What is Brand Identity and How Does It Differ from Brand Style?

Nike’s swoosh, Amazon’s orange arrow, Rolex’s crown - all of these are elements of brand identity making these companies instantly recognizable. This article explains what brand identity is, why it's vital for businesses, and what’s need when crafting your brand identity.

The Amazon logo, featuring a stylized arrow pointing from "A" to "Z," simultaneously represents the company's mission to offer everything their customers might need from a to z and symbolizes a satisfied customer's smile.

Understanding Brand Identity

Brand identity represents the collection of visual, verbal, and other elements that form a unique and recognizable brand image.

Consumers can identify a company using all of their five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Engaging these senses creates a deeper and more memorable connection between a brand and its consumers. Here's how each sense can be utilized in brand identity:

• Sight: Visual elements are central to a company’s identity. This includes everything a user can see: logos, colors, typography, icons, illustrations, and images. .

• Hearing: This includes jingles like McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It", brand sounds like Netflix's "ta-dum" startup sound, and voice tones like the voice of Amazon's Alexa.

• Touch: This can be experienced through packaging, business cards, labels, and wrapping paper. For example, the smooth boxes of Apple products that open with a sliding motion.

• Smell: Through scents, brands can stimulate sales, induce appetite, or create a comfortable environment in a store. This is known as aroma marketing or scent branding. A prime example is Lush cosmetics stores, whose scent is detectable from several meters away.

• Taste: Taste is crucial for brands involved in the food and beverage market. Coca-cola as a beverage was so popular and unique when introduced in 1886 that it soon became its own drink category.

Why Brand Identity Matters

Here are five key reasons why corporate identity is crucial:

1. Brand Recognition: Well-crafted identity makes a brand easily recognizable even in the crowded shelves of a department store. Visual elements help consumers instantly identify the company among others.

2. Unified Image: Brand identity helps maintain a consistent brand image across all platforms and customer touchpoints—from advertising and social media to websites.

3. Building Trust: Identity helps manage consumer expectations. When a brand’s appearance and behavior match its promises and mission, it strengthens consumer trust.

4. Emotional Connection: Identity elements can convey a specific mood, style, and associations, influencing how consumers perceive the brand.

5. Competitive Advantage: Identifying your differentiation enables you to identify, leverage and profit from what makes your company or product unique.

Differences Between Brand Identity and Brand Style

Brand identity and brand style are often used interchangeably in marketing and design to describe the visual and verbal aspects of a brand. They are closely linked but have different focuses and components.

Brand Style is a part of brand identity focused only on the visual aspect. It includes specific rules and guidelines on using the brand's visual and textual elements to ensure uniformity in all company materials.

Brand Identity is broader, impacting all senses. Its primary goal is to establish and maintain a unified and recognizable style that differentiates the brand from competitors and creates a strong emotional connection with the audience.

Elements of Brand Identity The basic elements of brand identity are the logo, color palette, and typography. These are usually sufficient when just launching your business as they establish the foundation for your brand’s uniqueness and recognizability.

• Logo: The main visual element, symbolizing the brand. It may include graphic images, words, or combinations that help consumers instantly recognize and associate your services, content or products with the company.

• Color Palette: A set of colors used to create brand identification elements like logos, packaging, and marketing materials. Colors can evoke specific emotions and associations, playing a crucial role in forming your overall image as a brand. 

• Typography: Fonts and their styles used to create textual brand elements, such as logos, slogans, headlines, and text on packaging.

Beyond these basic components, brand identity might also include:

• Brand ambassadors or mascots;

• Website design;

• Naming;

• Signature scent;

• Design sound.

The Gecko is the mascot of Geico. It symbolizes the flexibility and resilience of entrepreneurs, embodying their ability to adapt to changing conditions.

How to Create Your Brand Identity

Developing a brand identity begins with market research and understanding the audience's needs, followed by designing your visual communication. 

To develop an identity that resonates and meets business objectives, brands should:

1. Understand the Consumer: Conduct thorough research on your target audience. Define their key characteristics—age, gender, geography, social status, interests. Understand their needs, preferences, and values. 

Based on the collected data, develop personas for your target audience. Personas are fictional representatives of your target group that help better understand their behavior, motivations, and needs. This will assist in tailoring your brand identity to meet the specific needs of different consumer groups.

2. Study the Market and Trends: Identify your main competitors. Analyze their brand identities, logos, color schemes, and other key elements to understand what aspects of their identity work well and what can be improved. 

Don't overlook external factors such as cultural, economic, and social trends that can influence your brand's perception. Also, research trends in logo design, web design, and product packaging to create a modern and relevant identity. Consider both global and local trends that may be significant for your specific market and audience.

3. Formulate your Positioning: Define the unique value your business offers consumers, setting you apart from competitors. For example, Nike positions itself as a brand, offering its audience stylish clothing and footwear that both professional athletes and the average person can wear and achieve new athletic heights. 

4. Establish the Brand Platform: Key aspects include the brand’s mission and values, reflecting the company’s purpose and principles.



The mission statement reflects the company's main purpose and the essence of its operations. It answers the question of what benefits the brand brings to its audience.



5. Create the Visual Identity: Once the strategic part is complete, choose a color palette, develop the logo, select typography, and other graphic elements.

After creating the visual elements, conduct testing of the brand identity and gather feedback from your target audience. This will ensure that your design meets expectations and creates the desired perception.

What ultimately constitutes brand identity? Brand identity is a combination of visual, verbal, and other elements that making your company both unique and recognizable. Fundamentally, it includes a logo, color palette, and typography. Usually, this is sufficient at the start of a business. Brand identity is essential in creating a consistent company image, building trust, and setting you apart from competitors. Initially, you need to study the market and audience needs before developing the visual components of your brand.