November 19, 2019
What Is Your True ‘Brand’ Identity?
Post by Matthew Aquilina Manché – Marketing Director at NERO WHYTE
Window shopping down the high street? Browsing through the supermarket aisles to find dinner? Driving to the gym in the early hours of the day? Throughout these daily motions, there is a reoccurring thing in coming into your sight, and more often than not, you are registering and unconsciously processing this thing within your subconscious …
Even though this thing is reoccurring, every time you come across it, it evokes a different gut feeling within you. So what is it?
Yep. You’ve guessed it/the title gave it away … Brand.
We are constantly surrounded by this thing we call brand.
So then, what exactly is it? In advertising terms, a brand is any feature that sets apart and identifies one product, service or company from another. To the contrary belief, branding doesn’t only consist of visual design aspects – A brand is truly set by the feelings it evokes in people. Whether it be feelings of trust or disgust, happiness or ghastliness, a brand is what people perceive of a product, service or company – and because of this, we now find ourselves in a world where there are many elements and components which give to the formulating of what a brand is. All this being said, no one can deny that name, logo and other design aspects do act as a visual stamp to what a brand represents. We’d go as far to say that design is the most important guide towards people identifying with your product, service or company. Now, when it comes to your business, what is your true brand identity? To be honest, the answer lies with your audience, so you will need to ask them – but in the meantime, here are some critical points you should be looking into right away:
- Identify your current key identifiers that your audience instantly associates with your brand
- Get insight to see if these identifiers are effectively communicating the message you want to spread
- Make certain that there is consistency and continuity all throughout your brands’ exposure
To help you along the way, we’ve made a list …
Our top 5 key brand identifiers:
1. The Name
Juliet Capulet once said, “What’s in a name?” and many would agree – but in context to a world of consumerism and a neverending stampede of brands, we would say that there is a lot in a name, as this is the key identifier that separates one brand to the next. Some brand names formulate quite naturally and the most effective ones, in our opinion, are the ones that are most authentic and more often than not, most simple. On the flip side, when put in a position to name a new brand, there is an art and skill set to successful naming – this could be a challenge for many and the idea of encompassing what a brand represents in the small space of one, maybe two words can be daunting.
2. The Logo
Formulated by either a name or a symbol, the logo is a very significant identifier for a brand. Logo’s are an essential part of taking a brand to ‘iconic’ status. Creating a great logo needs to come from a position of deep understanding and strong vision. Without proper insight and foresight of a brand, one cannot communicate the true essence and will certainly not achieve the ultimate achievement of Timelessness.
3. Typography
Typography is everywhere. From road signs to soda cans to aeroplane in-flight magazines. We are surrounded by typefaces all day, every day and like all the other brand elements, fonts evoke different gut feelings within your audience and more often than not, connects that audience to a product, service or company. The typefaces chosen or created for your brand, are a great opportunity to define personality and should always be used consistently wherever the brand appears.
4. Colour Palette
Colour is an integral part of any brand. The shades chosen will resonate instantly when coming into the view of people’s sight and will cause them to quickly associate a colour with a brand. Whilst we are here, let’s do a little test (It’ll be fun we promise), using the list of brand names below, notice how quickly you will connect to their colour palette:
- Coca-Cola
- Easy Jet
- McDonalds
- Starbucks
- Premier Inn
- Cadbury
In order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Purple (Indigo). So we’ve pretty much named the colours of the rainbow by associating with brand names alone – this might feel simple and easy but that’s because of the well-thought-out incorporation of colour within branding.
5. Tone of Voice
Branding is not only identified in imagery but also words. Whether it be a social media post, website content or a company tag line – all formats of words give to a brands tone of voice. When establishing a tone of voice, all brand elements must be factored in, as it’s within this key identifier that the voice of the brand is communicated.
Looking to start a brand? or to effectively communicate true identity through your current brand? Either way, we are here to help you succeed.
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