How to create a brand identity that’s perfectly aligned with your business

If you’ve been in business for a while, there might come a time when you realise that your brand identity has veered a little (or a lot) off course.

Your fonts are inconsistent, your brand colours are starting to resemble the rainbow, and the stock photos you bought years ago are the same ones everyone else is using.

But worst of all – you don’t feel like your brand really reflects you or your business anymore, and it’s starting to affect your confidence and your ability to grow.

Sound familiar?

It’s a story I hear from many business owners, but thankfully it’s one you can fix!

In this article, we’re going to explore what brand identity is, why it matters, and how to create a brand identity that FEELS as great as it looks.

What is brand identity?

So, first up, let’s get clear on what brand identity is (because some people think I’m talking about their logo, but it’s SO much more than that).

According to HubSpot, your brand identity is “the personality of your business and a promise to your customers”. 

I prefer to think of it as a brand identity system, because it’s a system that’s made up of all your brand’s visual elements, including:

• your logo

• your colour palette

• your typography (the fonts you use)

• your imagery (including stock images)

• any patterns or icons you use.

(Plus other things like your brand voice and brand messaging – basically everything that contributes to the perception people have of your brand).

So while your logo is definitely part of your brand identity system – it’s by no means the whole picture.

In fact (spoiler alert), some brands with a strong brand identity don’t even have a logo.

Take Retro Flame, for instance, a fashion influencer I follow on Instagram. 

A look at her website tells me she does in fact have a logo, but it’s not a big part of her brand identity.

It doesn’t feature on her Insta profile at all, and if I saw it out of context, I wouldn’t necessarily know it was hers.

But when I’m scrolling through my feed, I instantly recognise her content.

Her pictures all follow the same style, they use the same filters and they feature similar products – all elements that have helped her develop a strong brand identity (and a HUGE 160k+ following).

Example of Retro Flame’s Instagram Feed @retroflame

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying logos aren’t important. I would never trust a bank that didn’t have a logo, for example.

But if you’re an influencer, speaker, or have a strong personal brand, a logo isn’t mandatory.

It certainly won’t make or break your success – but having a strong brand identity that’s aligned with you and your business absolutely will.

Why does having an aligned brand identity matter?

Which brings me to my next point: why does brand identity matter? And why does it need to be aligned with what you and your business are all about?

Well, from a practical perspective, having a strong brand identity makes creating things for your business a whole lot easier.

You’ll usually have brand guidelines and templates to keep everything consistent, which means you’re not starting from scratch every time you need to create a new piece of content.

It also helps build your brand awareness and loyalty, because your content becomes recognisable no matter what platform you’re on.

At a deeper level though, your brand identity allows you and your business to make a statement about who you are and what you stand for.

And when people understand those things, it makes it a hell of a lot easier for them to buy from you (because people buy from people and brands they know, like and trust).

But the REAL magic of having a brand identity that’s truly aligned with you and your business is what happens internally.

Because when you’re clear about what you and your business stand for, you start showing up as a more confident version of yourself.

And when you and your clients are confident in what you’re about and what you offer, this can lead to AMAZING results.

Results like booking out less than 3 months after launching your new brand and website, and receiving 10 new enquiries within 24 hours – which are actual results 2 of my clients achieved after rebranding and launching their websites with me.

And in case you’re wondering, no, they didn’t increase their social media presence or go viral 😂

But they did implement a consistent brand identity that’s completely aligned with their business – and the results speak for themselves.

How to create a brand identity that’s truly aligned with your business

By now you might be thinking, “that’s great, but HOW do I create a brand identity that’s truly aligned with my business?”.

Well, that’s something I help my clients with, and you can find out more about my branding and rebranding services here.

But if you’re not ready to work with a designer, or you’d prefer to go down the DIY road, there are 5 key steps I recommend to really uncover what your business is about (and create a brand identity to match).

Step 1: Get clear on your brand strategy

The first (and most important) step is to get really clear on your brand strategy. This lays the groundwork for everything else that’s to come (and no, you can’t skip it, or you’ll just have to go back and do it all over again!).

And a great place to start is identifying your business’s purpose, vision, mission and values – what I like to call your ‘brand heart’.

Some questions to consider at this stage are:

• Why do we exist?

• What does the future look like? (i.e. what would the world look like if it never needed our product or service again?)

• How do we create that future?

• How do we conduct ourselves?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you’ll have a basic brand strategy that’ll form the foundation of your ENTIRE business (no joke, it’s that important).

Need help uncovering your brand heart? Download my free worksheet here.

Step 2: Create some customer personas

The next step is to create some customer personas that describe your ideal clients.

Because while your brand identity needs to align with you and your business, it also needs to attract who you want to work with.

Some questions to ask at this stage include:

• What are your ideal clients’ goals and aspirations?

• What are their pain points and the barriers they want to overcome (related to what you offer)?

• What other characteristics do they have that you may need to consider (for example, their demographics and location)?
  

Step 3: Identify your place in the market

Now it’s time to scope out the competition – not so you can copy what everyone else is doing, but so you can work out where YOU fit into the picture.

An exercise I like to do is one Seth Godin recommends in his book This is Marketing.

Basically, it involves creating an X Y chart with a quality your target audience cares about (for example, creativity and cost) on each axis. 

You then plot your competitors on this chart and ideally find a blank spot where you can stand out and own your spot in the market.

Step 4: Define your brand personality

This is where you think about what your brand is and what it is not, so you can create some boundaries (‘guardrails’) to keep your brand in line.

A simple way to do this is to think about different adjectives that describe what your brand is (and isn’t) – and then make sure that everything you do from a branding perspective relates back to those words.

For example, some of Studio Danu’s guardrails are fun but professional, direct but not brash, and a little cheeky but never offensive 😉.

Step 5: Find visual elements that match everything you’ve done above

The last step in creating a brand identity that’s perfectly aligned with your business is to find visual elements that match everything you’ve uncovered above (that is, your brand heart, ideal clients, positioning and personality).

This might involve creating a moodboard in something like Pinterest, and collecting images, fonts, colours, patterns, icons and other visual elements that you feel reflect your business and your brand.

Then, it’s really just a matter of experimenting and refining and seeing what works best. 

One thing I always recommend is that you test how different visual elements work across different applications. For example, does your logo work as a favicon? Does it print easily? Will it work as a profile picture and still be legible?

Once you’re happy with all your visual elements, you can then create some templates and brand guidelines to keep everything consistent.

This last bit is important because once you’ve finally created a brand you love, you want to make sure it’s protected so it serves you well into the future 💗

Not sure where to go next with your brand? Book in a free strategy session, where I’ll show you how to audit your brand so you know exactly what’s working, as well as the areas that might need a little extra lovin’.