# Brand and Identity It is not enough to come up with a good idea. We must be able to communicate our essential intent and the value we create with our efforts. Hence, storytelling and communicating the essence of what we stand for is an important part of any successful product development. Customers are not stupid. They are not easily fooled by glossy images, nor are they interested in gimmicks or flamboyant messaging. They are however, interested in enjoyable customer experience and solutions that bring value by fulfilling their needs or solve their problems. This is true for internal customers, such as you coworkers, staff, and peers, as well as external customers and/or users of your product, service, or processes. Effective brand identity is not an empty façade. Brand identity is rooted in the very essence of what our offering hopes to bring and how we engage with customers, employees, society, and the environment. > [!Definition] > Brands live in people’s minds and the concept of brand identity is in fact a sum of many moving parts. The author and brand expert Marty Neumeier (2019) defines it as “**_the outward expression of a brand, including its trademark, name, communications, and visual appearance._**” Brand identity is more than just marketing and packaging. Brand identity is commonly associated with what a product, service or solution looks like as communicated through marketing material and packaging. But brand identity is about so much more. Brand identity transforms how people interact with product, service or system by showcasing how we differentiate from other solutions, how people engage and connect with our business, organization, unit, or even me as an individual. Therefore, we must present a consistent and cohesive identity across all channels and platforms and all customer touchpoints. Brand identity focuses on customer experience. Our brand identity must come from the core of our business and provide uncompromised customer value requiring us to maintain control of each and every part of the customer experience in order for any brand to succeed. Furthermore, a unified identity serves as a powerful competitive strategy. Ultimately, as Neumeier (2021) states: “Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what ==they== say it is”. ## Brand Identity Development One must strive to resist the temptation to jump right into the creative part of our brand identity development. Designing how to display and visually represent our solution/brand is actually the last step of our brand identity development process, not the first. Starting with the foundation of our brand and basing our narrative and visual representation on that core will enable us to tell meaningful stories. Furthermore, drawing on that core, one develops verbal and visual stories that our stakeholders relate to which in return enables you to develop a powerful brand identity. To develop a strong and meaningful brand identity and what we visually want to project in our narratives about our solution, we need to develop our brand identity from the ground up. But where does that baseline of development come from? What are the cues that enable the development of a strong brand identity? ## The Essential Components for a Strong Brand Identity Strong brand identity speaks to everyone that comes in touch with our solution, product, or services. In other words, our internal team as well as external stakeholders that interact with it. In the Harvard Business Review, Steven Greyser and Mats Urde (2019) identified essential internal and external elements for a strong brand identity as well as elements that bridge the two. Their matrix of 9 interrelated factors is displayed below. ![[Pasted image 20250204212358.png]] In the matrix above, the internal elements rooted in the organization’s values and day-to-day operations serve as a foundation of brand identity. They draw on our mission and vision, which highlight our aspirations and what we do to make it happen as well as the key characteristics of the team/organizational culture your team displays (ethics and attitudes). On the other hands, the external elements include factors that impact how the brand is perceived. The influential factors include your value proposition, how we envision our relationships with key stakeholders and how we position the solution/brand in the marketplace. Furthermore, there are additional elements that bridge both internal and external factors. According to Greyser and Urde, they include your team’s or organization’s personality that derives from the distinctive way you communicate and express your brand. What they call your Brand Core sums up what you want our solution/brand to stand for. This is our essential promise and the core values that make up the brand identity. Brand identity is essentially how customers perceive our brand in the market. ## Strategic Branding Strategic branding is what helps you build a positive brand image through things like our brand name, our logo, our corporate color palette and typography, our web and social media aesthetics, our business cards, and even the uniforms our employees wear. ![[Pasted image 20250204212743.png]] > [!attention] > Keep in mind that "brand identity" differs from "brand image", even though these terms are sometimes treated as interchangeable. While "brand identity" is constructed by the brand itself with the goal of crafting an appealing value proposition, "brand image" also includes the opinion (and perception) that customers have about a certain company or organization.