What’s a brand and what’s brand strategy? Despite what you may think, a brand isn’t a business, let me explain.
Here we’ll be talking about what brand, brand strategy and brand identity are.
Questions we’ll answer:
1. What is a Brand?
2. What is a Brand Strategy?
3. What is a Brand Identity?
Image or link to contact for branding
01. What is a Brand?
A brand isn’t your website or logo. It isn’t your products or services either, that’s a business. A business only sells items. A brand gives people a reason to buy from your business.
A brand is your story.
It’s what makes you different. Your Purpose.
A brand is how other people see your business (or you). Your brand should be recognizable, special, eye-catching and it should tell a story.
Ask yourself:
What is my business? (What do I do? What makes me, me?)
Who is my business for? (Who are you targeting?)
Why did you start your business? (Your purpose.)
02. What is a Brand Strategy?
Brand Strategy is how a brand builds its identity and receives loyal support with customers and potential customers.
Brand Strategy is a plan created to help you with your long-term business goals.
A brand strategy holds different brand elements like brand values, voice, storytelling, and just overall the foundation of your brand.
Ask yourself:
Who are your ideal clients?
Who are your competitors?
What are you doing differently from your competitors?
Think of it as the skeleton, or backbone to your business, it holds everything together making it easy to move to the next process, brand identity.
03. What is Brand Identity?
Once you’ve created your brand’s foundation, you’re ready for your brand identity.
What’s a Brand Identity? It’s the final process of creating a brand. It should mirror your brand strategy, the visual representation of you.
The goal here is to visually tell your unique story and be consistent in your appearance to your audience using certain visuals.
Brand identity joins brand strategy and tells your story with visuals:
Logo Variations
- A logo variation is exactly what it sounds like, different variations or styles of your logo(specifically your main logo).
Color Palette
- A color palette , different colors have different vibe. Color theory! Certain color can be used visually communicate, signal action, influence mood, evoke certain emotions or even stimulate physiological reactions.
Font/Typography
- The font or the typography you choose might seem like a small detail but it’s actually one of the most important part of a brand identity.
Imagery
- Imagery, as in pictures. It’s known to have branded images which is just a way to say professional images.
Illustrations
- Illustrations as in patterns or digital designs create by your designer.
From the information collected from your story of brand and details from the brand strategy, you should reflect your story.
Now you can answer this:
Do you have a business, or do you have a brand?
