The Branding Process and Brand Identity
We have written this article for businesses looking at branding or working on their brand identity. Here you can find what these terms mean and more about the processes.
What is the branding process?
The branding process, or brand development, are steps a business can take to create, communicate and strengthen their brand. The steps can vary depending on what the business is looking to achieve and, may not always include the full branding process.
For example, we help our clients with a specific step in the branding process. We help our clients to communicate the most visible elements of their brand; this is brand identity. An established company may be focusing on this step because they have experienced recent company growth or launched a significant new service, and their current brand identity doesn’t work for them anymore. Whereas, a start-up will most likely follow the full branding process.
What is brand identity?
Brand identity is a crucial step in the branding process and comes as an opportunity to add something different to the brand and set the business apart from competitors. It can include many of the most visible elements of a brand, including some or all of the following:
- Company Name
- Logo Design
- Tagline
- Colour Palette
- Font Styling
- Imagery
- Stationery (Business Cards, Headed Paper)
- Marketing Materials
What does the branding process look like?
Whether a company is developing or refreshing (rebranding) its brand identity, they will usually work with an agency on their branding project and follow a similar process to this.
Project Definition
Defining the project through consultations and a design brief will help everyone be on the same page with the objectives, scope, target audience and expected results.
Research
To get a better understanding of the project, industry and competitors, the agency will gather more information surrounding the business.
Brainstorming & Development
At this stage, the agency will brainstorm ideas, create mood boards and collect reference imagery. Then develop and refine concepts, choosing the strongest to present to the client.
Feedback
The client can provide feedback on a presentation of the strongest concepts and, from there, any development or alterations are made.
Final Presentation & File Delivery
The final designs are presented to the client, the final files are sent over and, the agency may offer any additional support.
Further Expansion of Brand Materials
Depending on the needs of the client, the agency may then work on any further materials, such as a business website design or marketing materials.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in the branding process but should give you some idea of how brand identity works. We hope you have found this article useful and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
