With 81% of customers needing to trust a brand before they make a purchase, SMEs should build a well-regarded  brand reputation in order to succeed. The first step to an exceptional brand reputation is  designing brand identity that is both effective and consistent with what you do.

What is a brand identity and how do you design one? Let’s talk about it in our in-depth guide to designing brand identity.

What Is a Brand Identity?

Brand identity is the collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumers. It encompasses visual components like logos, color schemes, typography, and packaging, as well as intangible aspects such as brand voice and personality. 

Designing brand identity properly is crucial because it serves as the foundation of a company's communication and marketing strategy, directly influencing how customers perceive and interact with the brand. 

More than aesthetic appeal, a coherent and compelling brand strategy also aligns with the company's values and mission, ensuring that brand touchpoints communicate the brand's essence effectively. This helps enhance recognition and trust, and ultimately drive business success.

Step-by-Step Guide to Designing Brand Identity

Designing brand identity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involves careful consideration of resources, market positioning, and how to effectively reach your target audience within a competitive landscape. Here’s a tailored step-by-step guide for SMEs to reach branding success.

Step 1: Clarify Your Business Core Values and Mission

When designing brand identity for your SME, begin to describe goals by conducting a thorough assessment of your business's core values, mission, and unique market position. This critical first step ensures that every aspect of your brand, from visual elements to customer engagement, authentically reflects what your business stands for and what sets it apart. 

By defining these foundational elements, you create a clear blueprint that guides all branding decisions, ensuring they align with your business’s essence and resonate with your target audience.

Step 2: Know Your Target Audience

This step in designing brand identity is crucial for tailoring your brand's messaging and aesthetics to the preferences and needs of your target demographic. 

To fully understand your target audience and gather relevant actionable insights, engage in direct research methods like surveys or focus groups. This information will inform the development of a brand identity that resonates strongly with those you seek to attract, ensuring your branding efforts are both effective and relevant.

Step 3: Conduct a Competitor Analysis

The next step entails a thorough competitor analysis, where you examine both direct competitors within your SME's sector and larger entities in the industry. This analysis aims to uncover areas where your business can differentiate itself, such as offering personalized services or specializing in niche products. 

By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, you can identify unique selling points for your SME, ensuring your branding experts highlight these differentiators to capture the attention of your target audience and carve out a distinctive position in the market.

Step 4: Define Your Brand Personality

Another step in designing brand identity involves choosing a brand personality that reflects the values and appeals of your target audience. Opting for a personality that is more personal and relatable can set your brand apart from larger, more corporate entities. 

This approach helps in building a deeper, more meaningful connection with your customers, making your brand more memorable and fostering loyalty. The personality you choose will influence all aspects of your branding, from visual design to the tone of your communications, ensuring consistency across all touchpoints with your audience.

Step 5: Develop a Visual Identity

Developing a visual identity is crucial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who are designing brand identity and aiming to establish a strong brand presence. This process includes several brand fundamentals.

• Logo and Name: Crafting a logo that's not only simple but memorable is essential. Your SME's name should strike a chord with your target audience, encapsulating your brand's core values and mission in a way that's both engaging and reflective of your identity. Online retail brands usually outsource graphic design to the Philippines to get a striking logo.
• Color Palette and Typography: Selecting the right colors and fonts is more than just an aesthetic choice; it's about communication. These elements should align with your brand's personality, making your brand stand out while ensuring that your messaging is clear and consistent across all touchpoints.
• Imagery: The images you choose should resonate with your brand's narrative and the quality of your products or services. Authenticity is key here, as genuine representations of your offerings can help build a deeper connection with your audience.

For SMEs, these elements of visual identity are not just decorative. They are strategic tools that help differentiate your brand, convey your unique story, and establish a lasting relationship with your customers.

Step 6: Craft Your Brand Voice

Crafting  the brand voice of your SME is an essential step in designing brand identity. This voice should be unique and maintain consistency across all forms of communication, from your website content to your social media posts and customer service interactions. 

Whether you opt for a tone that's friendly, professional, quirky, or somewhere in between, it's crucial that this voice truly resonates with your brand personality and effectively reaches your intended audience. 

By doing so, you establish a strong, recognizable brand presence that can significantly enhance your connection with customers and differentiate your business in a competitive market.

Step 7: Design and Distribute Brand Materials

Designing and distributing branded materials is a crucial step for SMEs to solidify their brand presence. Given budget considerations, it's important to focus on creating and distributing key branded elements that offer the most significant impact. Prioritize essentials like business cards, an engaging and informative website, and active, well-curated social media profiles. 

These touchpoints are vital for establishing your brand's visibility and connection with your target audience. By carefully selecting where to allocate your resources, you can ensure that your brand communicates effectively and consistently across the most critical channels, laying a strong foundation for your business's identity in the market.

Step 8: Create a Brand Style Guide

For SMEs, developing a concise and focused brand style guide can be particularly effective. This guide should document key branding elements such as logo usage, color palette, typography, and brand voice. 

By establishing clear guidelines, SMEs can maintain a consistent brand identity across all marketing materials and communications. This is especially valuable when outsourcing creative work, as it ensures that all contributors understand and adhere to your brand's visual and communicative standards, reinforcing your brand's coherence and recognition in the market.

Step 9: Launch and Promote Your Brand Identity

Launching and promoting your brand identity is a pivotal step for SMEs to gain visibility and connect with their audience. 

Leveraging cost-effective channels such as social media, email marketing campaigns, and local community events can provide a significant boost. These platforms offer a direct line to engage with your target market, allowing for personalized interactions and feedback. 

Additionally, participating in and contributing to local community activities can not only increase your brand's exposure but also establish your business as an integral part of the community. This approach not only helps in building brand awareness but also fosters loyalty and trust among potential customers, setting a strong foundation for your brand's growth.

You may want to consider creative process outsourcing for this step to fully ensure the success of brand promotion. Doing this will give you access to skilled designers and digital marketers who are more than capable of launching and promoting your new brand identity. Just look at how Haystak achieved their brand identity with KDCI.

Step 10: Evaluate and Adapt

Evaluating and adapting your brand identity is crucial for the sustained growth and relevance of SMEs in a dynamic market. It involves regularly assessing how your brand is perceived, the effectiveness of your branding strategies, and the feedback from your customers. 

This continuous loop of feedback and refinement allows SMEs to stay aligned with their target audience's evolving preferences and the competitive landscape. Adapting your brand identity isn't about frequent major overhauls but rather making thoughtful adjustments that reflect your business's growth, market trends, and customer insights. 

Staying agile and responsive to these changes can help maintain your brand's relevance and appeal, ensuring it continues to resonate with your audience and supports your business objectives. A design project manager can help you with this task.

Build a Design Team for Your Brand Identity

Designing brand identity requires specialized design and analytics skills, which may not be readily available for SMEs like you. You can build an in-house team, but this can also cost you a lot of money.

Instead, partner with an outsourcing company like KDCI that can build you a team of designers who can work according to your unique requirements. Our designers can help you conceptualize and implement your brand identity for consistency in all your designs. This makes your brand look more professional and helps strengthen your brand reputation. 

Click the button below to learn more about our design outsourcing services.