15 things to_think_your_way_through

Creating a Brand Identity:
15 Things To Think Your Way Through
Jason Gale
C.E.O. Lifestyle Awards®
www.jasongale.com
©2020 Jason Gale

jg@jasongale.com www.jasongale.com
©Copyright 2020 Jason Gale All rights reserved.
Creating a Brand Identity:
15 Things To Think Your Way Through
A solid brand identity is the foundation for growing customer loyalty, developing client retention and
creating your competitive advantage. Whether a new or established business, this is important as it
provides the clues that prospective customers need to understand to decide if it’s the type of business
for them.
What Is A Brand Identity And Why Do I Need One?
Simply put, your brand identity is how your audience perceives you.
It’s important to note that brand identity is not the same as branding. However, it is the product of
effective branding. Brand identity is also not the same as visual brand identity or a logo, even though
people can confuse the two. Brand identity includes:
• Visual Brand Identity
• Brand Voice
• Brand Values
• Brand Personality
Working together, these four components create the look, feel, and tone of your company, or venue,
to the outside world. Your brand identity might evolve slightly over time, so taking time to define your
brand identity is critical.
Brand Identity - 15 Questions To Ask Yourself
1. Who Is Your Ideal Customer?
If your brand hasn’t developed buyer/customer persona profiles of your ideal customers, this is the time
to start. Your customer personas should shape pretty much every aspect of your brand identity.
Determine what your customer personas might value in a brand. Is it cost savings or are they looking
for the highest quality? Do they want a deep and enduring relationship with you or quick and
convenient? By understanding your ideal customer’s pain points and priorities, you can formulate a
tuned-in, relevant identity.
2. What Problems Will You Solve?
Your customers don’t look for a business like yours because their lives are perfect; they look because
they’re searching for the answer to a problem, need or a want.

Your brand identity should instantly communicate how your brand solve these problems. Do you offer a
suitable service? A good-looking, welcoming environment? It doesn’t matter how you connect with your
customers, but your ability to solve their problem should be at the heart of your brand identity.
3. What Kind Of Personality Do You Have?
Brand personality is defined as a “human set of characteristics” connected to a brand. Brands with
strong, well-defined personalities can instantly collect likeability points as customers can relate to them
on a personal level.
Human personalities aren’t single-faceted, so your brand personality shouldn’t be either. Bear this in
mind when you’re at early stages of defining your personality.
4. How Will We Make You Clients Feel?
When your most satisfied new customers get in touch with you, what will they say? Listening to the
interactions of new, satisfied customers will uncover a wealth of information about how you make your
customers feel.
5. How Are You Different?
In short, what does your brand offer that you competitors can’t? What makes you, you?
Just being different isn’t enough - you need to actively “make a difference.” This means taking action to
carve out a niche and play to your strengths.
6. Why Will Your Clients Trust You?
The ‘trust’ factor that encourages prospects to believe in you and convert to customers provides
important clues to your brand identity. Look at your:
• Transparency
• Expertise
• Flexibility
• Old School Customer Service Practices
The “trust factor” is an important tool for defining why your brand is different and looking at building an
appealing brand identity.

7. What’s Your Story?
Brand stories are an important element brand identity building. This includes your history, your culture
and your vision.
8. What Are 5 Words That Describe You?
Developing a list of five adjectives that describe your brand’s personality, look, and voice is an integral
part of building your brand identity. Think around words, such as:
• Quality
• Consistency
• Values
• Customer Service
• Commitment
Consider what drove you to start your company in the first place? How is your company different from
all the others out there? By examining the values that run through your company, you should be able to
develop a list of descriptive words.
9. What Brands Do You Admire?
Don’t look towards brands with similar products, services or customers. Be smarter. Develop a list of
brands that admire – regardless of industry - can be deeply insightful. Perhaps you admire Apple for its
values, forward-facing branding and minimalist aesthetic? Maybe you are a huge fan of Innocent Drinks
for their intense focus on company culture and customer service. These concepts are easily translatable
to a different sector.
10. What Is Your Audience’s ‘Language’?
What are the words and terminology your customers use to describe you? Ask them….
11. How Does Your Logo Communicate Your Brand?
Your logo is one of the most important aspects of your visual brand identity. You will never own your
colours or the font that you use, but you can adopt them and leverage clever design to your own ends.
Your logo is an original aspect of your visual identity and can create a lasting impression that you can
own. Here’s how:

Original: Include visual elements, such as colour combination or design elements, that no other
company has.
Timeless: Avoid trendy design concepts that won’t age well.
Adaptable: Your logo should scale well, from thumbnail to a much larger scale (think about a poster or
banner). It should work as well in print as it does in a digital format.
Memorable: It’s hard to test what’s memorable, but you know from your own experience logos that you
can easily recall. Try to work towards your logo leaving a lasting impression.
Relevance: Your logo should be relevant to your company. Don’t go for colours you like; go for colours
that relate to what you’re offering.
12. What’s Your Font?
Typography communicates so much more than words and letters. It can impart feelings of energy,
fun, humour, tradition and more. Like colours, humans associate emotions and adjectives with fonts.
Choose with thought and consideration.
Traditional, Respectable
Serif Fonts; including Times New Roman, Georgia, and Garamond
Modern, Clean, Stable
Sans Serif Fonts; including Helvetica, Arial, and Verdana
Bold, Strong, Modern
Slab Serif Fonts; including Rockwell, Courier, and Museo
Elegant, Friendly, Creative
Script Fonts; including Lobster, Lucida, and Brush Script
Fashionable, Stylish, Exclusive
Modern Fonts; including Politica, Eurostyle, and Matchbook
Most brand visual guidelines list three or four fonts to be used. This will include a primary font, for
heading and titles, and supporting fonts, for copy and text. Select typography from within the category
that best fits your brand values to get your message to your target customers.
13. What Are Your Colours?
Humans also associate colours with emotions. Your brand’s primary and supporting colours are a
critical element of your visual identity. By selecting colours that are associated with your brand values,
you can instantly communicate your company’s mission and vision.

Common colour associations are:
Blue: Integrity, Trust, Tranquillity, Loyalty, Intelligence
Green: Money, Growth, Freshness, Environmentally Friendly
Yellow: Happiness, Originality, Energy
Purple: Royalty, Spirituality, Luxury
Pink: Femininity, Compassion, Playfulness
Red: Power, Strength, Passion
Orange: Courage, Originality, Success
White: Cleanliness, Purity, Freshness
Black: Elegance, Drama, Strength
14. How Will We Interact With Customers?
The tone of voice used to interact with customers, via social media and content marketing, is an
extension of your brand voice. Are you warm and humorous or straight-to-the-point? Make sure that
your brand guidelines include instructions for social media and customer interactions to make sure your
brand experience in consistent.
15. What Does Your Voice Sound Like?
• When it comes to defining and documenting your brand voice, consider how your customers sound.
When your customer persona reads or speaks, what do they sound like?
• Are they academic or conversational?
• Do they reference studies and statistics frequently?
• Are they anecdotal or great storytellers?
• Are they long-winded or straight-to-the-point?
Your brand voice should be relevant to your customer personas’ education level, language preferences
and tone.
Defining Your Brand Identity
In the age of digital disruption, brand identity is crucial for developing customer loyalty. If your
customers don’t relate to your brand’s visual identity, voice and values, they won’t remember you.
They won’t develop a relationship with them and they won’t be making a first purchase, let alone
repeat custom.

Defining your brand identity is a first, crucial, step towards developing your digital customer experience
across multiple platforms, including your website, content marketing, social media and more. By putting
your customer persona front and centre of your thinking, and ensuring customer insights dictate your
thinking, you can develop a relevant brand that your customers will love.

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