Branding and building brand identity

Why do consumers choose your company’s products or services over the competition? Chances are your brand plays a big role in their decisions. And how you go about branding your company and developing and promoting your brand identity can go a long way toward keeping those customers and consistently attracting new ones. Understanding the difference between branding and brand identity—and how to make the most of each can help you build on your success and stay true to your customers. 

The terms branding and brand identity are certainly related, but they are not synonymous. Branding refers to the marketing practice and activities that go into consistently shaping and promoting a distinctive brand. Meanwhile, many of those branding activities are built on what is known as brand identity. Learn more about brand image and how to measure it.

Brand identity is the collection of all elements, such as logos, visual imagery, and key messaging that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumer. A strong brand identity can help build trust, loyalty, and a sense of familiarity among your target audience. 

You’re likely familiar with many of the companies that have had success building a brand identity. They have done what it takes to create a brand that is highly recognizable, and has built a loyal customer base. 

Coca-Cola has built an iconic brand with a well-known logo and ribbon-like imagery on its cans. The company employs red on its Coke products, and a font that conveys enjoyment, and a uniquely shaped bottle that assures customers that they are getting “the real thing.”

Burt’s Bees has built their brand by creating a familiar and homespun feel to how they portray their company and products. Their logo depicts their bearded founder, emphasizing the human connection and feeling of simplicity offering a stark contrast to more flashy and corporate competitors in the personal care space. They back that imagery up with emphasizing their love of nature by responsibly souring products, using recycled packaging, and giving to a range of green initiatives.

Building a strong brand identity is essential to generating loyalty and trust among your customers, and continuously attracting new ones as well. Ultimately the most successful brand identities create an emotional connection with customers, many of whom become fiercely loyal and outspoken advocates for your brand and products.  Among the key factors that are furthered by a strong brand identity are: 

Writer and consultant Fred Fred Reichheld might have said it best: “Without trust, there can be no loyalty—and without loyalty, there can be no true growth.”

Building trust and credibility is essential to the success of your company and it can be strengthened and affirmed through a strong and consistent brand identity that builds over time. Of course, the foundation of that trust and credibility is through knowing your stuff and meeting and exceeding your customer’s expectations. Your brand identity can amplify those traits through clear and consistent branding of images and messages. 

You can build the world’s best brand identity, but if you can’t successfully share it with the world it does you little good. That’s why it is essential to promote your brand through a range of marketing and advertising efforts. 

Of course, the key is to cut through the clutter—experts estimate that the average person encounters between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day. To capture attention—and consistently score impressions – it’s important to portray your brand identity in ways that are both simple and compelling. You want to distinguish your brand from competitors while building familiarity and trust with your customers and potential prospects. Delivering your brand identity consistently over multiple channels frequented by your target audience can help build strong affinity and loyalty over time. 

A strong brand identity that portrays your company’s strengths, values, and differentiating quality can attract people who agree with what your brand has to offer. Once you have captured the interest of a potential prospect, a strong and consistent brand identity can lead them to become customers. Additionally, once these people become customers, that same brand identity should do the work of nurturing the relationship further by resonating with the customer, aligning with their values, meeting their needs, and providing a sense of belonging and affinity with your company and other customers.  

In some ways, building a strong brand identity is akin to constructing a sturdy house. You need to get a solid foundation in place, and then take the steps necessary to add all the elements and features to create a finished product that will be a stable and comfortable home for potential buyers. With that in mind, here are a few key steps to building a strong brand identity.

You can build the power of your brand as consumers more readily recognize your cHow do you get consumers to recognize you—and to recommend your product or service to others? Through helping people conduct market research every day, we’ve learned a lot about how to improve the strength of your brand identity (especially through surveys).

Is your brand on consumers’ minds when they’re looking to make a purchase? When you know how visible (or invisible) you are to consumers, you’ll understand how strong your brand is in your market segment, and whether you need to tailor your marketing efforts accordingly. Ask survey questions that test for brand recall—your consumers’ ability to name your brand on their own to see if they’re thinking about you (or your competitors) first.

For example, ask an open-ended question like, “When you think of online streaming video services, what brands come to mind?”

To measure brand recognition, which is consumers’ ability to recognize your brand among a list of the others in your category, ask a closed-ended question like, “Which of the following brands have you heard of? (Select all that apply.)” Make sure that in the list of answer choices, you include your brand name along with the names of other big brands.

Through consistent measurement you can take steps to improve your brand power over time. You can do this by identifying gaps in awareness or perception of your brand and then targeting marketing and advertising efforts to fill those gaps. Additionally feedback via surveys and continuous measurement can help provide direction on elements of your brand you might want to emphasize—or those that you could downplay. 

There are a range of different types of brand surveys all of which can be deployed to help build a better brand identity or increase awareness or understanding of your brand. These surveys include:

Brand perception surveys are aimed at capturing insights about respondents' awareness and perception of a particular brand. They are typically brief surveys that include an option to include more in-depth feedback. 

Examples of brand perception survey questions include: 

Brand perception survey template 

Brand positioning surveys help you determine the best way to position your brand compared to others in your space. Brand positioning should maximize your value proposition as well as your company’s values, mission, and differentiating factors. 

Examples of brand positioning survey questions include:

Brand awareness surveys aim to measure respondents' level of knowledge about your products and services and how your brand recognition compares to competing brands in your category. Gaining insight into awareness levels can help direct your branding and marketing efforts. 

Examples of brand awareness survey questions include: 

Try our brand awareness survey template

Brand identity surveys are focused on helping you further define your unique identity by identifying your strengths and value proposition and comparing it to others within your category. 

Brand identity surveys can be used for your internal audiences to help gain a better understanding of your key differentiators and where you fit in the competitive market. 

Examples of brand identity survey questions include:

There are several ways to enhance your branding and improve brand identity, including:

Is your brand on consumers’ minds when they’re looking to make a purchase? When you know how visible (or invisible) you are to consumers, you’ll understand how strong your brand is in your market segment, and whether you need to tailor your marketing efforts accordingly. Ask survey questions that test for brand recall—your consumers’ ability to name your brand on their own to see if they’re thinking about you (or your competitors) first.

For example, ask an open-ended question like, “When you think of online streaming video services, what brands come to mind?”

To measure brand recognition, which is consumers’ ability to recognize your brand among a list of the others in your category, ask a closed-ended question like, “Which of the following brands have you heard of? (Select all that apply.)” Make sure that in the list of answer choices, you include your brand name along with the names of other big brands.

It’s one thing for consumers to be aware of your brand—but knowing what they think of your brand category (or which brand attributes or characteristics they associate with it) is just as important. If your market is bottled water, for example, what brands within that category come to mind for most people? And what are the good, bad, and even ugly traits that people associate with bottled water?

When you know the answers to these questions, you can shape your brand image to combat negative attributes and play up the positive ones. Start gathering these details by asking questions about your brand category—and via asking people to assign characteristics to your brand.

When your customers have the opportunity to go with another brand and they continue to choose yours—well, that’s brand loyalty. A great way to measure customer loyalty is to use the Net Promoter® Score (NPS), the standard companies around the world use to see if customers are recommending them to others.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. 

Taking your brand identity seriously can mean everything for your business. Make sure branding remains a priority (and that the competition stays in the rearview) by measuring your brand equity on a regular basis via benchmarking your survey results. Doing so will help you set a baseline you can use to measure your efforts against periodically. The result? A strong brand identity that always sets you apart.

Want to compare your survey results with others in your industry? Check to see if we have benchmarks relevant to your organization.

Not sure how to get people to take your survey? Let SurveyMonkey Audience help you with your market research. Tell us who you want to take your survey, and we’ll find consumers who meet your specifications to get you the results you need.

Effective branding strategies and a clear understanding of your brand identity and how to most effectively promote it are key to growing your business and strengthening customer loyalty. SurveyMonkey offers a range of solutions to meet your needs now and into the future.