What Makes A Strong Brand Identity and How Can Businesses Achieve It?

For any businesses, a way to be recognized and known is through your brand. The importance of a strong brand identity can improve the overall position of a business among competitors and can foster loyalty among customers. 

But what really is a strong brand identity? And how does a business achieve it? 

In this article, we will be looking into what is exactly considered a strong brand identity and what are the steps to be taken in order to achieve it. 

Firstly, we need to understand what a brand is for a business. According to a Forbes article, in the early days the definition of a brand was simply just a name given to identify a product or service. But as the years go by, the understanding of what a brand really is has progressively changed. 

Businesses began to grasp the concept that the products and services that are being sold are given a perception beyond just through their distinctive names. In the modern era, the distinction between what a brand and a brand name has become much more clearer. 

We now understand that a brand name is something that is fixed and is the first thing that people see. However, a brand is more of an idea or perception of a business deriving from the brand name. It is something that people perceive in their minds about your business through what they have seen factually and also emotionally.

To put simply, your brand needs to capture through both the eyes and the minds of those potential customers. 

Now that we understand what a brand is, what about brand identity?

A brand identity is divided into 2. There is the visual aspect of a brand identity and there is also the personality and values aspect of a brand identity. For the visual aspect, this would indicate what the customers are able to see through their eyes in regards to the brand. This would include different elements such as colours, typography, logos and overall the looks of the brand. 

On the other hand, we have the personality and values of the brand. In contrast to the initial one we discussed, the personality and values of the brand can be seen by the customers through their own perceptions. This can usually be seen by what kind of unique characteristics a brand can show through its own values which may have a more emotional connection to customers. This shows that a brand is not simply just matter but also something that customers can relate and build a deeper connection with. 

Let’s look into what makes a strong brand identity

A strong brand identity would need to include 5 important elements. Those elements are:

• The purpose and vision
• The values
• The personality
• The voice
• The visuals

A business with a strong brand identity, would need to strengthen all 5 elements to ensure that they are able to compete among their competitors. 

All 5 of these elements are included in this step-by-step on how to build a strong brand identity.

1. Define your purpose and vision: A good purpose should include a vision that goes beyond just making money. Create a purpose and vision that is attainable to make sure you stand out from the crowd. Tesla is an example of a brand with a defined purpose and vision to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. Their vision is to ultimately change the entire energy ecosystem to using renewable energy. With this in place, they are able to focus on producing multiple innovative automobiles which aligns with their purpose and to be carried over into their vision.

Now to build your purpose and vision, here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. What am I most passionate about in life?
2. What problems will my brand be able to solve?
3. Where do I see my brand in 5, 10, or 20 years?
4. What kind of work am I willing to put in, in order to achieve a major milestone? 

2. Straighten your values: Your values are the beliefs that you carry that can determine your decision making as a brand. A great brand value should be able to build emotional connections with customers and generate loyalty. Your values should be reflected through your products and services, an example would be Ben & Jerrys ice cream. The brand values social justice, environmental sustainability and economic fairness. To ensure their products are sustainable, they source their products responsibly and take part in fair trade practices.

To ensure your values are straight, here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. What is the deeper purpose behind our brand?
2. What beliefs do we hold regardless of circumstances?
3. What drives our passion and commitment to the brand?

3. Shine your personality: Just like humans, a brand needs their own individual personality to shine. A brand with a good personality should align with how a brand wants to be perceived. An example of a brand known for having a strong personality is Nike, they take pride in being an inclusive, inspirational and innovative brand. It has shown through their marketing campaigns where they came out with their current ‘Just do it’ slogan which has initiated a movement to get courage, take action and overcome obstacles.

To make your brand personality shine, here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. What human traits best represent my brand?
2. What kind of relationship do I want to build with my customers?
3. What unique personality traits can set my brand apart from competitors?

4. Find your voice: Communication is very important for a brand because it is a way for you to reach out to your target customers. Your brand’s voice can also be used to attract more customers depending on how well it stands out. The food franchise Wendy’s has made their voice stand out by making use of humor and wit to gain attention on social media platforms such previously known as Twitter, now X. They have gained the attention of large audiences due to their roast comebacks to others on the platform which many have found amusing which makes them stand out from the crowd.

Finding your brand’s voice is not easy so, here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. Who is my target audience? And what is their communication preference?
2. How do I want my audience to feel when they interact with my brand?
3. What feedback have I received about my brand’s communication?

5. Accentuate your visual: The overall looks of your brand is very important because it will be the first impression the customers have of your brand. Your visual should always align with your personality and values to be distinct from competitors. Apple for example is known for their sleek, minimalistic and consistent visual. The visuals and designs of their products are so specific to their brand that many would be able to identify that it is an apple product regardless if it was a phone or a watch. Their consistency in design is what helps the brand become memorable and iconic for their customers.

To accentuate your visual, here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. What kind of visual elements best represent my brand’s personality?
2. What colors, fonts, and design styles align with my desired personality?
3. How should my brand’s visual identity make people feel?

Now that you have done the step by step, it is time to implement and review your strong brand identity. It is important that brands can constantly keep up to date with what is currently happening in the surrounding to ensure that it can still resonate with customers and stay relevant among competitors. Building a strong brand identity will always be an on-going process and brands should constantly adapt to any future changes in order to remain a strong brand.