Brand Image vs Brand Identity – Which Shapes Consumer Loyalty?

Often used interchangeably, brand image and brand identity are two highly critical requirements for a successful brand in India.

Both of them comprise your brand’s overall personality, mission, vision, etc. It is basically how your customers perceive your brand in the forthcoming years. Hence, it would help if you had a strong hold on both.

Both of them combine together towards your brand’s recognition, trust and recall. Ultimately, this makes your brand a memorable and authentic one in the industry.

There are several ways to build or fix your brand image and identity for enhanced customer loyalty, and we are here to help you with that. Let’s start with understanding the basics and move on to making some positive impressions for your brand among the audiences.

Critical Differences Between Brand Identity and Brand Image

While both are essential for your overall brand success, you must understand every nitty-gritty aspect for maximum efficiency. Brand identity is mostly about your brand’s values, aesthetics, and messaging. On the other hand, brand image is all about what your customers think about your brand based on experiences and interactions. Let’s decode it even further.

1. Definition and Concept

Brand identity is all about your brand’s visual elements, messaging and values. It carves how you want your customers to think about your brand.

The brand image represents how Indian audiences perceive your brand primarily through their experiences, interactions and overall brand reputation in the industry.

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2. Control and Creation

There are many strategies to build your brand identity, such as brand designs, marketing campaigns, brand guidelines, etc.

On the other hand, brand image is created mainly via the audience’s perceptions, opinions and experiences. Hence, you, as a brand holder, definitely have a lesser control here.

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3. Elements involved

The primary elements involved in brand identity include logo designs, colours, typography, brand message, visual aesthetics, etc, that represent your brand within the audiences.

The brand image consists of various intangible elements such as your brand reputation, customer experiences, customer opinions, reviews and emotional connections with your brand.

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4. Change and Adaptation

You can change or adapt your brand identity to the latest market trends, audience preferences, etc.; hence, it is highly adaptable.

Your brand image evolves over time based on various customer experiences, feedback and perception. Hence, this is something that you can only change slowly for your brand.

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5. Origin and Communication

Your brand identity starts from your brand and gets communicated to audiences through various marketing channels and platforms.

Your brand image is developed from external sources, such as customers or stakeholders, based on your brand interactions, perceptions and experiences.

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6. Measurement and Evaluation

You can measure your importance of brand identity through your brand guidelines and brand objectives.

On the other hand, you can measure and analyse your brand image through consistent market research, surveys, social listening and feedback from customers.

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Different Strategies for Building Strong Brand Image and Identity

Now that we know the primary difference between brand identity and image let’s discuss some common strategies you can implement to grow your brand this year.

1. Brand Identity Strategies:

Conduct research

The first step for any successful brand strategy is adequate research and analysis. You can only build a solid plan with the correct information. Thus, take some time out to analyse the market and your brand. Understand your strengths, weaknesses and the potential opportunities you’d want to seize through these strategies. Look for the right elements that make your brand stand out from the rest.]

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Understand what to avoid

You can find countless strategies and elements to implement, but it is essential to know what to avoid. This will help you to prevent any potential mishaps or miscommunication in the brand.

For starters, always use appropriate language, tone and visuals for your brand identity. It must make sense to your consumers. Plus, don’t just copy your competitor’s strategy out there. It doesn’t work like that. Sure, you can gain a fair share of inspiration, but copying from other people’s strategies will lead to more failed attempts at building a brand identity.

Lastly, don’t just chase the trends for the sake of it. Ensure that you scale your strategies depending on your requirements.

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Design Your Logo, Colors, & Aesthetic

If you are building a new brand identity, it’s finally time to create an entirely new logo design. Choose the right set of colours and aesthetics for your brand. After all, it is all about evoking the right feelings within your customers about your brand. Here, a strategic choice can greatly enhance your overall brand visibility and retention power.

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Practice brand synergy

Ensure that you have a strong hold on every part of your brand identity. Here, you must create and follow a consistent vision that integrates all parts of your brand values and guidelines. Your brand identity must stay intact with your brand values.

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Gather Feedback & Adjust

Once you have built a rough sketch of your upcoming brand identity, it’s time to ask for feedback from your friends and team members. Take some time here and only share with the people you trust. This will help you look for opportunities to improve and areas to avoid before you finally roll out the strategy for your brand.

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2. Brand Image Strategies:

Establish Critical Business Objectives

When building a brand image, ensure that you have adequate knowledge about your short-term and long-term business goals. Otherwise, your branding efforts may be in vain. This will give you the right direction for your brand image-building strategies while significantly improving your chances of success.

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Create your Engaging visual

Ensure that your brand is visually pleasing. The world revolves around creative and innovative visuals. The best visuals can definitely make the heads turn and boost your brand image. Look for unorthodox visuals that will serve as a differentiating factor for the Indian market, considering its saturated level. Indian customers love the vibe of unique and authentic products and brands. So, why not share your brand highlights through engaging brand visuals and grow your brand image?

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Create a marketing campaign

As we said, your brand image revolves around what your customers feel and think about your brand.

A strategic marketing campaign is excellent for communicating your brand value and mission to consumers. Opt for TV ads, digital advertising, social media influence, referral programs, and other forms of media to promote and share about your business.

For example, Airtel launches exciting marketing campaigns every now and then, portraying their reliable and innovative communication solutions for Indians.

Similarly, Cadbury, a well-known chocolate brand in India, is famous for its marketing campaigns portraying joy, celebrations, and togetherness. Their ads are centred towards various celebrations and occasions that form the right bond with the consumers and build a positive brand image.

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Leveraging social media and online presence

Social media has a massive power in turning your brand image into something huge in this era. Choose the right platforms and build a strong connection with the consumers. Create engaging content and post consistently on your social media handles. This will help foster a positive brand image in the minds of the consumers. Furthermore, it will also show your brand commitment to customer satisfaction in the Indian market.

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Maintain brand consistency

Your brand must have a unique brand image, and you have to be consistent with it. This will help you build trust and loyalty with the customers. Consistent brand image can downgrade your brand image and create confusion in no time. Over time, you can witness a speedy growth of new leads and sales in your business.

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How can a well-crafted brand image and identity help a business succeed?

A well-crafted brand image and identity are incredibly essential for your brand’s upcoming success. This is because these aspects serve as the fundamental block for a strong brand reputation. This cohesive framework ensures proper brand communication and consistency across various media channels. Hence, when your customers encounter your brand and witness a professional brand image and identity, they will likely be more confident about their purchases with it. Hence, it acts as a strategic lead magnet and gives your brand the much-needed competitive edge by developing a strong sense of belonging and affinity towards your brand.

Conclusion

A strong brand image and identity are the only powerful assets you will need for long-term business success. It can actively influence customer behaviour and market dynamics and create massive opportunities for your business to grow in the coming years.

So, what exactly are you waiting for? Call our branding experts today, and we will help you transform your brand identity and image as per the current market trends.

While these strategies can get you started, feel free to share more such strategies, tips and tricks to boost customer loyalty through a strong brand image and identity in India for our readers!

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.