Storytelling through Brand Identity and Why it Matters
Every brand tells a story. This narrative can be shown through many different forms of branding, from M&M’s funny characters to a brand like Chanel, selling the idea of luxury and high end fashion. Many different things go into defining a brand, such as colors, fonts, logos, style, tone, archetype, values, images, and more. All of these different aspects of branding make a brand feel cohesive, and these are called a brand identity.
“Brand identity is the core character of the brand and defines the brand.”
Black, Iain, and Cleopatra Veloutsou. “Working Consumers: Co-Creation of Brand Identity, Consumer Identity and Brand Community Identity.” Journal of Business Research, vol. 70, 2017, pp. 416–429., doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.07.012.
A brand identity combines all elements of a brand, including colors, logos, content messages, and more that create the overall feel and look that identifies the brand to the customers. By creating a brand identity, you can build awareness for your product or service. This helps you stand out and appear more unique against competitors in the same space. “A strong brand has intangible value and an ability to help you stand out, creating a reputation of credibility and trust that extends beyond the problems you solve and the products you create.” A brand identity should be woven through everything a brand does whether that is the specific words used in social media posts, colors, fonts, and images in an email blast or the tone of a video advertisement.
When creating good branding, consistency is key. The branding must work together to create a cohesive story that is easily identifiable to the consumer. Important steps to creating cohesive branding is defining a brand voice, colors, fonts, custom design elements, and themed art/illustrations. Good branding is also trustworthy, memorable, and flexible.
A great example of strong branding would be Apple. Apple is one of the most valuable brands, as well as being well known around the world. So what is the reason for Apple’s success? Most of it is because of their branding. The brand sells an air of premium exclusivity, luxury, with extreme detail to aesthetics in everything they do. All their products fit their branding with clean and sleek designs driven more by emotion than practicality. “Their consumers don't think: "I want this because it's a Dual-SIM, 64GB, 12-megapixel hexa-core processing smartphone." They think: "I want this because it's an Apple iPhone."” Apple has built up immense brand loyalty with their customers and with their brand, sell far more than just their products, alone.
As for poor branding, in 2011 Coca-Cola teamed up with World Wildlife Fund for an advertising campaign to raise funds and awareness for arctic habitat protection. For the campaign, Coca-Cola diverted from their signature red cans for the first time and, instead, had white cans with grey polar bears. The cans were met by immediate confusion and criticism from the consumers and the white cans were pulled and replaced with red versions. Consumers said the white can was too similar to their silver Diet Coke can. A journal, by Ward, Yang, Romaniuk & Beal explain, “The red color of Coca-Cola is an integral piece of their branding, and by taking it away, it was harder for consumers to identify the brand amongst competitors. The colour red had been used to represent Coke consistently for 125 years; for many consumers the white and silver can both be diverted from the mental image they had of Coke, and conformed to the colour palette and identity of Diet Coke.” This was a big mistake for the brand, but not a fatal one. It is a great lesson to learn from and example of how it is so important that brand elements remain consistent.
When crafting a brand image you must consider, the target market, mission of the brand and brand personality. These are important in forming the foundation of the brand, and allow all the different aspects of the branding to derive from the same initial values. In order to start building your brand you first need to know who the brand is at their core. What are the brand values? What is the purpose of the brand? How is the brand different from others? The answers to these questions help in forming a brand mission statement that represents who the brand is and creates the foundation for future branding. A strong brand mission statement should not only be used as a guideline for the brand, but also communicating who the brand is to the consumer. Brands are so much more than just the products they sell and their brand message needs to reflect that.
Serena William’s Nike campaign, February 2019
An example of a strong brand mission statement would be Nike’s “Just do it.” This slogan defines who Nike is as a brand and not only communicates that to the consumer, but also inspires them. It convinces them to buy Nike products, so they can accomplish their fitness goals and “do it” too. It is important to consider emotional marketing and using emotions to connect with the consumer.
After creating a clear brand mission statement, it is important to identify who the target market is that you want the brand to connect with. Ways to identify a target market are through age, gender, race, sexual orientation, jobs, lifestyles, income, location, level of education, marital and family status, personality, values, hobbies, and more. In some cases a product could appeal to multiple demographics, but it is always important to focus on a primary demographic. There can still be secondary and tertiary demographics, but these can be added later.
After a target market has been established, it is necessary to then create personas of the types of people represented in your target market. Personas are fictional people based off of research, that represent the different types of people who would be interested in interacting with your brand. This is important because it helps designers of the brand understand the users’ experiences, behaviors and goals. Without creating personas, the design process can’t really begin, at least not a good one. The users should always be top of mind when designing and to do that, they first need to be identified.
“Personas are a crucial passage in the user-centred design process because they define expectations, concerns and motivations, helping design teams to understand how to design a product that will satisfy users needs and therefore be a success.”
Ward, E., Yang, S., Romaniuk, J. et al. Building a unique brand identity: measuring the relative ownership potential of brand identity element types.
When creating a brand, it is also crucial to look at your competition. A great way to analyze them is through a SWOT analysis. This analysis studies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, all of which are important to identify what should be done to build the best brand possible. As explained in an article by Skye Schooley, you can “Use your SWOT analysis to discover recommendations and strategies, with a focus on leveraging strengths and opportunities to overcome weaknesses and threats.” Creating a SWOT analysis is a great starting point for your research into competitors and is a great first step in sparking new and unique ideas.
Next, you need to identify a brand’s archetype. There are 12 different brand archetypes and these help build the emotions, relationships, and loyalties between the brands and their consumers. They give the brand personality and are based off basic human desires. The purpose of an archetype is to both connect to your consumers and also stand out from other brands. So what are these archetypes? The 12 brand archetypes consist of:
The Outlaw (Revolution)
Brand Voice: Disruptive, Competitive, Combative
Examples: Virgin Airlines, Harley-Davidson, Diesel
The Magician (Power)
Brand Voice: Mystical, Informed, Reassuring
Examples: Coca-Cola, Disney, Dyson
The Hero (Mastery)
Brand Voice: Honest, Candid, Brave
Examples: Adidas, Nike, FedEx
The Lover (Intimacy)
Brand Voice: Sensual, Empathetic, Soothing
Examples: Alfa Romero, Chanel, Victoria’s Secret
The Jester (Pleasure)
Brand Voice: Fun loving, Playful, Optimistic
Examples: M&Ms, Old Spice, Dollar Shave Club
The Everyman (Belonging)
Brand Voice: Friendly, Humble, Authentic
Examples: Ikea, Target, Lynx
The Caregiver (Service)
Brand Voice: Caring, Warm, Reassuring
Examples: Unicef, WWF, Toms
The Ruler (Control)
Brand Voice: Commanding, Refined, Articulate
Examples: Louis Vuitton, Mercedes-Benz, Rolex
The Creator (Innovation)
Brand Voice: Inspirational, Daring, Proactive
Examples: Lego, Apple, Adobe
The Innocent (Safety)
Brand Voice: Optimistic, Honest, Humble
Examples: Aveeno, Dove, Innocent
The Sage (Understanding)
Brand Voice: Knowledge, Assured, Guiding
Examples: Google, BBC, University of Oxford
The Explorer (Freedom)
Brand Voice: Exciting, Fearless, Daring
Examples: The North Face, Jeep, Patagonia
These brand archetypes help build emotive brands that connect to the consumer on a deeper authentic level. These archetypes help define roadmaps for brands to create personalities that foster and appeal to basic human desires. They give brands character and storytelling capabilities that appeal to consumers in so many ways. They also are recognizable archetypes that we already can understand and connect, making it easy to form a bond.
A brand logo is such an integral piece to the branding process. It is how consumers identify you from other brands, as well as representing the brand’s personality and values through design, colors, fonts, placements, and more. Logos are necessary for all businesses, big and small, and are one of the first ways the brand is communicating who they are to the customer. A good logo should be readable, understandable, and communicate the story of the brand to the consumer.
An example of a great logo is the FedEx logo. The design is simple, but sophisticated in its use of negative space between the E and the X. Hidden there is the iconic arrow that is created by the connecting letters. The arrow represents speed, movement, and precision, which are all important aspects of their brand.
Once the main logo is established, alternative logos are created to compliment the main logo. They should all be cohesive and identifiable variations of the main logo. They can be used in different circumstances when it is more appropriate for a variation logo in place of the main logo. A perfect example of the use of alternative logos is again, FedEx. Through the use of color, FedEx has different logos that represent their different branches, but still fit with their overall branding. The logos are different enough to be distinguishable from each other, but still similar enough to be identifiable as the same brand.
Along with the logo, a brand’s typeface is an important part of their branding. Different fonts can evoke different emotions and display the personality of the brand. Fonts can show the traits and values of the brand, reinforcing the brand image and consumer’s emotions. A brand’s typeface should be unique & memorable, legible, work on every platform, and communicate your brand personality. When choosing fonts, it is important to understand how they read both big and small, as well as how the personality of the font matches the story your brand is trying to tell. There are six different classifications of fonts and each has a different type of personality that goes a long with it. These include:
Serif: classic, traditional, trustworthy
Sans-serif: modern, minimal, clean
Slab serif: bold, quirky, confident
Script: elegant, unique
Handwritten: informal and artistic
Decorative: stylized, distinctive, dramatic
Just as with fonts, colors help show the story of the brand. Colors can evoke different emotions such as trustworthiness, fear, or excitement. These emotions through color pallets can help add to the narrative of your branding. When picking a color pallet, you also need to consider what the colors represent and how they fit together. You have to think about complementary and analogous colors as well as, cool and warm colors, while considering how they sit together. It is important to create harmonious colors that are easy to look at and attract the consumers. Additionally, it is important to look at the branding and color pallets of your competitors. When creating a brand with an existing marketing space that already has competitors in the market, it is imperative to stand out as much as possible, through brand personality, style, tone, and especially, through color. Color is a key aspect for consumers to identify brands, and as with the Coca-Cola example, it is clear that there is no positive side to looking like others. Color helps brands stand out front the noise of others and shine through to the consumer.
Expanding on the established brand elements, you can also develop brand patterns. These brand patterns use the already created colors, fonts, and logos, and can also be more playful and creative, adding in products, brand history, and anything you can think of! These patterns can be used as wallpaper, package designs, and backgrounds.
An example of a great use of brand patterns is Harvey House Diner. Harvey’s diner was a staple in Kansas City’s Union Station starting in 1914, greeting all the travelers that came through the station. While the original Harvey’s diner is gone, this new Harvey’s is based off of the original, with the same values and location. To give a nod to their homage, the brand created a pattern that displays their values, history, and personality.
Images are also a vital part of a brand. The brand images need to accurately display the product or service, tell the story of your brand, and show your target market. Consumers want to relate to the images they see. To create cohesive images you can use tints, vibrancy, contrast, saturation, or blurring, and other editing techniques to accomplish the same look and feel your brand represents.
Instagram @urbanoutfitters
A brand that has very strong images is Urban Outfitters. From their social media posts, to their website images or advertisement, Urban Outfitter keeps the vibe of the brand strong with every image. They are appealing to a young adult demographic through their playful, modern, and down-to-earth styles. Their images are successful in both representing and selling their brand to their target market. The success is due to the images telling stories in themselves that connect to the consumers emotions and desire.
Another important step in the branding process is defining the brand’s language. This is more than a slogan or a catchphrase. Brand language is how the brand presents itself. It is the tone of the brand when speaking to the audience, such as text on websites, advertisements, newsletters, and social media. When creating a brand language it is important to put yourself in the shoes of the audience. An article about brand language, by Robert Katai, prompts these questions to think about in the process,“Is your content easy to read? Does it register with the target audience? Does it properly portray your brand language and culture?” Brand language is another important part of branding to consider. You must use your brand voice wisely and make sure everything you say connects back to your core brand values.
As we are storytelling creatures, we are naturally attracted to brands we believe are authentic, relatable, unique, and genuine. Consumers love authenticity, and it breeds dependability and loyalty with the brand. A great brand narrative can set you apart from others, while deepening your connection to your consumers. There are so many different components that go into creating a brand identity. All of these different components work together to create the overarching story of the brand. Branding requires a deep understanding of visual storytelling skills. All of the different aspects of branding are interconnected and without a solid foundation, there is no way to create an impactful brand that properly conveys their message and touches the consumer.
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