Brand Identity Design: Its Importance and Advantages

In the fast paced world of globalization, brand identity development is crucial for any business that wants to succeed in a competitive industry. Branding goes beyond just a logo or image. A brand reflects the personality of the organization, not to mention emotions and feelings surrounding the brand. 

Brand identity design cannot be created overnight. Even though the identity of the brand is primarily assembled by brand owners, it’s the consumers who perceive it as a living entity. Brand identity creates a distinct product positioning in the consumer’s mind. For example: several research surveys have found that Coca Cola consumers associate drinking Coke with happiness and joy. Coca Cola currently has one of the highest brand equity in the world. Simply the name “Coca Cola” and all the trademarks and images related to it is worth billions of dollars. Same goes for Apple Inc. The reason Apple gets to charge premium prices for its products, is because of its high brand equity.

Brand identity is a powerful weapon in today’s fast paced world of global business. When an organization has strong brand awareness they are capable of gauging positive emotional responses from consumers by associating their product lines with their brands. An organization which has a strong brand identity has a halo effect on all its products. Apple has a strong fan following who refer to themselves as “Macolytes”. These customers were crucial to Apple’s sustainability in the mid 80’s when Apple stock prices were an all time low. 

Brand identity is the most effective way of communicating an organizations goals and views. This communication, or product positioning; happens through a combination of visual elements, consumer experiences, logs, taglines, slogans, and sounds. Brand identity may evolve over time, giving the brand new meaning and direction. Thus the brand identity design is a rigorous task that requires constant monitoring by experts in the brand management industry. 

Brand identity is also a key element for premium pricing strategies. It’s quite impossible to charge premium prices unless the organization has sufficient brand awareness. Any business that wishes to penetrate a global market must have a worldwide brand identity. Without a rock solid brand identity, it is almost impossible to obtain consumer acceptance. In a dynamic global market, many consumers solely rely on brand identity to evaluate product quality. It heavily influences purchase decisions in case of technical products, thus dramatically reducing marketing costs. Any product manufactured by established brands like Sony, Apple or Microsoft is perceived to be of high quality by potential consumers. This is especially useful while penetrating an unfamiliar market where marketing and promotion campaigns cannot be launched instantaneously. Thus, brand identity lays groundwork for future extensions worldwide.  

Brand identity development has internal benefits for the organization as well. An organization that boasts positive brand image can easily attract and retain a talented workforce and human resources. Employees have a strong sense of belonging while working for organization with high brand awareness which usually results in better productivity. 

A strong brand design means the ability to go viral with a new product on social media. This is a powerful tool against competitors who use aggressive marketing. A major advantage of brand identity design is having a pool of loyal customers (otherwise known as “Apostles”) who spread positive word of mouth for your brand. Once an organization develops brand loyalists, they can enjoy free promotion, positive reviews and referrals by the loyalists without incurring any extra costs whatsoever. An organization with a positive brand image and loyal fan following has to spend little or no money to generate massive interest in social networking websites. Usually it’s the loyalists who share and promote their content, and they are happy to do it for free!