When you think of companies with staying power, their brand identity probably comes to mind. These brands have remained relevant for years because they understood the importance of their brand identity and how to bring it to life. We all know what a brand is in general terms: It’s the name given to a company so that customers can identify its products as coming from one source. But there’s much more to it than that.
Your brand identity is how potential customers perceive your business’ products and services. It’s your logo and tagline, visual elements like colors and fonts used in ads or marketing materials, slogans, and other attributes such as reputation or goodwill among target audiences. The common thread ties every interaction together, from marketing content to customer service, to custom shipping boxes.
- Establishing Your Brand Identity
The first step in establishing your brand identity is to understand your audience. You need to focus on two key audiences: your target audience and your stakeholders. Your target audience is the people you want to serve or help. Your stakeholders are other important groups, such as investors and suppliers, who can either help or hinder your business.
Once you understand your target and stakeholders, you can create your brand identity. This includes deciding your logo and visual elements like colors, fonts, and tagline. But it’s also the character and personality of your business that remains consistent through all aspects of your business and outreach, from first contact to completed mail delivery.
- Creating a Logo
The logo is the visual symbol of your business across any number of different forms of media. It will be a small icon on your social media feed. On your printed business materials, from letterhead to shipping containers, it will be the first recognizable piece of branding people can see at a glance.
- Identifying Your Brand Voice
Visual and audio elements are essential, but there’s more to developing your brand. You still want to provide a unique experience to low-vision or hard-of-hearing clients. Deliberately crafting your brand voice helps prospects get an idea of what it will be like to work with you before they reach out for the first time.
Will you be aloof and professional? Or can they expect a friendly and welcoming environment where they’ll feel at ease? What values does your business hold? This will guide the language, examples, and tone of communicating with prospects and clients.
- Using Social Media to Promote Your Brand Identity
Social media has made helping people develop stronger relationships with your brand easier than ever. This medium allows you to bring potential customers behind the scenes to see how you make magic happen in their lives. You can even share photos of how many orders you are filling with your custom shipping boxes!
- Using Your Website to Promote Your Brand Identity
Your website is your online business location. It’s your office experience, offered digitally. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. By designing your site to be helpful and easy to use, your visitors will feel more confident in their decision to work with you. Your website can help answer their questions. And your brand voice can shine through on every page so they can feel like they know you and what you stand for.
- Using Video Ads to Promote Your Brand Identity
A video ad can be an effective way to promote your brand identity. You should create a video that explains how your product or service helps your target audience and what makes you stand out from your competitors. Show them how much care you put into customizing their customer experience, from planning to shipped deliveries.
This outlet helps provide your brand with both visual and audio representation. Consider, as an example, Flo from commercials for Progressive or the gecko used by Geico. Both have been consistent characters in their respective brand campaigns, providing a feeling of stability for customers for years.
- Using Print Ads to Promote Your Brand Identity
A print ad can be an excellent way to promote your brand identity. You can easily use it for advertising your product or service. Using your brand identity guidelines to develop the ads that represent your company makes them instantly recognizable and familiar, keeping you at the top of customers’ minds. They can even be combined with other branded materials, such as your boxes, to bring attention to upcoming sales and offers.
Conclusion
Your brand identity is essential to establishing your position in your industry. It makes you recognizable, memorable, and relatable to your customers, so they think of you first. If used correctly, it can be a powerful tool when developing stronger customer relationships.
