Creating a brand identity

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Key Action Points

1. The brand identity is the audio-visual trade dress of the brand that expresses, and brings to artistic life, the brand definition
2. The brand identity, used in all aspects of communication with your customers (including literature, brochures, packaging, the product itself, the Internet, stationery, and so on), must reflect the brand definition in its:
   • graphical design (the Nike ® "swoosh", the Coca-Cola ® bottle design)
   • type face
   • use of color (the Post-it ® Note yellow)
   • sounds (the Microsoft ® or Intel ® tune)

3. The more differentiated the identity, the easier it is to protect from infringement
4. All separable elements of the identity should be researched for availability and registered as trademarks, as should its slogans
5. You need to draw up a series of standards that ensure the consistent "look and feel" of the brand in all situations
6. The implementation of these standards should be policed both inside and outside of your company

In more detail…..

The brand identity is the audio-visual trade dress of the brand that expresses, and brings to artistic life, the brand definition, especially the:

1. Central organising thought of the brand: what the brand is all about from an insider's perspective, expressed in one short sentence
2. Slogan: the publicly expressed statement of the brand that translates the central organising thought for the benefit of its target customers
3. Personality of the brand: the human character of the brand, maybe supported by a celebrity character within the company - Richard Branson of Virgin, M. Maurice of Roquefort cheese
4. Values of the brand: what the brand stands for and believes in
5. Tastes/appearance of the brand: what it likes, what it wears, how it speaks
6. Brand heritage: the stories told about the brand - the insider's view
7. Emotional benefits of the brand: what the brand delivers emotionally - avoidance of pain, reduction in pain, promotion of pleasure
8. Hard benefits of the brand: what the brand delivers rationally, as a "pencil sell"

The brand identity, used in all aspects of communication with your customers (including literature, brochures, packaging, the product itself, the Internet, stationery, and so on), must reflect all these things in its:

• graphical design (the Nike ® "swoosh", the Coca-Cola ® bottle design)
• type face
• use of color (the Post-it ® Note yellow)
• sounds (the Microsoft ® or Intel ® tune)

The more differentiated the identity, the easier it is to protect from infringement. Competitors will often pick up on elements of the trade dress of the brand leader. They must be confronted, otherwise the trademark is lost as a valuable piece of intellectual property and, more importantly, the clarity of your identity (a key piece of communication between your brand and your customers) becomes drowned in confounding "noise" from other brands.

All separable elements of the identity should be researched for availability and registered as trademarks, as should its slogans. You then need to draw up a series of standards that ensure the consistent "look and feel" of the brand in all situations. The implementation of these standards should be policed both inside and outside of your company. There are a number of organisations that will do this for you on a continuous basis. The Coca-Cola Corporation is famous for having its own inspectors across the world ensuring compliance to brand identity standards and detecting infringements.

Luckily, you are just seconds away from some very smart brand marketing solutions. Click here!

For further information, please contact enquiries@mudvalley.co.uk

© 2004, Mud Valley ™ brand marketing community.

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