements are supported, the image of your business appears professional, and the trust consumers have in your business improves. These factors joined together will result in your company gaining more customers. The other way the company gets new customers is through referrals. When older customers love the customer experience that they get from your company, they will refer other people to you who will form part of your customer base.
5. Builds financial value
A strong brand identity can help build a strong financial value of your company especially if your company trades on stock exchange. A strong brand will generate future business for the company. The more effort a company invests in building and upgrading the value of its brand, the better the promise of good financial returns.
How to build a strong brand identity
The steps that a company can take to build a consistent and cohesive brand identity vary depending on the company model and the market that it exists in. However, there are some steps in the strategies that cut across the board. These include:
• Analysis of the company and market
To build the identity of your company, you need to do a thorough analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities your company has. This analysis helps the company’s management to gain a better understanding of what lies ahead of them and hence take on a strategic approach to ensure that they form the identity they desire and achieve their goals as a company.
• Identify company’s customers
To know what segment of the market is greatly interested in what your company offers, you can convene focus groups, conduct surveys and conduct one-on-one interviews with people. Gaining an understating of the target consumers will help you take on the best approach to build the brand.
• Communicate the right message
To get this right, you need to ask yourself what it wants the perception of the market for it to be. The aim should be to create a perception to elements in the market that is consistent. This means that all the elements of a good brand like the imagery, the cultural allusions, the copy and the color schemes should blend together perfectly to bring out a message that is coherent.
Some of the common mistakes that people make that weakens the identity of the brand include inconsistency in the message that they deliver, failure to do internal training to get employees on board and failure to update the marketing materials used. These three aspects always result in the failure of the company to create a brand identity that communicates to the target consumers in the right way.
Building a brand identity is a multi-disciplinary and strategic effort. This means that every element that makes up a strong brand needs to bring out the same message as the rest; a message that supports the business goals. Getting the right hands for the job like can greatly help build a successful brand and improve the position of a company in the market.