How to build a Brand identity: Defining the identity of a brand in 5 steps

How to build a brand identity

5 ideas on how to build a brand identity on the web from scratch

It’s not very often that you have the luck (or bad luck, depending on your point of view!) Of launching a brand on the web that didn’t exist until yesterday and therefore having to create the brand identity from scratch.

Where to start?

I will try to give you some ideas to overcome the first obstacles of the:

• Come?
• Dove?
• Why?

and lay the foundations for building a brand identity.

How to bring your brand to a stable success?

With a view to positioning the brand among the successful places, it is important to focus on

• Brand identity , knowing who one is and clearly communicating it
• Brand awareness , being known
• Brand reputation , be appreciated

In order to maintain a stable niche status we must focus on

• A own storytelling 
• Distinctive elements, starting from the logo
• User generated content
• Site and backlink audits
• Personal branding, starting locally
• Pay-off

What is a Brand

First of all, let’s try to understand what a brand is. The brand is the brand, or “the trade name or symbol that distinguishes a product, a commodity”

But it is not just the name by which we call a product.

The brand embodies a series of sensations that individuals attribute to it, which can be positive or negative

A brand can evoke:

• confidence;
• safety;
• indignation;
• can pass on values ​​to its users.

Here then the definition of the brand identity of a brand or a company takes on an enormous significance for the success of a communication strategy.

So let’s see together the 5 steps that will lead you to the definition of this identity and to the development of a successful project.

1. Enter the mind of the Customer

The first very important step to build the identity of a brand or define a corporate identity is to have one or more meetings with the customer and try to understand everything that led to the birth of this brand . Here are some questions that will give you the information to proceed with the definition of your client’s brand identity:

• How long have you been thinking about the project?
• What is your cultural / working background?
• What is the image you want to give of your brand?
• What does it best represent?
• What are your values?

By answering all these questions, you will have an overview of the project that will help you stay more focused on the essence of the brand.

2. Collect the information visually

Once all the preliminary information for defining the client’s brand identity has been collected, try to organize them visually. This will help you to better visualize what the brand represents and what it should convey to potential buyers.

For this purpose it may be useful to create a moodboard, in which insert images that can evoke feelings linked to the brand: materials, colors, objects, scenes of life.

Example of a moodboard created for the Little Ones children’s clothing brand

There are many ready-to-fill moodboard models online, and you’ll be spoiled for choice!

In the same way you can create a list of adjectives that will help you define the brand identity and the products that you will have to promote, also taking inspiration from the sensations evoked by the moodboard . Here is an example referring to the moodboard above:

• quality;
• essential;
• timeless;
• natural;
• soft;
• authentic;
• comfortable.

These adjectives will help you later also in the writing of the copy .

3. Naming and design of the LogoM

The third step on how to build brand identity is forming the name and design of the logo for your brand

Let’s now move on to the more complex and delicate phase of the whole process: the creation of a name and a logo for the new brand.

Here you can find yourself in front of two roads: your client already has a clear name for his brand, because maybe it’s a family brand that takes the name of the founder; or you will have to design naming and logo from scratch and define the customer’s brand identity in the most effective way.

This last eventuality will require a real brainstorming to find the winning idea that perfectly defines the brand identity (or coordinated image of the brand ).

For the choice of the name I can give you some simple suggestions to follow in order not to run into trivial errors:

• Make a thorough analysis and complete research, throw down some ideas and verify that similar brands do not already exist , especially in the same sector. It would be scary to launch a new beverage called Red Cow on the market , don’t you think?
• Look for an original name, impactful , that remains well carved in the mind of the possible buyer. Avoid banality, like “All Gardening” or “Flowers & Plants” .
• At the same time, however, brand identity must be defined by a simple, incisive and easily understandable term for the target audience. You can’t think of something like “Hard Working Vehicles”for a company that has to sell tractors to farmers on the Italian market.
• Be creative. Okay, easy to say … Try a mind map, write some words that relate to the brand, find synonyms, antonyms, create word games, mental associations. Try also to think about semantics . You will see that in the end you will find the right combination.

Well, having found the name, it’s time to move on to designing the logo. Here too the subject is quite wide and a single article would not be enough to explain the principles that govern the logo identity, but I will try to give you some useful tips.

Logotypes and Pictograms

The logo can be made up only of the writing, the logotype , or even include a graphic symbol or pictogram. The logos of the most famous companies have now become so recognizable that they can be used even without their own logo. This means that the brand’s brand identity construction has hit the mark.

Some examples of famous logos:

Advice for creating a new logo:

• For the logo, try to use a custom font , or in any case not directly attributable to that of another already famous brand. So avoid something like:

• Focus on simplicity. Do not use images that are too complex, many colors or different fonts. Better to use iconic images, 2 or 3 colors and possibly only one font, or two at the most.
• Remember that the logo must be adaptable to any situation. Whether printed on the company’s outdoor sign, reduced to a minimum in the reduced header of the website or printed in black and white on the letterhead must still maintain its identity and recognizability.
• Pay close attention to the choice of colors. Each color, in fact, transmits certain stimuli to our brain, and can, therefore, evoke different emotions or perceptions and associations of ideas. When defining the brand identity of a company you need to know which emotions the brand wants to play. Based on this the graphic designer will proceed to create the corresponding logo. Here you can use the mood board and adjectives you listed above. Try to use color whose meaning is closer to the perception you want to give of the brand. Red, for example, is a color that transmits energy and increases the heartbeat and is often used in the food industry.

On the Marketo blog an infographic was published that summarizes the consumers’ response to certain colors: 

To have clear examples to follow, type in the Google image search “ Bad logo examples ” and you will have a wide range of logos that are not really successful. Surely, at the base of these projects, there was an incorrect analysis of the brand identity of the brand.

4. Definition of the strategy and communication tone

Okay, now you have your logo ready, you’ve identified the communication goals and what you want to convey. The time has come to plan the communication strategy and define the tone of voice to be used, that is the style to be given to brand communication.

Identify People

To define the brand identity of a brand it is essential to identify the target to which the brand is aimed. To do this you will first need to identify the buyer personas. Who are the Personas? They are fictitious characters, identified as possible users of the brand.

Once you have identified the profiles of your potential users, you can start planning your strategy.

For example: have you concluded that your possible target is mainly composed of young people aged 20 to 35, passionate about sporting activities and with a very active social life? The tone of your communication will be colloquial, casual, fresh, cheerful. You can use bright colors and make extensive use of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and maybe Snapchat.

Define and monitor behavior

After defining the brand identity of your client through a  consistent naming , identity logo and brand design, and having identified the target to which it is addressed, you must also prepare yourself for the possible flow of users’ behavior on the site , thinking about which ones should be the elements that will attract the attention of potential customers. It is important to define exactly where to place these elements at the planning stage, to leave nothing to chance and increase the effectiveness of your communication strategy.

It is equally important, once the site is published, to monitor user behavior using the appropriate Google Analytics tools and tools for creating heatmaps.

Hotjar is an excellent tool in this sense, many features are already present in the free version, although with some limitations, and in addition to the various click, scroll and movement heatmaps it allows users to record user sessions to understand how they move around inside the site.

Heatmap from the bioversityinternational.com site, the most clicked areas in red

5. Communicate the brand

Well, after 105 coffees and 75 hours of sleep in 15 days you have defined your client’s brand identity and you have reached the last pre-launch phase of the brand: the development of web communication .

You have gathered all the necessary information, you have listed the strengths of the brand, you have defined the objectives to be reached with the customer, you have thoroughly analyzed what you want the brand to convey to users, you have created a logo and defined what strategy and which tools to use to obtain the set results. Your brand identity is clear, now you are ready for the development of the website and all the associated communication channels: social , DEM, landing pages .

In conclusion

This concludes how to build a brand identity. The road that leads to the success of a brand is fraught with dangers, a lot depends on the quality of the product, of course, but knowing how to build a clear and coherent brand identity and setting a communication strategy in line with this is equally important for the success of a brand name. Later, creating a good fan base and cultivating it over time will undoubtedly be the key to continuing to get good fruit.