“It is the performance that will decide destiny, not anything else.”- Muna Al-Hashemi
As rightly said by Muna Al-Hashemi, the former CEO of the Batelco Group, in order to achieve new heights for your business in the future, it is important to work on your current performance. Top performance indicators for any corporation today include revenue, customer retention rate, satisfaction levels of the customers, profitability, and lastly brand effectiveness. Now, customer retention rate and satisfaction levels are directly dependent on the brand persona being portrayed in the market for the company. The brand identity is therefore the face of a brand, consisting of the philosophical and emotional values of a brand being conveyed to the customers through logos, packaging, storytelling, etc.
For Dubai, many F&B brands like Farm Fresh, Al Ain Farms, Al Rawabi, etc. had to come up and implement new brand identity designs to survive during the pandemic. They introduced technology into their day-to-day operations and strategically incorporated it and highlighted it in their brand identity. This successfully resulted in increased sales for top F&B companies by approximately 255%.
Similarly, many popular restaurant chains and hotel chains also faced a sudden dip in demand as they were forced to shut down their operations due to covid-19 restrictions. However, one popular dining restaurant Social by Heinz beck in Palm Jumeirah decided to revamp its current brand identity to fit the new market restrictions effectively. They shifted their focus to customer retention instead of increased revenue by introducing a socially aware menu experience for the guests with lower prices. They used strong brand identity design to reach out and appeal to the old customer base, while also creating unique menu dishes and communicating the same through brand communication.
Brand Identity Design Process: Explained
Brand identity, being the face of a business, holds high weightage for every company, whether big or small. This is why creating and developing a unique and strong brand identity design is essential to survive the competitive market dynamics. Therefore, companies opt for outsourced solutions to help curate the best brand identity design for their company. The most important aspects of brand identity include the design, logo, colors used, visual identity, typography, etc.
So what is the brand identity process and how can you make the most of it? Let us find out below. In order to prepare a unique brand identity design, a branding expert or agency would be required to work on the following aspects to showcase their capabilities. However, even if any in-house marketing expert is working on the brand identity design, they also need to ensure all these below-mentioned requirements are met.
Research And Build Brand Strategy
This is the most crucial step for any company or individual, whether in-house or of an agency, as it sets the direction for the process. The main intention is to align your company goals to the branding goals by opting for strategies that enable strong brand identity creation. Strong brand identity design has to be different and unique, flexible, memorable, and easy to implement. This step also includes market analysis and research to further assess your current business position and the brand scope in the future.
Propose Changes in Current Brand Identity
Once the analysis is over, the next important step is to present a well-thought proposal by analyzing the current brand identity design and targeting all potential loopholes and gaps. This proposal should contain the new brand identity design strategies that can effectively convey your refreshed brand image through to the clientele, and assure results. The end requirement is to ensure the goals are SMART in nature i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
Creative Brief
After completing all analysis, of both market and competitors, the next important step is to start your design process on the basis of your goals from the new brand identity design. There are multiple options to experiment with to come up with some creative briefs for your brand identity. But you need to ensure a level of visual integration in the designs that aligns itself well with your brand.
Final Selection And Implementation
This key step is essential as it requires brainstorming visually pleasing concepts to align with your brand identity design strategy. Information-based branding is relatively easier as compared to visual brand identity as different people have different perceptions of the same aspects. You need to focus on coming up with visual brand identity designs that speak volumes about your brand as a whole, highlighting the brand’s personality and values with finesse. Remember that the elements that come together to form an effective visual design include imagery that can trigger strong emotional responses. Finally, conclude this step with smooth implementation of the finalized design to reach the audience.
Important Pointers to Note
An effective brand identity design is a well-formed format covering all-important answers to the following common questions, as mentioned below.
- Is the brand identity relevant to your customer base?
- Are you successfully eliminating potential pain points with your new design?
- Is your brand personality being conveyed successfully through your new design?
- Is your brand identity design strategy SMART in nature?
- Are you able to achieve the brand perception you try to develop with your new brand identity design process?
If the answers to all the above questions are in your company’s favor then you have outdone yourself and created a unique brand identity designed to stand out in the group of competitors.
Wrapping up!
To conclude, it is fairly obvious that the visual brand identity speaks volumes about your company as opposed to paper promotions. So, in order to convince the customers to remain loyal to your brand, you need to meet their expectations on a personal level. For more personalized brand identity solutions, you can reach out to Vowels, specialize in brand consultancy and offer a variety of solutions to meet all your branding expectations successfully.
