Having a brand identity is extremely important to your
business’s success. However, many business owners have
misconceptions about brand identities that can damage their
businesses.
“Brand identity” is the result of the combination of
consistent visual elements that are used in your marketing
materials. A basic brand identity consists of a logo,
business card, letterhead, and envelope. It can be extended
to include a website, brochure, folder, flyer, or any other
professionally designed pieces.
I’m not a big company:Â I can’t have/create/build a brand.
Just because your company’s not huge doesn’t mean that you
can’t benefit from creating a brand identity. Even for the
smallest company, a brand identity will make you look
bigger than you are, will make you appear more
professional, and will make your sales process easier.
You’ll also have a starting point for designing all of your
marketing pieces, and your brand identity will make your
marketing a breeze as well.
You might not be able to create a branding program that is
as comprehensive and self-sustaining as those of some of
the big companies, because you won’t be able to educate
your clients like they can. Big companies with immediately
recognizable logos and brand materials have made those
logos and materials recognizable by spending a lot of time,
money, and effort on educating the public about their
brands. This is mainly done through advertising.
But this isn’t to say that you should jump out there once
you have built a brand and start advertising; for many
small businesses, advertising is expensive and doesn’t
offer a good return on investment.
I run my business in a personalized, one-on-one way:
building a brand would make my business impersonal.
Building a brand identity isn’t necessarily a
depersonalizing tactic. You can build a brand that’s very
personalized, and even centered on you and the way that you
work with your clients. You can even use the personalized
way that you run your business as a differentiation tool.
That personalization can be one of the pieces of your
business that makes you different.
Some major brands are built with this personalization. For
example, Mrs. Field’s Cookies is built all around her
story, techniques, and recipes.
Having a brand identity shouldn’t change the way that your
business works. There might be some slight changes when you
start working on the inner layers of your brand, but brand
identity just changes the face of your business to the
public, making it look cleaner and more organized and
professional. You can even design your brand identity to
look personalized by using a signature, initials, or even
your photo in your logo or Visual Vocabulary.
Creating a brand is too much work.
There is a lot of work involved in creating a brand
identity and then creating the rest of the brand to match
it. But it’s all part of the overall work that you should
do when you begin your business: determining your
differentiators, creating your brand foundation and
creating some of your brand basics, and positioning your
brand.
Doing this work will give your business a clear path, and
will make all aspects of your business easier. You will
have the groundwork for your business laid out, and you’ll
be able to build on that groundwork to create success.
Beyond this groundwork, you shouldn’t have to do much work;
if you pick a good designer, you should be able to take
more of an advisory role. Beyond answering some initial
questions about your business and brand, you should be able
to sit back and make the choices between options presented
to you by that hired specialist, throughout the development
of your logo and brand identity.
Your level of involvement in the design process will also
vary depending on the amount of personalization that you
have in your business. If you’re running a very
personalized business, then you will probably want to guide
the design process closely, since in a personalized
business your logo should reflect your tastes and style. If
you’re building a bigger business, then the style of your
logo should reflect the industry and what’s best for your
business; often, a designer will guide those choices.
I can’t use a symbol that’s been used before:Â I have to be
entirely unique.
By using a variation of a symbol that’s been used before,
you’re leveraging the recognition and meaning that the
symbol already has. This is often the best course of action
for small businesses, because you won’t have a large budget
to spend on educating your audience on the meaning of a new
symbol.
What should be unique about your brand identity is the way
that you use these symbols. You can develop new
combinations of symbols to communicate your message. Or you
can arrange the symbols in a different way, or use them in
place of letters in your logo to make it more unique.
Another way that you can make your symbols unique is to
draw them using different techniques or effects, such as
calligraphy or paint strokes, or using different
proportions. These techniques make your symbols unique and
interesting, and can also communicate more of your brand’s
personality.
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Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big
visibility for small businesses. As the owner of elf
design, Erin is passionate about helping her clients stand
out in front of their competition and attract more clients.
Her “Define Your Difference Branding Workbook” will help
you with your brand definition – the most important step in
the brand identity design process.
http://www.elf-design.com/products-define.html
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