How to Create A Powerful Brand Identity For Your Small Business Part One

Brand identity is the collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumer. Brand identity is different from “brand image” and “branding,” even though these terms are sometimes treated as interchangeable. 

The term branding refers to the marketing practice of actively shaping a distinctive brand. Brand is the perception of the company in the eyes of the world.

Your brand identity is what makes you instantly recognizable to your customers. Your audience will associate your brand identity with your product or service, and that identity is what forges the connection between you and your customers, builds customer loyalty, and determines how your customers will perceive your brand. 

Let's see an example of this: 

When you hear the name Coca-Cola, you probably picture its well-known logo design. 

But you also might think of the polar bear, the color red, the classic ribbon-like imagery featured on its cans or that it's already part of our meal. Here are two things that comprise Coca-Cola's brand identity: 

Coca-Cola's brand identity begins with a red logo in script text. The red color elicits confidence in the person who drinks a Coke, while the script typeface is all about enjoyment. Coffee, for example, is a drink you have before work in the morning. Coca-Cola is a drink you enjoy when you're done in the afternoon. This is the brand's "face." 

Coca-Cola prints its logo on a uniquely shaped bottle (it's true, no other beverages have bottles exactly like it). This tells customers they're not getting an imitation -- this is the real thing. The brand develops credibility and trust this way.

Those things, the logo, the script, the color, the mascot, the package, all of it is brand identity.