A Winning Brand Identity: 4 Steps To Take Towards One

Wondering which steps to take towards a winning brand identity? This article gives you the 4 steps you need to take.

If you’re got your eyes set on the proverbial throne in your industry, no matter if you’re launching a startup or a running an established business, then you should know that the only way to become a leader is to build a brand everyone loves.

Well, not everyone needs to love you, but you do need to be recognizable, likable, a bit controversial, and trustworthy enough to stand out in a sea of competitors. Like Apple, or Google, or Walmart – you know, the brands everyone’s jealous of yet everyone needs in their lives.

Now, you’re probably not going to build the next Amazon empire, but what you certainly can achieve is to build a brand with such a strong online and offline presence that people will naturally gravitate towards you on social media and other relevant platforms.

Coupled with other crucial elements such as the quality of your products and stellar customer service, your brand will stand a real chance in the oversaturated marketplace. Keep on reading to find out how to create a winning brand identity.

Here are 4 Steps Toward a Winning Brand Identity

Step 1: Define your brand’s personality

Your brand’s personality is the foundation of your entire identity, and it will define the perception of your company, in turn appealing to your demographic or alienating it depending on how well you define your traits, values, and other crucial elements.

While everyone else is focusing solely on the visual aspects of their brands, you need to be among the few that observe branding as a multifaceted problem that it is. And it all begins with your values.

At the core of a winning brand identity are the values that define it, which need to complement the values of your demographic, otherwise your brand won’t be able to evoke the right emotions. And you should know that emotions govern the consumer market to a great extent.

With that in mind, be sure to define your core values. Weave them into your tone of voice and content. Also make sure that your visual identity complements your brand’s personality across the board.

Step 2: Build a striking visual presence

Now that you have a winning personality in place, it’s time to build a visual identity that portrays your values, and will present a striking image people will remember easily. After all, one of the crucial aspects of a successful brand is its memorable logo and color scheme, so there’s no need to needlessly complicate the design.

Instead, stick to the following rules:

1. The ideation process should yield numerous potential logotypes. Don’t settle for the first thing your designers give you.

2. Make it simple and memorable. Typically, it shouldn’t take an average person more than five strokes with a pen to recreate your logo crudely.

3. Pay attention to the size and density of the design, as you need to make sure the logo is clearly visible on all screen sizes and platforms.

4. Avoid overly bright colors, and use complementary hues that are close together on the color wheel.

5. Pay special attention to the typography. Make it unique to your brand, and avoid popular fonts.

6. Make the logo easily printable on offline materials. This will be crucial for your offline strategy.

Step 3: Integrate into your offline marketing strategy

Before we move on to the challenges of content creation and the dissemination of your brand in the online world, let’s address the importance of branded promotional printing for your brand’s recognition, trust, and engagement within the community. Keep in mind that your brand needs to have a strong offline presence as well, in order to fuel your online strategy and create an all-around recognizable image.

This is best achieved through promotional product that you can integrate into the lives of your customers seamlessly. Gift cards, pens, flyers, water bottles, USB sticks, mugs, balloons, you name it, if it’s free, the customer wants it. This is an excellent way to put your message and visuals out there, and make yourself visible to online audiences as well.

Step 4: Weave the elements into your content

Speaking of online audiences, now is the time to weave your brand’s identity into your content strategy. Content creation is one of the best and most powerful ways to make your brand come to life and see the light of day.

It’s also the best way to get your brand noticed in the online world, as content creation will directly affect your standing in the SERPs.

Here are some tips on creating a winning content strategy for your brand and create a winning brand identity

1. Make your content speak the language of your brand. Integrate your brand’s visuals. Build a unique writing style and tone of voice. Make sure your values are clearly presented throughout.

2. Research relevant keywords and optimize every piece of content for maximum readability.

3. Make sure to diversify your content. Include articles, images, infographics, videos, podcasts, user-generated content, and more into your content strategy.

4. Disseminate your brand across the online world through social media, email marketing, guest posting, and regular publishing on your website.

5. Engage with your audience on social media and via email. Keep the conversation going. Also encourage them to share your content with their friends and family. This will help to build your brand identity.

In closing

Building a brand is a long and oftentimes expensive process. It’s the most important element that will define the future of your company. By taking these steps you will have elevated your brand above the rest in your field and set the stage for long-term success and recognition among the top companies on the global market.

Do you agree with the above steps to create a winning brand identity? Leave a comment below if you do or don’t.

Watch this space for updates in the Hacks category on Running Wolf’s Rant.