Imagine seeing the shadow of a specific bottle against a vibrant red background – instantly, you think of Coca-Cola! This demonstrates the immense impact of visual branding, which keeps a brand top of mind for consumers.
Successful companies invest in marketing and sponsorships to consistently showcase their brand identity, ensuring customers don’t stray to other brands. If you want to thrive in the market, you can’t ignore branding and marketing.
Neglecting it keeps you struggling against competitors, while doing it wrong can sink you. That’s why today, we’ll explore essential branding elements and share marketing tips to give your brand a strong head start!
What are Brand Identity Elements?
The concept of branding can be a bit abstract for those without a marketing background. It's not just about your passion or hard work but rather how your business is perceived by others. Your brand is created through various elements that come together to form a cohesive and recognizable image.
These elements include your brand name, logo, color schemes, and more. Incorporating these branded elements allows you to differentiate yourself from your competitors and create a strong and memorable brand identity, and know what are the key elements of branding.
Catchy Name That Is Unforgettable
An American eyewear company tested out 2,000 names before they selected their brand name, “Warby Parker.” When they asked for feedback, Warby Parker received positive feedback. Participants claimed it is memorable and sounds like someone professional. Just imagine the extent they went to only to find a suitable name!
Naming a brand involves more than just coming up with a catchy string of words. A company’s name is part of its identity. And perhaps it is the most essential factor of all. It gives consumers a sense of who you are and is typically their first impression of your brand.
Choosing a brand name can be difficult, but determining your brand’s identity (including target market, culture, and objective) is straightforward. Once this is established, you may start thinking of names.
You’d be surprised that we use so many generalized words on a regular basis; that is actually a brand name. When consumers have a positive experience with a product, they may begin to refer to it by its brand name.
In informal conversation, individuals frequently say “call an Uber” when they mean “call a rideshare driver” or ask for a Kleenex when they want a tissue or Band-Aid instead of a tape.
The strongest brand names are typically brief, memorable, and distinctive without being too generic or similar to other brands. Your brand may be on its way to becoming a household name if you can nail one!
Captivating Logos That Symbolize Your Company
Your logo design is the foundation of your company’s identification. Before you get to start designing a logo for your company or brand, you must ask yourself the following questions.
- What is your purpose for starting your brand?
- What’s your brand’s aspiration?
- What's your brand's plan to change the world?
- What type of person do you want your brand to inspire?
Your mind will imagine several designs as soon as you have answered the questions because a logo is a visualization of a brand's purpose, aspiration, intention, and target audience. This is why logo design is such an important element for a brand. Well, you might agree that it can be a great contributor to a brand’s growth if I present an example.
Back in 2008, they already had a cool and trendy logo, but they decided to spend a whopping $1 million to make it even simpler and more relatable. The new logo showed a wave along with the globe, representing refreshing drinks, but there was a problem - they had an outer line around the globe.
Read Also: 10 Best UI Design Tools For Designer
The updated logo was visualizing Pepsi’s iconic wave along with the globe to the concept of drinks. They only noticed this issue six years later, in 2014. So, they made another small change and got rid of that waterline. Their idea was to show that the globe has no boundaries. This change helped them attract more young people to their brand.
Engaging Shapes & Forms That Ignite Audience Thought
When you see the Olympic logo’s circular shape, what comes to your mind first? Isn’t it friendship? Yes, you got it right. Every geometric shape has different emotions. So, when you shape your brand, you make sure that it meets your brand’s emotions. It sticks in your audience's mind when it hits the peak of perfection. This is how shape plays its role in brand design.
Let's take a closer look at Musemind's logo and see how shapes play a huge role in its branding. The logo features two triangles overlapping on a black square background. The triangle symbolizes aspiration, creation, and enlightenment, which aligns perfectly with Musemind's identity as an innovative design agency.
Meanwhile, the square background represents wholeness, stability, and security, reflecting Musemind's commitment to providing their clients with a secure and stable solution for all their design needs. This is how the shapes work together in Musemind's branding. Understanding the significance of shapes can help showcase who you are and what your brand is all about.
Evocative Colors & Shades That Evoke Emotions
Tiffany is the first name that comes to mind when I think of this color. “Tiffany Blue” is famous for the fact that it isn’t actually blue at all. Or, at the very least, not the royal blue or navy that we would think of when we hear the color.
Tiffany Blue inspires feelings of sophistication and richness. However, this is not necessarily the case for all blues. Lighter blues are commonly linked with tranquility, openness, and innocence, but deeper blues suggest a more mature sense of professionalism, security, and reliability.
Colors can affect how customers feel and what they think about a product or brand. 85% of buying decisions are made in the store, and color and appearance play a big role in that.
Colors are especially significant in website design because websites are where many visitors get their first interaction with a brand and so create their first impression. One study found that color can help people remember brands up to 80% better. Therefore, explore color psychology to learn how to choose the ideal color for your business.
Color Emotions and Psychology
- Black: Solemnity, Mourning, Elegance, Formality, Mystery, Sophistication, Power, Authority, And Strength
- Yellow: Happiness, Creativity, Optimism, Energy, And Attention
- Red: Passion, Love, Romance, Power, Strength, Determination, Energy, Excitement, Food, Appetite, Anger, Danger
- Green: Peace, Nature, Growth, Money, Health, And Envy
- Blue: Sophistication, Calmness, Relaxation, Aristocracy, Trust, Dependability, Creativity, Sadness
- Orange: Optimism, Confidence, Warmth, Creativity, Happiness, Well-Being, Inspiration
- Pink: Excitement, Passion, Feminity, Calmness, Innocence, Romance, Sweetness, Nurturing, Kindness, Playfulness, Tranquility, Warmth
- White: Purity, Innocence, Clarity, Simplicity, Transparency, Naturality, Coldness, Peace, Tranquility, Distant, Relaxation
Color psychology will help you understand how colors influence consumers’ perceptions of a brand and whether or not they convince consumers to consider particular brands or make a purchase.
Typography
Many corporations, like Netflix, Airbnb, Apple, and Coca-Cola, have designed their own typefaces in order to make typography a more important component of their brand identity.
According to an MIT study, unattractive fonts have a negative impact on readers’ emotional responses to content. One of the most important aspects of visual branding is selecting brand typography that reflects your company’s personality and ideals.
Just like colors, typefaces, and fonts show what your brand stands for and how it makes people feel. Typography can show what your brand stands for in many ways. For instance, clean, simple, and modern sans-serif fonts say something different than old-fashioned serif fonts.
Mono-spaced fonts look like they were made by a computer, while black letter and script fonts have a more personal feel. That’s why it’s important to pick your fonts carefully and know why you’re using them.
Memorable Taglines That Articulate Your Story
Have you ever noticed how certain phrases stick with us and define a brand's identity? Like McDonald's "I'm lovin' it" or Nike's "Just do it"? These taglines have a unique power to inspire and motivate.
A tagline is a concise statement that captures your brand's essence and benefits. It boosts recognition and sets you apart from competitors. To be effective, it should resonate with your audience, using familiar words with a creative twist or sharing your company's story.
Stories have a great emotional impact, so use them in your tagline to connect with your audience. Consistently use your tagline across platforms and create engaging content to reinforce your brand.
A tagline can significantly impact a brand's success. For example, a departmental store J.C. Penney's "Fair and Square" tagline failed to resonate with customers, leading to a decline in sales and eventual abandonment of the strategy. This shows the importance of accurately reflecting your brand's values and meeting customers' expectations with your tagline.
Images and Graphics
It takes only 50 milliseconds for people to form a first impression, so the photos you employ in your brand identity must contribute to positive impressions and do it quickly. High-quality, professional photography attracts potential clients because it shows that your company is detail-oriented, consistent, and has a good look.
It also makes your brand more relatable: When consumers see the face behind your business, they are more likely to connect and engage with you. According to a survey, 65% of business executives believe that photography and other visual elements, such as graphics and videos, are essential for telling your brand’s story.
Facebook image posts accounted for 87% of all engagements on brand pages. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images, and articles with 75-100 words of images receive twice as many social media shares as posts with fewer images.
The balance of your brand's identity, including its colors, logos, and messaging, should be complemented by photography. Brand photography may include photographs of your company's products, employees, office space, and any other components that are deemed essential. Images and videos are straightforward methods for maintaining customer awareness of your business.
Resonant Tone That Appeals to Your Consumers
The brand tone is basically how you talk to your audience as a brand. It's all about the style and way you communicate. This includes the words you use, the writing style you adopt, and even the emotions you convey in your messages. You know, all those things that give the brand its personality and reflect its values.
The catch is, do you keep your target audience in mind? You will be unable to establish your brand if it is misleading or fails to attract your target audience. You must deeply understand your audience’s emotions and interests to set a perfect tone for your business. It can vary for youth and old.
For instance, Wendy's changed its tone in 2017, becoming more sassy and witty on social media. This was a big shift from their previous, more formal approach. The change was led by Amy Brown, Wendy's social media manager at that time, who wanted to connect with younger consumers. She believed that a cheeky and self-deprecating tone would grab attention and get people talking.
And she was right! Wendy's new approach became an instant hit. Their tweets went viral and gained a massive social media following. The brand was praised for its clever comebacks and unique voice.
Why did it work so well? First, the tone was authentic and aligned with Wendy's brand as a challenger. Second, it was consistent across all platforms, making the brand recognizable. And third, the humor made Wendy's relatable and engaging.
Here’s What You Need to Do to Establish Your Brand,
To establish a brand, you need to consider more than just a logo and slogan. It involves various crucial elements of branding identity, including brand positioning, messaging, visual identity, and the overall customer experience. In this article, we will delve into the fundamentals of building a reputable brand that can serve as a valuable asset for your company.
Be Purpose-driven
A successful brand understands its own strengths and weaknesses. It is clear about its purpose and mission, focusing all its energy on becoming exactly what it was meant to be and addressing the specific problems it was designed to solve. Rather than attempting to cater to everyone, it stays true to its unique identity and serves its intended audience with dedication and precision.
Be Unique
Successful brands understand their unique value proposition and can articulate it concisely, highlighting what sets them apart from the competition. Instead of simply relying on established brands in a crowded market, they differentiate themselves by consistently communicating their distinct features and qualities that go above and beyond. By doing so, they carve out their own space and establish a strong brand message that resonates with their target audience.
Understands The Target Market
A successful brand understands its target market inside out. It clearly understands who is most likely to buy its products or use its services. Every aspect of the brand’s messaging is specifically tailored to resonate with this well-researched market. It’s okay if the brand doesn’t appeal to consumers who are unlikely to make a purchase. The focus is on deeply connecting with the target audience most likely to become loyal customers.
Always be Consistent with Your Brand
To build a strong brand, it’s crucial to clearly and consistently communicate your brand’s qualities and personality in all official communications. This doesn’t mean you have to be overly serious unless that aligns with your brand’s identity. Infusing humor, wit, or cheekiness is acceptable when appropriate.
This implies that every form of communication, whether it’s a press release, memo, tweet, or Instagram post, should reflect your brand’s personality. It’s essential for every representative of your brand to be mindful of how they portray the brand across all marketing, public relations, customer service, and social media platforms. This ensures that your brand is consistently represented and leaves a lasting impression on your audience.
Be Authentic
Authenticity is absolutely key for brands these days. When a brand is authentic, it builds trust and credibility with its audience. People want to know that a brand is genuine and true to its core values and promises. It’s all about being real and honest in both communication and actions. Being authentic entails that a brand not only clearly articulates who it is (its purpose) but also makes sure that “who it is” is actually who it claims to be.
Being authentic has some major benefits. First off, it helps a brand stand out from the crowd. In a world filled with competitors, being true to who you are sets you apart and attracts customers who really connect with your values.
But it’s not just about standing out. Authenticity also creates an emotional bond with customers. When a brand’s values align with the values of its target audience, it’s like a match made in heaven. That connection leads to loyalty and repeats business.
Be Thick-skinned
Even the most carefully planned and executed brand will inevitably face negative feedback. Some of this feedback may be valid, pointing out misunderstandings or areas where improvements are needed. However, there will also be instances where haters simply express negativity.
To ensure a comprehensive branding strategy, it is essential to have a plan in place to address consumer dissatisfaction, handle unfavorable publicity and negative feedback, and rectify any mistakes made in the public domain, particularly on social media.
Be Visually Striking
Crafting a visually striking brand holds immense importance, as it delves into the intricate workings of human psychology and intertwines with fundamental branding theories. As humans, we are inherently visual creatures, deeply influenced by captivating visuals that leave a lasting imprint on our minds. The strategic utilization of color palettes, typography, imagery, and design elements can evoke specific emotions and forge strong associations, ultimately shaping how a brand is perceived.
Drawing inspiration from the principles of Gestalt psychology, which explore how our brains interpret visual stimuli, to the concept of brand archetypes that embody certain personality traits, the visual elements employed by a brand serve as powerful conduits. They effortlessly capture attention, foster recognition, and cultivate a distinct brand identity that deeply resonates with the intended audience.
Conclusion
Mastering the six elements of brand identity in design can transform your business. Visual branding holds immense power, as seen in the instant recognition of Coca-Cola’s iconic bottle against a vibrant red backdrop.
Investing in a strong brand identity keeps you at the forefront of consumers’ minds and helps you stay ahead of competitors. Neglecting branding and marketing is risky while understanding these elements empowers your brand to stand out and thrive. Successful branding encompasses visual identity, brand story, messaging, resonance, differentiation, and audience connection.
