In today’s increasingly competitive business landscape, establishing a strong brand presence is essential for success. Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur, a startup looking to disrupt the market, or a corporate giant seeking to maintain relevance, the way you position your brand can make all the difference in capturing the attention of your audience and building lasting relationships with your customers.
Note: 🍋 Throughout this guide we will use the example of a food supplement company to better illustrate each task and information.
What is a Brand Strategy and Identity?
Your branding is much more than a name and a logo. It is how you are or aiming to be perceived by your target audience. It is the unique identity and image you create and maintain for your product, service, or organization through the design, the way you communicate, the messages you send and the experience you provide.
Your Branding differentiates your products or services from others in the market. It is a way to make a product or service stand out and be memorable, and it helps to create loyalty and long-term customer relationships. It is used to create a perception of quality and trust in the minds of customers, and to communicate the benefits and values of the brand.
To be more specific, we will focus today and tomorrow on creating your brand identity. The brand identity is the visual, verbal and actionable elements that make up your brand. It is the way the brand presents itself to the world.
We can use the so-called “Brand Onion” framework to define your brand identity. The onion consists of 4 main layers and 6 elements which we will work through today and tomorrow.
Brand Essence: The innermost layer that represents the company’s purpose. It represents the company’s reason for existence, what it stands for and what it wants to achieve.
Brand Values: The layer that represents the company’s beliefs and principles, and communicates what the company stands for and what it values most.
Brand Personality: It is the set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand. It is the unique personality that the brand projects to the world and it represents the company’s personality and behavior, and communicates how the company behaves and how it is perceived by others.
Brand in Action: The outermost layer that represents the company’s interactions with customers and is divided into three parts:
- Brand Design: What the brand looks like. Meaning the visual elements of a brand, such as the logo, color scheme, typography, imagery, and packaging that helps to create a memorable and recognizable brand, differentiate it from competitors and communicate the brand’s value proposition.
- Brand Voice: What the brand says, including the tone, language, and messaging used to communicate with customers.
- Brand Experience: What the brand does, including how customers experience the brand through various touchpoints, such as the website, packaging, customer service, advertising and the product or service itself. It encompasses the entire customer journey.
While you can always work through this toolkit on your own and within the time you need, we recommend doing so using a one day workshop format with the whole team. If you don’t have enough participants, you can always invite some of your peers to participate. If they fit into your target user profile, even better. If you’re a solopreneur and can’t get anyone to join in, you can of course also go through the different tasks by yourself.
You can hold this workshop in person or remotely, collaborating on the digital whiteboard.
Just as for your design sprint workshop, it is also advisable to have a facilitator and a decider.
The facilitator is responsible for leading the team through the workshop, helping the team stay focused, managing the schedule, and ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute their ideas.
The decider is responsible for making final decisions about which ideas and concepts to move forward with.
Lastly, we have prepared a Branding Stack 📋List of useful tools that will come in handy for developing your branding.
So let’s not waste any time and get started.
What are the Benefits of a well defined Brand Strategy and Identity?
For any business, a well-defined branding strategy is crucial. It not only helps your product or service stand out but also fosters customer loyalty and long-term relationships. A well defined branding strategy and design will help you to create:
- Memorability: A distinct brand stands out and remains in the minds of customers.
- Differentiation: Sets your product or service apart from competitors.
- Customer Loyalty: Builds trust and encourages repeat business.
- Perceived Quality: Creates a perception of quality and trust.
- Effective Communication: Clearly communicates the brand’s values and benefits.
- Long-term Success: Lays the foundation for lasting success and growth.
A well defined brand strategy and identity is crucial for all types of businesses
- For Entrepreneurs, establishing a strong brand strategy and identity is essential for carving out a unique market position and building brand equity from the outset.
- For Start-Ups, a well-defined brand strategy and identity provide a solid foundation for growth, helping to attract early adopters and secure funding.
- For Corporates, maintaining a consistent brand strategy and identity ensures alignment with corporate values and fosters trust among stakeholders, driving long-term success.
- For Investors, a well-defined brand strategy and identity signal a company’s understanding of its market and its potential for sustained growth and profitability.