A strong identity builds customer confidence
When customers are confident in the message you share, they're confident in sharing information about your company, buying your products repeatedly, and going the extra mile to patronize your business.
A confident customer will drive that extra half mile to reach your store. They'll pay a little more for shipping from across the country. They'll tell their friends about this "awesome" company from which they buy their products.
What makes a good brand identity, and how does it inspire confidence? Consider the following.
Good brand identity starts with a good name
Names are iconic, and changing them comes at a heavy risk. You might sell the exact same product after a name change, but your customers might not make the jump with you. Just consider Google and Facebook.
Does anyone refer to Google as Alphabet? Does anyone refer to Facebook as Meta? No, those companies have names entrenched in our psyche. They're simple, memorable, and original.
Successful brand identities consider audience
Building brand identity requires several steps, but you can only take each step when you know your audience. Who will look at your company's logo? Are you marketing to the 50+ market, or are you looking at first-time parents as your customers?
As you develop your color strategy, logos, and marketing materials, it's essential to understand your audience. Not only will understanding your audience help you with design choices, but it will also help ancillary facets of your band strategy like marketing partnerships and where you advertise.
A logo must look recognizable everywhere, whether it's on a bag, a storefront, or a digital advertisement. Imagine the tiny image a smartphone user taps when they open your app. Your customers need to recognize your logo as a tiny digital square as easily as they do when it's on a 12-foot high billboard.
In many cases, the best logos are simple and can function with or without the text of your company's name. Think of a few particularly memorable logos and how simple they are. Everyone knows a yellow "M" stands for McDonald's. Nobody can mistake the red bullseye for anywhere else than Target.
Brand identity is consistent but not static
Simplicity and memorable logos help businesses create a consistent and cohesive image no matter where they operate. However, it's important to consider how your brand strategy might shift in other countries or even just across the country.
Is it your company's goal to become the number one hummus distributor in the southeast? What about when you've conquered that region of the country? How will you translate that success to other locales? Will the way your customers interact with your company change? Will you need to enhance your brand strategy as you expand?
Great brand identity examples
Other than Coca-Cola, what are some examples of strong brand identities? You might consider Netflix, which has evolved over time to the point of instant recognizability with nothing more than a red "N," a black background, and the catchy Netflix "ta-dum" sound.
At this point, a user doesn't even have to look at the screen to know that someone just turned on a Netflix show. Interestingly, the Netflix "ta-dum" isn't the first time a company used sound to such great effect with its logo. Rival HBO accomplished this feat back in 1993 with its "static angel" intro that displayed the familiar HBO logo over a screen of white television static and the sound of a television warming up (or shutting off, when displayed at the end of a program).
In an interesting development, HBO created its own "ta-dum" sound when it launched its streaming service. Now, rather than show people the relatively dated concept of a static screen and the sound a tube TV makes while warming up, the company has a long "whomp" that plays whenever a user opens the app or starts an HBO-produced show.
What's the take-away with these logos and their sounds? They're excellent examples of an incredibly recognizable logo impacting multiple senses. It's not just the look of the Netflix "N." It's also the sound the program makes while warming up.