5 Steps to Creating a Brand Identity

November 11, 2022 Abbey Van Wyngarden

Brand Identity 101 | Creative DSM

Developing a brand identity requires more than creating a logo. Although a logo can be the symbol of a business, it is not the entirety of a brand. In fact, creating a logo is just one small step toward developing a strong brand identity. Follow along to learn about the 5 important steps of create a brand identity unique to your own company!

Research Your Audience, Value Proposition and Competition

The first step at creating your own brand identity is understanding the other brands and audiences within your ideal market. Audience research and understanding is crucial for developing a brand identity because without understanding your audience, how will you have a brand? Some common questions to ask yourself and research are:

Who is my ideal audience?
What are their biggest pains?
How will my product help resolve their pains?

Another initial step to focus on is understanding your brand’s value proposition and competition. What makes your business unique from other competitors? What are your competitors offering that you aren’t?

Design the Logo and a Template For it

Your brand logo needs to be unique and show the personality of who you are. Creating and designing a logo will help bring your brand to life and get others interested in what you provide!

Your logo is what will help distinguish your business aside from others and is considered the most recognizable part of your brand. Creating a color palette and typeface can then be used across any advertising or marketing your business decides to do!

Language You Can Use to Connect, Advertise and Embody on Social Media

Now that your brand has been established, you’re now ready to integrate it within your audience and community!

Make sure to use language that connects with your audience, but also matches your brand personality and character. You don't want to be providing messages to your audience that don't align with your brand’s core values and personality.

Creating and designing ads, whether they are print or digital, is a highly effective way to introduce your brand and company to everyone!

Building connections with your designed audience can also be done through social media. With an array of platforms to connect your brand to, there are many ways to get heard and seen!

Know What to Avoid

By following the steps above, you seem to be on the right track of creating a strong brand identity, but if you’re guilty of doing any of the practices below, you might be leading yourself to failure.

Don’t give customers mixed messages.
Be unique, don’t copy.
Don’t lose consistency between online and offline.
Scale, don’t sacrifice.

Monitor Your Brand

Now that you have created your brand identity, you have to monitor it to stay on track. Using different analytics platforms can help you view the success rate and failures of your brand, as well as view the comments on your different social media platforms. Ensuring that your brand stays on track will create a memorable brand for your audience and customers!