Branding Basics for Businesses

What is Branding?

When you first hear the term “branding” you may get a visual image in your mind of a logo or color scheme. While logos, fonts, and colors are part of a brand identity, they are not the only pieces of branding.

Branding goes beyond the visual representation of your business. It is the story that you want your audience to believe about your brand. While this story is reflected in the visual aspect of branding, the first steps to creating your brand are to understand who you are as a business.

To determine who you are as a brand, think about these questions:

• Why did you create this business?

• What do you want your business to be known for?

• How do you want your audience to feel when they think of your brand?

• Who is your target audience or demographic?

Asking these questions will help you create a clear idea of what you want your visual branding to reflect. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming to sit down and explore these questions on your own - especially if you are just starting out with your branding.

This is why it can be helpful to work with a branding and design agency. At ICEY, part of our onboarding process for new clients is to dive into these questions to get a clear image of the story the brand wants to tell, in order to create a consistent visual brand.

What is Brand Identity?

Once you have a clear idea of the story you want to tell, then you can explore creating your brand identity. Brand identity is how you want to communicate your story - it is how you want to be seen by your audience.

Creating a clear brand identity is also important because it helps you tell a consistent story to your audience. Therefore, when you begin to think about the visual design of your brand, you want to consider designs that will work consistently for all your visual branding: website, product packaging, and social media.

In addition to creating consistent visual aspects of your brand, you also want to have a visual identity that is both easy to identify and easy to distinguish from the competition.

How Do You Create a Visual Brand Identity?

There are several pieces that can make up the visual identity of a brand. At ICEY, we use the information gathered from the onboarding process as a starting point for designing your visual branding.

Whether you are starting out for the first time working with a design agency, or you are exploring creating your own brand guide, here are the most common visual elements to consider in creating your visual brand identity.

• Brand Logo - in addition to your business name, your brand logo is what will be most memorable. A logo can be as simple as having a specific font and a single color, or more complex with several colors, fonts, and images.

• Typography - this refers to the font or fonts that you use for your logo, as well as any additional text such as a slogan, you may use for your business.

• Color palette - choosing a set of colors that are specific to your brand helps you be consistent in telling your story. It also makes it easy for your business to create new marketing materials because you already know exactly what colors (and fonts) need to be used.

• Imagery - not every brand will use images to create their brand identity. However, if it fits your story, then a single image or a series of images can be a great way to create a unique visual identity.

What is a Brand Image?

Brand image is what most people think of when they think of branding. This is an understandable misconception since we often think of branding as our visual representation.

Brand image is actually the way your audience perceives you - it is the image they have of your business and brand. Therefore, the best way to create your brand image is to focus on creating a clear brand identity. If you have a clear and consistent brand identity that appeals to your ideal audience, then you will successfully create your ideal brand image.

What is a Rebrand?

A rebrand is going through the initial branding process again, once a brand identity has already been established to give the brand a refresh to stay up to date. Sometimes this leads to a full rebranding of all the design elements. Other times, this may lead to only changing one design element or one package design.

If you think you may be ready for a rebrand or want to plan ahead for the future of your business, checkout this article that goes into more detail on when rebranding is needed for packaging.

Do You Need Branding for a Small Business?

A common question from small businesses is whether or not they need branding. The answer is, yes.

Remember, branding is the story you want to tell your audience. It is the beginning of how others will perceive your brand (brand image), so if you want to control the narrative then taking time to create intentional branding is an important part of creating a successful brand.

This doesn’t mean you need to go into debt when you are just starting out to create your brand identity. Start with going back to those three questions above and create your story.

Once you have that down, brainstorm some ideas for your visual identity. Then, consider hiring a branding and design agency to help you out. ICEY Design works with large and small businesses to bring your vision to life and get your brand up and running!