What is identity?

A strong, unique brand identity is an essential part of building a good relationship with your customers so they feel comfortable choosing you over your competitors.

There are 7 steps to building a brand identity:
• It begins with an idea
• Look to the future
• Know the competitors in your market
• Choose a tone of voice to fit your product and suit your market
• Don’t copy others, make your own mark
• Don’t just rely on your logo its about so much more
• Be consistent and bold

When you have your building blocks in place then you need to consider the practical elements of your brand identity. There are 8 as follows:

1. Logo – Every brand needs a logo and it goes on almost every asset you brand owns from business cards to your website, your merchandise, business templates, social media pages, advertsing and marketing materials. Your logo represents everything your brand stands for in an easy to recognize image.

2. Colour Palette – Colour expresses your brands key values and personality traits.

3. Shape – Shape is an important part of your branding strategy. Not just in your logo, but in your corporate identity, the shapes on your webpage backgrounds, packaging and advertsing materials.

4. Tagline – Your tagline is a vital part of your messaging. Not only does it tell your customers what you do it should also tell them what to expect.

5. Tone of voice & language – Your brand language is one of the most effective ways to shape how how the world perceives your brand. A brand’s tone of voice is what you read in all written material produced by the brand. Everything from how emails are written to the content on your website to the language you use on social media.

6. Fonts – Carefully selected fonts help to communicate your brand’s personality and values. Use these whereever your brand uses text such as your logo, your website, and email templates.

7. Imagery – This isn’t your logo or even specifc pieces of content you publish. It’s the choices you make about images and graphics you use on your website and other brand assets. Imagery works closely with other elements like colour and shape which contribute to the look and feel of your brand.

8. Positioning – Positioning is the space in the market you want your brand to fill. Making decisions about your brand isn’t just about what you offer your customers. It’s also about how your brand fits among other brands in its space. It will include decisions about pricing and all the other elements to make your offer more attractive than your competitors.

A good brand identity has a clear focus. It has been developed from a clear understanding of the business’ target audience, gained from market research, and creating consumer profiles. It is designed having taken into account the competition in the current market and promotes a unique selling points (USP) to help make the business stand out from the crowd.

Sourcing an excellent design team who specialise in brand design will help ensure that you create a unique, instantly recognisable logo for your brand that encompasses who you are as a business and your key values.

Brand tone of voice will vary depending on the service or product you provide. Think about what your business has to offer and how you want your audience to hear about it. If you’re a business advisor, your tone of voice might be more factual, to the point and relatable. An online fashion store, on the other hand, might have a more stylish, friendly and relaxed tone of voice. Learn more about how to enhance a brand identity with your brand tone of voice.

A mission statement is a formal summary of the purpose, aims and values of a company.

A core part of a business identity is having a strong company mission statement. Whether you’re defining your company mission statement for the first time when setting up a business, or reviewing and updating it later you should think about the following:

● Define what your company does
● Explain how your business does it
● Outline why your business does it
● Define the goals of the company

It’s important to understand the purpose of your business and what it is about your business proposition that makes it special. This together with your vision and mission statement will help you formulate your long-term business strategy. Having a clear Business Strategy will help provide the reference point you need to make important decisions.

Publishing your Mission Statement helps you to explain the purpose of your business to your clients, employees, and competitors. It helps you communicate what your values are and what you are trying to achieve.

This gives your customers an insight into what is important to you and what it will be like to work with you .
Starting, building and growing a business is challenging, but your Mission Statement and Vision provide an important reference point to help measure how far you’ve come, why you started and what you set out to achieve.

And when things get busy (which they will) they’ll always be there as a helpful reminder of the journey you and your business are on.

Every organisation has a culture. Making a conscious effort to design and promote it gives you the best chance of developing a healthy flourishing culture for everyone who comes in to contact with your business.

Every business should aim to reflect its culture in every aspect of its day to day work to be a real success.

Establishing a healthy company culture alongside your business values is important for both employees and customers. Creating a positive, inclusive and open working environment will help your employees feel valued and happy, leading to a better working environment which leads to better business all round.

As your business grows it’s important to continue to attend to company culture. The job is never finished. Ensuring that you retain employees and recruit new candidates who align with your company values and who want to work in a culture like yours.

Building a flourishing culture means giving your employees an opportunity to grow and develop alongside the business. By encouraging your employees to grow and giving them the space to do so, such as personal development time each week during work hours, can go a long way in ensuring longevity and loyalty of your employees.

It is important to encourage, recognise and reward employees at all times . But especially when they have performed duties above and beyond their job description, or for exceeding targets, or bringing in new business. Showing your appreciation for the work your employees do is essential to creating a happy working culture and environment. Aim to be a company that celebrate the small wins as well as the big ones.

Consider regular team building meetings and days to really help get creative minds flowing outside of work. This will help your employees feel appreciated as individuals rather than just another member of staff. And it’s where new ideas come from.

Customers are more likely to buy your products or use your services if they can align themselves with your company values. As a result, you can create a community of clients and employees who share similar values and are proud to be connected to your business.