Brand Strategy, The Basics of your Brand Identity

When you think of your favourite brand, it’s easy to remember the brand colours, their logo, what they stand for, and their personality. All of that is not created by chance, it’s the result of a lot of the hard work and skill that went into creating a brand strategy.

The strategy is essentially all of the work that goes into creating that image in your head. It is the planning and strategising behind every decision about colours, fonts, images, logos, and other brand assets, all of which helps to make a brand recognisable and memorable.

That’s why, when we create branding and graphic design for any company, we start with strategy. We start by learning everything there is to know about your brand, from your goals and values, to your audiences and the messages you want to get across.

Only then we begin our design process. Here’s a little more about the basics of a brand strategy, what we need to know, and how we use that knowledge to create beautiful, effective branding for your business.

Basics of a Brand Strategy

The process of our Brand Strategy is an exciting journey of discovering who you are and what you do. And there are a number of steps we take before designing any of your branding elements. But overall, we describe this process in three main stages:

1. Define the basics of your Brand

To begin, we have to understand the very basics of your brand, even if it’s not something you’ve ever considered.

Your brand is about not just who you are as a business, but why. When we understand exactly why you have taken the approach you have and why you offer the products and services you do, we can better represent those decisions through your branding.

We will need to identify your core values, define your mission and vision, and define your brand personality. All of these areas will influence every design choice we make, from colours, to fonts, to the style and tone of your branding, all in order to reflect your business as a whole.

2. Define your message

Defining your message is important. You’ll need to determine who you want to talk to (your audience), and the voice your brand uses to communicate with them – you could also say that’s your company personality.

Do you want your audience to think of you as a professional, no-nonsense brand? Or would you rather come across as friendly and helpful? Or are you simply trying to focus on helping the environment?

During this stage, you’ll need to define your value proposition (what you offer to your audience), and the message you want to communicate. You’ll also need a tagline, which will help to reinforce your messaging.

Without this stage, it will be harder to focus your communications. From your emails and social media posts to website content and brochure messaging, all of it will need to tell the same story or you risk confusing your customers. Defining and clarifying your message will help to keep everything streamlined and clear across the board.