What brand identity really is (Spoiler: it’s not just a logo and a trendy colour palette)

Brand Identity

Oct 4

Before I get carried away and spill the tea on what a brand identity really is, I want to address the title of this post.

Creating a brand is partly about having a great logo and cohesive colour palette, that is true, but that is just the very tippy-top of the brand identity iceberg.

Like those classic iced figurine decorations that go on top of a three-tiered wedding cake… they’re great, everyone recognises them, but if the cake underneath isn’t delicious, no one is going to remember the decorations, they’ll just remember the crappy cake.

Your brand is your substance. Your brand is what you’re made up of. It’s the combination of all the scrummy ingredients that make you-you.

You are the scrumminess within your business.

I’m saying you because when you have a small business, you and your business are one.

That might not be something everyone wants to hear, you might prefer to exist in the shadows of your business, but the truth is, people buy from people, not businesses.

Humans want to purchase from, and do business with, real humans. And you, my friend, are what makes your business unique. You, your personality, passions, values, flaws and quirks are your small businesses superpower!

If I haven’t scared you off with the idea that you are your business and so in turn your brand, then keep reading, because the secret sauce to small biz success is below.

A REAL EXAMPLE

2 years ago, Nick (my Fiance) and I (I am Jade, by the way, founder of this place you’re hanging out right now) created our very first business of our own. That business is called The Fizzy Pheasant, a luxury mobile bar hire company specialising in weddings and rural events.

In creating TFP I got to put my marketing, design and branding experience to use and get a front-row seat for the rapid growth and success of a brand new business, in a new industry to us, during a pandemic, all thanks to the power of crafting our beautiful brand, from the inside out.

The truth is, we spent some serious time considering who we are, what we deeply value, what our message is, what we wanted to be a part of, what we wanted to contribute and why, and then built our business around that. We committed to showing up in our business truly ourselves, open-heartedly and authentically so that our potential clients could really get to know us.

We also made sure this identity we had consciously crafted came through in everything we did (and still do), whether that’s communicating with clients, the content on our website, the bars we built, or the service we provide, we made sure you could always recognise the essence of who we were throughout. That is branding.

And, thanks to this commitment to creating and then consistently honouring our brand, we did something I never would have dreamt we could. Without ever actually having run a mobile bar at a wedding before, during the middle of a pandemic, when we couldn’t even get out and do any events to gain experience or prove ourselves capable, we secured 45 wedding bookings! 45 bookings, from the power and strength of our brand alone.

A resonating brand in action

“I COULD TELL IT WAS YOU FROM YOUR VIBE”

We regularly get couples writing to us in their initial enquiry that they ‘absolutely love what we do’ or ‘love what we’re about’, which instantly fills me with joy, as what they are saying is, ‘we love your brand’.

Recently we went into a local cafe and began having a chat with the owners. When we mentioned owning an event bar hire biz the lady suddenly said, “wait, what bar company are you?” and when I told them we were The Fizzy Pheasant she exclaimed - “I knew it! I could just tell straight away from your vibe, I knew it was you!” - That. Is. Branding.

The people we are on our website, and on our social media, is the exact same people we are in real life, we show up consistently and authentically, and by doing so people get to know us, even before they’ve met us. It creates real human connection, which, let’s face it, the world needs more of, and it allows our business to thrive.

The core components of a brand Identity

So, with that in mind, I am hoping you are excited to start thinking about your own business’s brand identity.

To get you started, here are some of the core components of your inner brand identity and some questions to consider:

Your Mission, Vision and Purpose: What is it you want to achieve, and what motivates you to try?
Your Values: What is important to you? What do you stand for?
Your Personality: What are the characteristics you would use to describe your business?
Your Voice: What tone and style will you speak in?
Your Mark: What do you want people to think and feel when they come into contact with your brand?
Your message: What key messages do you want your audience to take away from your key brand touchpoints (e.g. your website)?

Now for visuals

Once you’ve established your brand’s essence, and the characteristics that make your business human, now you can start to think about how you can best visually represent those things through carefully curated visuals such as your logo, colour palette, typography, iconography and consistent use of those across your brand touchpoints (the places your audience come into contact with your brand).