How to Build a Brand Identity

As seen, the brand identity is composed of all those elements and strategies that make your brand unique.

Creating a brand identity means telling the story of the brand, through its values and the stories it carries with it.

Often mistakenly, the creation of a brand identity is thought to be just a creative process (we will see this), but in reality, it's a broader and more complex discussion.

Like all marketing activities, the construction of a brand identity involves various phases: an analytical phase, a planning phase, and a creative and operational phase.

The first two are fundamental in understanding the state of the art of the reference sector but also the situation of one's own brand in the market, and within them, certain very specific marketing operations must be carried out.

Particularly, in the analytical phase for creating a brand identity, it begins with market analysis and the SWOT analysis (which starts to also investigate the characteristics of your brand).

An effective market analysis combined with a clear idea of one's own brand are the fundamental bases to be able to create a unique brand identity.

How to create a successful brand identity: analytical phase and planning

To analyze its own features, it will be crucial to know your target audience (an excellent idea is to use buyer personas).

The buyer personas are fictional profiles of users that help you understand who your actual target audience really is.

Once this tool is used, it will then be essential to understand how these fictitious users interact with each other through the Customer Journey (identifying touchpoints, which are the points of contact between you and the users both online and offline).

After carrying out these operations, you will know your company and your target audience better.

The next logical step is to search for your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). In simple terms, what makes you unique compared to the competition.

With these steps, you will well understand the characteristics of your company.

The next phase will be the creative one: giving voice to your brand through images (logo and coordinated image) and texts (name, communication, and slogan).

How to build your brand identity: naming

Now you know what you want to communicate, and it's time to name your brand.

This stage is called naming and encompasses everything that you are.

The brand name must convey values, emotions, and sensations that you want to emerge from your trademark, as it is the first element the user will see, the one that will remain etched in their mind, and thus what represents you.

Usually, to do naming, one starts by drafting a long list of names which will be gradually discarded until finding the right one (through the technique of brainstorming).

How to build your brand identity: logo

The next step is to materialize the visual form of the name: your company logo.

Here, in this phase imagination takes center stage, but it's still necessary to maintain the guidelines that have brought us this far.

The logo must indeed represent all the values and emotions that you have evoked through the name.

The choice of color and any typographic font choices are always deliberate, also the result of an in-depth study of color psychology.

Every color and every font, in fact, represent and convey certain values and emotions, which is why you must pay utmost attention to each strategic decision.

In an early phase, when the brand is not yet famous, it is advisable to pair the pictogram (visual part) with a > logo (textual part).

Nike, for example, for a short period had removed the logotype, keeping only the famous swoosh, but more recently has reintroduced the NIKE wording as well, demonstrating the strategic importance of reinforcing the pictogram with the lettering.

Once the logo and font have been created, the next step will be to create a consistent and coherent corporate image in line with what has been done so far.

Remember: the logo, style, and colors will be adapted online and offline across various formats and different media.

How to build your brand identity: communication and social media

Once you have designed a logo, name, and typography for your brand, it will be essential to create targeted communication that is unique and consistent with your brand's values.

This will also be used on the web through persuasive copy on websites, social media, and printed materials.

If the logo is well-designed, it will have unique visual elements that are capable of communicating perfectly on a perceptual level.

Examples include the powerful 'M's of McDonald's which were a distinctive feature, especially at the beginning of the brand's global rise.

These Interesting form are essential to further solidify the logo in the market and create a non-conventional visual communication.

Examples of successful brand identity creation: coca-cola

The logo-brand association with Coca-Cola is almost immediate. This is because the logo features the brand's letters with small unique details (the connection between the letters themselves).

Coca-Cola is not just this. In the 2000s, the famous polar bear along with the payoff "Share a Coca-Cola" entered the collective imagination and still remain etched in the mind.

This advertisement represents all of Coca-Cola's values: family, simplicity, playful communication.

The colors of Coca-Cola are also a perfect mix of communication and clarity of corporate values. Red conveys passion and trust while the font is playful and whimsical.

One last detail: the Coca-Cola bottle is unique, and its packaging, although imitated, remains a forerunner.

To this day, Coca-Cola works extensively on the bottles with campaigns of extreme personalization, where each user can, for example, have their own bottle with their name printed on it.

Creating a brand identity is a lengthy process, but it is the foundation for success among the dense crowd of start-ups and new offerings that enter the market every day.

Strengthen your brand identity with Framework360

Framework360 is an innovative and comprehensive platform for everything related to digital marketing, and for this reason, it can help you strengthen and make your brand identity known.

With it, you can indeed create your own online space, simply and efficiently, without needing knowledge in website building and programming, using various tools, including an intuitive visual builder, which will assist you in setting up your site across all its pages and components (header, footer, texts, images, etc...), and a settings section, which will give you the opportunity to leverage your logo, specially designed for your website, set up a favicon, a watermark and much more.

Try Framework360 for your brand!