How To Build Your Brand’s Visual Identity

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Every brand owner would like to know how to boost the company’s image, and to make it unique and recognizable on the market. Branding and marketing may not be common knowledge to all business owners and can require a little experience and effort to get right. However, after some research, it’s not that challenging to build your brand identity on the market.

One of the most important aspects in which every brand is seen by potential customers is the visual side. It’s no secret that image is the most powerful means of communication – a logo, a poster, or an attractive website are what counts in terms of a brand’s marketing and popularity.

How do you use this knowledge to promote your brand on the market by building its visual identity?

Define Your Brand

Before starting to plan a brand’s promotional campaign, it is necessary to precisely define the brand. What does it mean? Well, a manager has to be aware of the competition and examine it, in order to establish a strong and original brand. No matter if you’re planning to use some content or graphic design services, or do everything on your own, ask yourself as well as your team some important questions:

• What is the goal of your brand? What is the target product/service?
• Who is your target customer?
• What words would you use to describe your brand? What would the visual representations of these words be?
• How can you use these visual representations? In a logo, on a website, etc.?
• What are the distinctive features of your brand on the market? Analyze other similar companies and their brand marketing.

Defining a brand’s goal and target product or service is the first element that you should consider. A goal should be clearly set.

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For example, if the aim of a clothes brand would be to provide people with fashionable, sustainable clothes in a particular style. It should match the target product – a well-designed, comfortable, and fashionable piece of clothing.

The next step is defining your target customer – depending on who you’d like it to be – young people, kids, middle-aged women? This will help you narrow down the target group of customers and better adjust your visual branding campaign.

Choosing the right words that accurately describe your brand is equally crucial. They are the base for the whole visual aspect.

For example, a clothing brand may choose words: ‘comfort, elegance & fashion’, to describe its products. Accordingly, a company that is concerned with IT services could go for ‘fast service, high-quality & security’.

Another question that is worth asking is how to create visual representations of the keywords. Comfort and elegance, for instance, are often associated with light colors and smooth shapes. These could become a base for an inspiring logo or a well-designed website. To get to know more about content planning and UX, visit this website.

Once you establish a base for your company’s visual image, the last step to create the identity is to link the visual features to a brand’s philosophy. For example, good complementation of a clothes brand image would be elegant, sensual packaging and labels, as well as web and social media design.

Additional Tips: Be Consistent

Consistency is the key to the success of every brand. Customers are astute and ready to catch even a minimal mistake. Try to keep all your content along the same lines. For example, if you have a handmade jewelry brand, try to keep all the visual aspects elegant, sensual, and simple. On the contrary, the optimal image of a menswear brand would be full of masculinity, bravery, and a casual look.

If you’re not consistent in these aspects and lose track by mistake, your customers will surely notice – an eco-friendly brand using plastic packages, for instance, would not be on the top for long after such marketing a fail.

Additional Tips: Take Care of Your Content

Many brand managers focus too much on graphic design, while they don’t pay attention to content. It is one of the basic means of a brand’s communication – the words that are used, the forms of social media communication are as important as nice logos or packaging is.

Well-planned content has an appropriate tone of voice. What is it? A tone of voice is the way in which the brand is ‘speaking’ to the potential customers – it will be different for a clothes brand, as well as for an IT service company. The former should use a casual, straightforward tone, while for the latter a more technical one would be more appropriate.

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What’s more, well-prepared content and an appropriate tone of voice can serve a vital function when it comes to gaining and retaining customers. For example, a clothes-selling brand may gain the loyalty of their clients by adding some discount vouchers to their products, as well as labels with words giving thanks for the purchase.

More tips on content planning are available here.

Additional Tips: Boost Your Campaign

Advertising campaigns are a vital part of every brand. Keep them consistent and ensure they correspond to the whole brand’s attitude.

For example, it’s an excellent idea to engage a sportsperson as an ambassador of a sports-catering diet brand. It will look reliable and consistent. Similarly, engaging real women in the campaign or a photoshoot of a plus-size clothing brand will boost its authenticity and social message.

A well-chosen, trustworthy ambassador might be a great step for boosting the company’s image and popularity. To read more about the ambassador’s role in building a brand’s visual identity, click here.

Conclusion

Building brand awareness and identity is not an easy aspect of management. It requires a lot of effort and planning, as well as market research and general visual sensitivity.

Some companies manage their PR campaigns on their own, while others decide to hire specialists in the field. No matter which option you choose, it’s vital to make use of the tips mentioned in this article.

Once a brand is aware of its uniqueness and has established clear goals for Its target product, service, or customer, keeping a stable and positive image on the market will not be much of a challenge.