Related Articles
The way you position and identify your brand has a huge impact on the way you’re perceived, from the business opportunities you’re offered to the type of customer who purchases your products or services. Developing this brand identity often begins by asking a series of introspective questions: What does your company stand for? What issues do you care about? What gap in the market do you fill?
These are important questions to answer and reevaluate often as a business owner, but they’re far from the only ways to conceptualize your brand. Below, 11 Rolling Stone Culture Council members offer their best advice for finding your brand’s identity and explain why each step is so important.
Define Your Brand Based on Your Customers’ Needs
Your “brand” is how you appear in your customer’s mind, so you must define it in relation to their wants and aspirations. Be deliberate in this. Clearly delineate who your customers are and which of their needs you meet, as this will inform what style and voice will resonate with them. It’s also important to define what your brand is not. Do not try to be all things to all people. – Yule Schmidt, InVintory
Discover What Makes Your Service Special
Often, the “brand identity” conversation centers around a logo and color palette. For me, your brand is embedded in your behavior and the service you provide to customers. Identity is how you tell the story of how and why you deliver that service, and they should work hand in hand. Delving into what makes your service special, needed and relevant will really drive an understanding of brand and identity. – Michael Greig Thomas, Echo Base
Identify Your Best Qualities
Make a list of your best qualities according to you. Get feedback on whether they are true or not. If there is a match in perceived value, then use that to promote your brand identity. Find colors, shapes, slogans and anything else that supports that identity and use it. It’s OK to not be like others, but also remember that brands that don’t appeal don’t last. – Rene Nunez , Sensum
Do a Brand Audit
Focus groups, both qualitative and quantitative, are the most rigorous way to ensure you give your brand the best audit. Once audited, pass this information or get advice from a sector-specific brand strategist who can help tie up design, copy and tonality into one all-encompassing vision. – Robbie Murch, BUMP
Develop a Creative Filter for Your Brand
Clearly articulate the five attributes that make you unique in the market and use them as your framework for product development and decision-making. If an initiative doesn’t fit the filter, it likely isn’t on brand. It helps internal teams get aligned and demonstrates that your brand stands for something in the eyes of consumers. – Michael Klein, Trees Corporation
The Rolling Stone Culture Council is an invitation-only community for Influencers, Innovators and Creatives. Do I qualify?
Build a Brand Pyramid
It sounds cheesy and overly structured, but build a brand pyramid for yourself. Be brutally honest and force yourself to put the words on a page. Identify your tone, personality, functional benefits, emotional benefits and more. As a marketer, this is second nature and a fundamental tool to build and activate our brands, but seldomly do we use the tool on ourselves. – Brad Canario, Auxly
Look to Your Competition
Take a close look at your competition. What are they doing? What do you think you could improve on? Can you fill gaps in the market? Once you have a good understanding of the landscape, it will be much easier to determine what makes your brand unique. Craft messaging and visuals that reflect your brand’s personality and values. A strong brand identity will build relationships with customers. – Thomas Bresadola, Simplified Entertainment
Focus on These Key Elements
There are several aspects to building a strong brand identity and those include the company’s logo, slogan, colors, packaging and the company’s mission statement. These key elements, if done right, will highlight the brand identity and attract new customers to a brand while making existing customers feel at home. – Jenny Ta, GalaxE by HODL Assets, Inc.
Define Brand Values Internally and Externally
A brand identity is the embodiment and manifestation of your target audience. It’s what your customers, clients or prospects feel, think, believe and act when using your service or product or when associating with your company. I’d recommend both identifying your brand core values internally as well as externally from your audience. When both align, your brand will be original yet connect with your users. – Royston G King, Royston G King Group & Companies
Decide What Matters to You and Your Brand
Think about what truly matters to you as a person, the things that are nonnegotiable. Make sure you hire people who fit that mission. Your brand stems from your core values because you can only brand yourself with truth and integrity once you know what you stand for. – Victoria Kennedy, Marisa Johnson
Be Coherent and Consistent
It all comes down to looking for coherence across all areas and whichever media you choose, meaning coherent usage, graphics and language. It’s harder to be consistent with identity than it is with creating it. As challenges arise with time, one can be tempted to change brand positioning and lose sight of core values. Find identity where your core values lie instead of in market projections. – Jacob Mathison, Mathison Projects Inc.
