8 Brand Components You Need to Consider
Your brand is much more than just a name and a logo. When it comes to your business, your brand is EVERYTHING. It is crucial to the success of your business that you have your branding on point. You must achieve consistency, creativity, differentiation, memorability and more when building your brand. Listed below are the 8 key brand components you need to consider when building your brand.
1. Identity
Brand identity is the way people recognize your brand. In other words, it’s the elements in a persons’ mind that help them distinguish the brand. Some elements that a consumer may identify include your logo, name, colours, tagline, etc. Developing a memorable brand identity is crucial to the success of your business. If you fail to do so, consumers will be unable to identify your brand and essentially forget about you.
Example: Apple in many ways is the GOAT of branding. In terms of brand identity, very few are on the same level (honourable mention to McDonald’s and Nike). Apple has created a brand that is so recognizable, their store signage is literally just an apple. This simple logo is placed strategically on the back of everything they make. As a result, people automatically associate the Apple logo with its products.
2. Image
Brand image is how the public perceives your brand. It is made up of beliefs, ideas and impressions a person holds about your brand. The difference in the success of a business with a positive or negative brand image is exponential.
Example: Say you own a used car dealership. If the consumers’ perception is that you sell reliable, well-priced cars and have great service, you have a positive brand image. However, if the consumer believes you sell overpriced, crappy cars, you have a negative brand image. If this is the case, you must reflect on why this is and develop a strategy to create a more positive brand image. Lucky for you, we know someone who can help. Visit our branding services page to learn more.
3. Positioning
Brand positioning is where your business is positioned in the market. Once you identify where you fit in, you can determine what segment of the market you will target. Factors such as price, quality, reputation, experience among others play a role in determining your position in the market. You can determine your position by assessing your related competitors and determining where you are similar and where you differ.
Example: Let’s compare coffee shops for this example. When you think premium coffee, Starbucks is the first place most people think of. The perception would be that Starbucks offers a high-quality product, a comfortable in-store environment and are a little pricey. On the mid-level, Tim Hortons (or Dunkin’ for our American readers) comes to mind. Both have fair prices, reasonable quality and an environment that says “you can eat here, but don’t stay for too long”. Finally, gas station coffee like 7/11 would be the bottom level of the coffee industry. They offer cheap, self serve coffee and donuts that work for (desperate) people on the go.
Though all of these coffee shops offer similar products, they differ in terms of quality, service, prices, atmosphere and more. The positioning of these brands helps them identify which market segment they must target.
4. Equity
Brand equity is how the public values the brand. The consumers’ perception derives from the brand name, rather than the product or service itself. Things like financial value and market share contribute to brand equity.
Example: Going back to what is mentioned above, Starbucks would be considered the “elite” of the coffee market. Starbucks has locations all over the world, is easily identifiable and is a leader in the market. They have a large percentage of the market share and are considered a dominant force in the industry. By comparison, Tim Hortons likely holds less value in the consumers minds, and therefore has a lower brand equity. This is a result of Tims locations being less atmospheric, having lower food quality standards, and its lack of a strong international presence.
5. Personality
Brand personality is the emotional or personal qualities associated with your brand. Related to brand image, brand personality is the emotional and human-like personality traits that the consumer associates with your brand. Brand personalities include traits such as happy, youthful, tough, trustworthy, successful, dependable, thoughtful and more.
Examples: Dodge trucks are marketed with human personality traits such as toughness, strength and durability. Lululemon would include traits like spirited, carefree and youthful.
6. Experience
Conditions or elements that influence a persons’ feelings about your company or products shape brand experience. A type of experiential marketing, brand experience is a set of holistic conditions created by the company in an effort to make a consumer feel a certain way. The consumers’ feelings about a certain product or company are influenced by past experiences.
Examples: Saje Natural Wellness attempts to use atmospherics such as scent, lighting and peaceful music to make a customer feel relaxed and calm. If successful, the customer will associate these feelings with the Saje brand. (When they think of Saje, they will reflect on this past experience and feel relaxed and calm.)
7. Differentiation
Brand differentiation is how your brand differs from competitors. How do you set yourself apart? With the amount of options a consumer has these days, it is important that every company finds something that makes them different. You should use this differentiation to your competitive advantage. Explain how this difference makes you the best option for the consumer.
8. Communication
Brand communication is the general message you are delivering through all brand materials. Ask yourself, are you communicating your core values? What is the message you want to deliver to the public? This message should be clear through all of your brand materials and messaging. Remember, consistency is key.
Example: Mercedes-Benz markets itself as a leader in luxury. Their tagline “The Best or Nothing” helps to deliver that message. Through all facets of their business, they make an effort to reinforce this message. It is delivered through their website, social media, TV advertisements, billboards, show rooms and more.
Conclusion
1707 Creative can help you apply/ reinforce these components to your existing brand or help you build a new one. To learn more about our branding services, visit our branding services page or contact us today.
If you found this article helpful, please help us out by sharing! In addition, you can like our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram to keep you up to date on our latest blogs and announcements.
Thanks for reading and have a great day! 🙂