9 Brand Identity Ideals

The basic question is: what makes one brand better than another? And why? What are the essential characteristics of the best identities? How do we define these best identities?

Ideals are essential to a responsible creative process, regardless the size of a company or the nature of a business. These ideals stand true whether the identity engagement is launching an entrepreneurial venture or creating a new product. Be it a new service, or re-positioning a brand, working on a merger, or creating a retail presence.

1. Vision your brand

First of all, vision requires courage. Big ideas, enterprises, products, and services are sustained by individuals who have the ability to imagine what others cannot see. And the tenacity to deliver what they believe is possible. Furthermore, behind every success story is a passionate individual who inspires others to see the future in a new way. Brand identity begins with a conversation about the future. Hearing the vision face to face is critical to the identity process. As a result, leaders who take the time to share their most audacious dreams and challenges frequently understand the power of symbols. They also value storytelling to build their culture and brands.

2. Meaning

Another questions raised is what do best brands have in common? They all stand for something. Because this can be a big idea or a strategic position. It can also be a set of values, or a voice that stands apart. While symbols are vessels for meaning. Also, they become more powerful with frequent use and when people understand what they stand for.

Certainly they are the fastest form of communication known to man. Meaning is rarely immediate and it evolves over time. Designers transform meaning into unique visual form and expression. It is critical that this meaning is explained so that it can be understood, communicated, and approved. Knowing this, all elements of the brand identity system should have a framework that stands for meaning and logic.

3. Authenticity

In psychology, authenticity refers to self-knowledge and making decisions that are congruent with that self-knowledge. Similarly, organizations who know who they are, and what they stand for, start the identity process from a position of strength. They create brands that are sustainable and genuine. Brand expression must be appropriate to the organization’s unique mission, history, culture, values, and personality. As reality is qualified, altered, and commercialized, consumers respond to what is engaging. Even more, they also identify with personal, memorable and above all, what they perceive as authentic.

4. Differentiation

Bumper-to-bumper brands shout for our attention. The world is a noisy place filled with a panoply of choice. Why should consumers choose one brand over others? It is not enough to be different. Brands need to demonstrate this difference and make it easy for customers to understand what makes them so. If your brand suddenly didn’t exist, would anyone miss it? A really good brand leaves a big gap.

5. Durability 

Brands are messengers of trust. We are all moving at blinding speed. Our institutions, technology, science, lifestyles, and vocabulary are in a state of continuous flux. Consumers are reassured by trademarks that are recognizable and familiar. Durability is achieved through a commitment to the equity of a central idea over time. Also, the capacity to transcend change.

6. Coherence

Whether a customer is using a product, or talking to a service representative. Even if they are making a purchase on their iPhone, the brand should feel familiar. The experience should have the desired effect. Coherence is the quality that ensures that all the pieces hold together in a way that feels ideal to the customer.

It should not feel rigid and limiting. But rather, it is a baseline that is designed to build trust, foster loyalty, and delight the customer. A brand identity system is unified visually and structurally. It builds on cohesive brand architecture and utilizes specially designed colors, typeface families, and formats. The identity system advances immediate recognition of the company and supports brand attributes across various media.

7. Flexibility

Innovation requires brands to be flexible. No one can say with certainty which new products or services a company might offer in five years. Or, for that matter, what devices we will all be using to communicate with one another. Probably not even how we will purchase our worldly goods. Brands that are open to change need to have flexible brand identity systems in place. Because of that it’s necessary for them to quickly seize new opportunities in the marketplace. The brand identity toolbox encourages creativity within parameters that always keep the brand immediately recognizable. Certainly, a carefully designed balance between control and creativity makes it possible to adhere to the identity standards. All this while achieving specific marketing objectives.

8. Commitment

A brand is an asset that you have to protect, preserve, and nurture. Actively managing the asset requires a top down mandate and a bottom up understanding of why it is important. The best companies provide their employees with tools that make it easy to be a brand champion. Building, protecting, and enhancing the brand requires desire and a disciplined approach to insure its integrity and relevance. The mantra is to keep moving. Thus, with ongoing management, dynamic adherence to the central idea, monitoring of standards that help preserve the asset, and tools the organization needs to build its brand.

9. Value

Finally, creating value is the biggest goal of most organizations. The quest for sustainability has expanded the value conversation with consumers. Being socially responsible, environmentally conscious, and profitable is the new business model. Finally, a brand is an intangible asset. Above all, brand identity, which includes all tangible expression from packaging to websites, upholds that value.

At 11 Digits we are passionate about protecting and enhancing your brand identity. We consider solutions that allow you to be flexible, relevant and appealing. We incorporate visual language and cues to give your identity a meaning. Our goal is to create synergies that can be seamlessly applied across print, direct mail, advertising, electronic and all visual mediums.