Every year, businesses lose MILLIONS due to inconsistent branding. We know how it is- there’s always pressure to develop products, service customers, and take care of operations. But while you’re pouring your blood and sweat into making your business grow- a fragmented brand identity continues to sabotage your efforts.
The numbers don’t lie: companies with consistent brand presentation increase revenue by up to 23%, and customers who feel connected to a brand are 52% more valuable to a business. Yet, only 25% of companies consistently enforce their brand guidelines.
If you fall outside the last statistic, you may be leaving money on the table. We are talking about almost an additional 25% in earnings here. We’re sure your bank account and your stakeholders will be happy if you can bag it instead.
To get there, you must start by laying down a solid foundation for your brand —and then build upon it. Because the secret to making your business flourish, is to transform into a BRAND that resonates with people and endures through the ages.
So today, we bring to you the Ultimate Branding Checklist. Created by the award-winning brand consultants and shapers at India’s top marketing agency, this is your roadmap to building your brand equity– and setting the stage for perennial returns for your business.
Let’s begin.
The Ultimate Branding Checklist: Setting Up The Foundation
The first stage is about rationally assessing your brand and its competitors, and understanding how successful it has been in embodying your vision and communicating with your audience.
It happens in multiple phases:
A. Foundation: Brand & Competition Audit
1. Brand Audit
The first step in building up your brand is to clinically analyze it. Be objective, and be honest about:
- What do you want your brand to stand for?
- Who is your brand talking to and what is it saying?
- How effective has its communication been in bridging your vision and your audience’s expectations?
Analyze all the elements that make up your brand- both the tangible and the intangible.
- Philosophy & promise
- Personality and voice
- Logo, colors, and visual identity markers
- Packaging and collaterals
Remember, you have to be honest about how your brand is coming across. Many brand owners are so attached to their brand that they let pride cloud their judgment, and grow defensive in their assessment.
2. Competitor identification and audit
Analyze 5-10 direct and indirect competitors in your niche. The objective is to identity the RIGHT competitors and then understand how they are positioned in the market to identify your areas of opportunity.
To do the first, you must start with those who are a size similar to you, before moving on to the market leaders. Understand this- a local jeweler cannot consider Cartier as their competitor. Similarly, be clear about the niche you operate in. A soap brand identifies Unilever as their competitor- they are making a mistake. The right brand to focus on is Lux.
The purpose of auditing competitor brands is to Identify Market Gaps. Look at your competitors’ messaging to find underserved needs in your industry. Is there a problem the customers have that NO ONE is addressing?
For example- in the analgesic gel niche, everyone promises pain relief. But is anyone talking about providing it fast? Or without side-effects? Long-term relief? Take note of the gaps you observe, because as you’ll see, we will need them.
Now that you have a good idea about the market- it’s time to shape your brand with respect to it.
B. Brand Identity Formulation: Brand Core Elements
1. Brand Mission & Vision
Define your “why” and future ambition. What difference do you seek to create in the world? How do you hope to impact lives- and where do you see YOUR COMPANY in this future landscape? Note them down because this is the essence of your brand. Mission and vision statements must be timeless, non-transactional, and non-generic in nature. Tap into your core emotions and try to distill them into direct, short, simple sentences for your vision and mission statements.
2. Brand Story and Brand Promise
Once you have a rough idea about your brand mission and vision, you write your brand story. The brand story is the philosophical foundation of the brand. It’s concise, emotional, outlines what the brand represents, what it is working towards, and who it is for.
Note- a brand story is NOT content for “Our Story” on your website. It’s a foundational document that may not even be published on your site- but its philosophy guides the way you operate as a business.
Don’t make it about your history or product specifications, but about emotions, values, vision, and personality. Your brand story should underscore the promise you make to your audience and be the ideal that defines your entire identity.
3. Brand Values
Your values are your compass- and are your non-negotiables. They are codes by which the business governs itself and its relationships (both internal and external)- so they must be properly spelled out.
Don’t go for transactional or generic values. Yes, everyone focuses on customer service- but how do you seek to enforce it? Your values must be timeless, positive, and actionable- and should inspire your employees. They indicate what are your priorities as a business, and when you live and communicate them, your brand becomes more relatable to its target audiences.
4. Brand Personality and Archetype
If your brand were a living person, who would it be? Are they funny or professional? Aloof or motherly? Sensuous or brimming with creativity? You must have a distinct brand personality that makes you click with your audiences.
You must define the tone, style, and traits for your brand to make it more life-like. The trick here is not to play it too safe- because that makes you forgettable. Look at brands like Wendy’s, Merriam-Webster, Duolingo, or Old Spice —they have built a solid fan base thanks to their bold personalities.
And for that, it is best to embrace a clear archetype for your brand. You can read this definitive guide on brand archetypes to decide which one suits your brand best.
5. Brand Language & Messaging
Naturally, when you have zeroed in on a personality, you must develop a clear tone of voice to make your brand sound authentic and human. So write down what your messaging should be and how you should sound when delivering it.
Remember, you must be consistent with your personality and brand voice. You cannot jump on every fad or try out everything to see what sticks. Look at Nike- which always sounds inspirational and gritty; and never tries to crack a joke. On the other hand, we have the sassy Wendy’s, never afraid of stepping on toes and telling people off.
Now that we have the soul and essence of the brand sorted out, it’s time to set down its marketing foundation.
C. Brand Positioning & Strategy
1.Target Audience Personas
Now comes the most crucial part of this exercise- defining your target audience and creating consumer personas. Here, you start with demographics- but pay greater emphasis to psychographics, pain points, and aspirations. How well you understand the minds and desires of your audiences will be directly proportional to how good your marketing will be.
Create multiple personas- both for your present audiences and your ideal ones. Get into details about the touchpoints where you can approach them, what they are drawn to, what they dislike, what drives them, and who they look up to. Tailor your marketing strategy according to your findings.
2. Unique Value Proposition
So why should your audience choose you over competitors? You must jot down a list of 3-5 points about what makes you different- and we don’t mean generic ones like “our product is better.” You have to be succinct about WHY your product is a better solution to your audience’s problems, and what’s unique about your brand.
For example, if you are talking about lipsticks- you should emphasise that your lipsticks glide smoothly and don’t need reapplication for 15 hours. The idea here is to get a clear view of what factors you can highlight as your USP in your marketing, because this is what will make your brand memorable.
3. Brand Positioning Statement
Now, you formulate your brand positioning statement. It should highlight:
- Who it is for
- What it accomplishes for them
- What makes it different from its competitors.
Here is the format in which you write it:
For [target audience], [brand name] is the [frame of reference or category] that delivers [key benefit or point of differentiation] because [reason to believe/proof].
Your brand positioning should be enforced across channels, in all your campaigns, to drive your message home and resonate with your audience.
Now, it’s time to give your brand a definite shape.
D. Brand Identity & Design
- Color Palette and Moodboards
Of course, you start by looking at the colors that capture your brand’s personality and mood perfectly. Here are what you should flesh out:
- Create Your Color Palette – Choose 2-3 colors that evoke desired emotions- and use them for the primary palette. Now, develop a Secondary Palette by adding 3-5 supporting colors for flexibility. You can also add a third palette for accent colors.
- Define Color Meanings – Document what each color represents for your brand.
- Create a moodboard – Now, create a moodboard to depict the interplay of the colors, elements, shapes and possible fonts to create a feel for the brand. Once you are satisfied, move on to the more concrete visual identity elements.
2. Brand Logo and Its Variations
Your brand logo, besides its name, is its most important identity marker. So choose it wisely. It’s best that you leave the task to a good branding agency– because a logo must be strategic in nature and impeccably executed.
And it’s not enough to get just “the logo”, you must insist on all its variations:
- Full
- Stacked
- Icon-only
The reason you need this is that your logo will appear across channels and be rendered against a variety of materials. So make sure you have a logo version to place on your website, SM posts, company collaterals, favicons, packaging, products, films and even billboards.
3. Typography
Choose your fonts and logo simultaneously. Select a primary typeface that reflects the brand personality, and the secondary fonts for hierarchy.
4. Imagery
Now, think of what types of imagery will go best with your brand. For example, if your brand is about creative expression, imagery should be vivid, while for techno brands, it’s best to lean into a sleek, futuristic palette. A clean energy brand should embrace the outdoors with sweeping vistas, while a book brand can invoke coziness with deep brown and warm tones, with welcoming interiors.
5. Graphic Elements
Design patterns, icons, and illustrations that support the brand can be deployed in its imagery. Think of the interlocked “G”s of Gucci or the signature Fendi pattern. They are widely deployed on their designs, brand collaterals, templates and stationery.
6. Brand Collaterals
Of course, every brand will need to use stationery, so you must provide designs for the same. These include- letterheads, envelopes, email signatures, presentation decks, business cards, uniforms, packaging, and space design elements.
7. Brand Guidelines
Once you have fleshed out everything, it’s time to codify it all in the form of brand guidelines- also known as the brand book. It should be followed by your marketing team to ensure that your messaging is communicated in the most authentic and effective way.
Congratulations! You have given shape to your brand!
Now, it’s time to deploy it across touchpoints.
E. Digital Presence & Assets
1. Website
Design a website that conveys your brand’s messaging, provides your audiences with the information or products they are looking for, and also provides them with the best brand experience.
A website should appeal aesthetically and be functional, so talk to India’s top web designers to create one that straddles that fine line.
2. Domain & Hosting
To host your dream website, acquire your domain and hosting platform. Make sure that your site is structurally sound- so that you can edit it as needed.
3. Professional Email
At the same time, set up your branded emails. This is not only essential for internal communication, but also for credibility. A company with a dedicated email ID automatically feels more trustworthy than a company that uses Gmail.
4. Landing Pages
Next, identify your landing pages for possible campaigns and develop them so that you can start selling or capturing leads. Ideally, you should create a dedicated landing page for your campaign- but for most, it makes more sense to just use the home page or key category pages.
Now, we set up the channels for building visibility, brand community, and long-term engagement.
F. Marketing Channels & Content
1. Social Media Profiles
Set up your profiles, pictures, bios, and banners so that they are descriptive, catchy, and human. Try to include some keywords in your descriptions if needed.
2. Content Calendar
Ideally, you should have a custom calendar for each social media handle. For example, your LinkedIn may be about corporate updates and thought leadership, while on Instagram and Facebook, you can talk to the consumers and promote your products. Plan blogs, videos, campaigns at least a month in advance and make sure you post regularly.
Pro-tip- try to go for authentic, dedicatedly shot & sharply edited visuals and clips as much as you can. Not only do the algorithms favor them, they also engage humans better and are remembered for long.
3. Email Marketing
Now, create your email marketing templates. Whether it’s welcome or subscribe sequences, promotional offers, newsletters or other alerts- have all templates complete with email signatures with your logo and contact info.
4. Blogging & SEO Strategy
Create a solid marketing calendar for publishing content on-site and off-site. Decide how many pieces go out, on what platforms, in what formats, and on what topics. Craft your SEO strategy – and then start researching the keywords and other relevant details to build up visibility for your brand. Define metrics and KPIs for content performance
5. Paid Ads
Set up your ad accounts- on Google, social media, and any other platforms. Make sure your account has an adequate balance before you start running your ads, and check all your settings to ensure you are not wasting money.
6. Google Business Profile
If you have a local address or are a community business, having your profile on Google Business is a must. Local SEO can help you get a lot of leads and footfalls- so make sure your profile is updated with all the necessary details about your name, address, and contact info, and descriptive information about the services you provide. You have to update your profile regularly, and encourage people to post reviews to signal credibility and boost local visibility.
Finally, it’s time to set up the channels for managing your brand’s reputation.
G. Brand Reputation & Growth
1. Customer Review Strategy
Create a strategy for collecting, responding to, and showcasing consumer reviews. This also includes reviews on third-party sites like Google, social media, or review sites.
2. PR & Media Outreach
Look at all the news, PR, and media platforms where you can profile your brand and create visibility. Look at opportunities for interviews, guest posts, podcast appearances, and press releases. The idea here is to position your brand as an earnest problem solver and thought leader in its niche.
3. Partnership & Collaborations
Now, make a list of collaborators and possible partners to elevate your brand and amplify its messaging. Look at influencers who feel authentic to you and suit your strategy, and look for co-branding opportunities as needed.
4. Analytics & KPIs
Lastly, set down the analytics you need to track your brand health. Do some homework to come up with the list of KPIs, and have a good idea about what benchmarks to set for gauging how your brand is faring.
Now, if you are looking for a launch, here is what you need to do.
H. Team Training & Adoption
Train your team and ensure all employees understand and can communicate the brand’s messaging across all touchpoints. Develop vendor guidelines and share brand standards with your external partners as well.
I. Launch Strategy
Plan a detailed brand launch strategy- look at all the channels you need to deploy and what activities have to be done over each. Create excitement around your brand launch or refresh, and create announcement posts, emails, and press materials announcing the launch.
J. Set up Loyalty Programs
Last but not the least, have your loyalty and rewards programs in place to make sure you customers keep coming back to you, and your reputation stays intact.
- Don’t just design a logo — design a full brand system that works across web, print, and merchandise.”
CONCLUSION
With our Ultimate Branding Checklist- you can get the ball rolling. Many business owners think that branding is all about registering your brand and putting a logo on it- but we know that building a brand is much more complex than that. When you want to shape a brand- you design a full brand system that works across web, print, and merchandise, and shows the way forward for future growth.
So, have a look at our checklist- and get started. If you think you need a helping hand, our award-winning branding and marketing team is here.
FAQs
A brand audit is an essential part of the overall branding process. You must audit a brand- whether it’s yours or the competitor’s- thoroughly to understand what it intends to be, and how successful it is in its quest. To understand that, you must keep this checklist in mind:
The name and tagline: Are the name and tagline strategic? How generic are they? Do they align with what the brand is trying to do?
The logo and visual markers: Do they suit the brand? What do they convey? What emotions or allusions are they triggering?
The Philosophy: What is the central message of the brand? What promise is it making?
The Audience: Who is the brand talking to? Are they the ideal consumers?
Social Media and Website Communication: Are they appealing? What positioning is the brand occupying? Is there consistency in messaging? Are they following the best practices?
Reviews: What is the brand’s reputation in the market? What are the recurring complaints or compliments it is getting?
For a detailed brand audit, you can always ask for help from India’s best branding agency.
The 5Cs of branding are :
Company: The brand itself- what it stands for, whether its messaging is syncing with its intention, its identity markers, and its vision.
Customers: The target audiences for the brand- demographics, psychographics, buying behavior, content preferences, and issues that make them tick. You can have multiple consumer personas for a single brand.
Competitors: Other brands that compete with you in the market. Analyze what they are saying, who they are talking to, and how they are doing so. This is essential to understand where your brand stands with respect to them.
Collaborators: Possible/ current partners involved in creating, producing, and selling your products or services, such as suppliers, distributors, influencers, or celebrity ambassadors.
Climate: Look at the factors beyond control- like political, social, economic, technical, or regulatory changes that affect the way you operate or your business.
According to Philip Kotler, the customer journey can be divided into five parts, and accordingly, the brand’s messaging should be tailored:
Awareness: In this phase, the brand should attempt to get the attention of the customer. This is especially important when it is new— it has to announce its existence loud and clear.
Appeal: Here, the brand cultivates interest. The idea is to intrigue and hook the audience in.
Ask: In this phase, the brand should make itself an object of curiosity and desirability.
Act: By nurturing audience interest and making them feel safe, the brand here prompts them to take an action by which they positively engage with the brand.
Advocacy: After the transaction is completed, the brand must continue to make its customers and followers feel special so that they continue to act as unofficial ambassadors of the brand.
In marketing, the 3-7-27 rule states that for a customer to remember a brand or its message- they should be subjected to a minimum number of touches or exposures. Here is the breakdown:
3 – The first three interactions are essential to catch the consumer’s attention. Introduce your brand and message at this stage.
7 – The next seven additional exposures begin building familiarity and trust with the audience. This is where the customers start to recognize your brand and its value proposition.
27 – It can take up to 27 interactions for a brand to fully establish itself in the consumer’s mind. Once that’s done, you can build recall and convert interested lookers into customers.
The 3-7-27 rule suggests that a brand needs to consistently and strategically engage its audience through multiple touchpoints to build awareness, familiarity, and, eventually, loyalty.
A brand is made of four Vs-
Vision: What change the brand wants to bring about- and what role it sees itself play in this scenario.
Values: The guiding principles that shape the way the brand does business, looks at the world, and relates to its community.
Voice: The personality that makes the brand relatable and makes it feel human.
Visuals: The physical manifestation and identity markers of the brand- like its logo, colors, fonts, packaging, and imagery.
These elements define a brand’s philosophical core and tangible identity. If you want your brand to stand on a strong foundation, you must craft it with the best branding agency in India.
To create a strong brand identity, follow the BrandLoom Ultimate Branding Checklist. Here’s a summary of it:
Brand Audit: Audit your own brand if it exists to identify the gaps in its communication strategy. If you are creating a new one, move on to the next step.
Competitor Audit: Identify 5-10 competitors and audit them to understand their messaging, their strengths and weaknesses.
Consumer Audit: Create detailed personas about your target audiences- with demographics, psychographics, buying and content preferences, and behaviors.
Brand Story: Create your brand story, which will be the philosophical basis for it. It should be a timeless document that hints at your purpose, promise, and values.
Mission & Vision Statements: Now, create your mission and vision statements. They should be crisp, open, timeless and non-transactional.
Positioning Statement: Create your positioning statement that underlies brand USP, who it’s for, and what problem it solves.
Values: Chalk out 4-5 brand values. Make them non-generic, timeless, and actionable.
Archetype: Assign your brand an archetype to give it a definite, unique personality. Make sure your values sync with it.
Brand Logo: Now, create a logo that’s strategic and communicates your brand’s core effectively. Ensure it evokes the right emotions.
These are the basic brand core and identity elements you need to craft for your brand. If you want to create a brand for the ages, talk to the best branding company in India.
A brand must be consistent in nature and be consistently enforced across channels. An inconsistent brand does not invoke trust, and looks unprofessional. Moreover, if a brand looks, feels, or acts differently or changes its messaging or behavior very fast, it will confuse the audience. For a brand to register with its audiences, it must keep repeating its messaging. An inconsistent brand cannot build that recall and ends up alienating its audiences. Which means, loss of revenue. So, if you want to grow your business, stay consistent with your brand communication.
A good brand is more than just a flashy logo or tagline. It is built on a strong foundation. These are the elements that build that core:
Brand Purpose: The “why” behind your brand, aligning with customer values.
Brand Identity: Visual and verbal components like logo, colors, and tone of voice that make your brand recognizable.
Brand Personality: How your brand communicates, whether it’s playful, professional, or caring.
Brand Values: Guiding principles that shape decisions and resonate with your audience.
Brand Positioning: How your brand stands out from competitors by meeting unique customer needs.
Customer Experience: Across touchpoints, product quality, and loyalty programs- you must ensure a superior brand experience for customers so that they keep engaging with you and act as your unofficial ambassadors.
Remember, you must keep reinforcing your messaging and ensure consistency across channels if you want to register with your audiences and build recall.
To improve your brand recognition, you must create a strong identity and iterate your messaging consistently across platforms. Here are a few channels to build your brand recognition:
Content marketing & SEO: Content is king- and the key to success. You must publish content regularly across channels- including your website and external sites. Create a posting schedule, create blogs, guest posts, web pages and other relevant materials regularly, and optimize for visibility.
Social Media Marketing: Of course, if your brand exists, it has to be on social media. Post regularly, stay consistent and try to have a platform-specific posting calendar and schedule. Remember, social media is the place to engage, so don’t post overtly promotional content.
Email Marketing: Email marketing gives you great ROI, and takes your message straight to people’s inboxes. With informative newsletters and personalized offers, you can keep your audiences engaged and build long-lasting relationships.
ORM: Online Reputation Management is crucial for brands both from internal and external perspectives. Customer and employee conversations and reviews act as barometers for gauging your brand’s reputation, so have a strategy ready to respond to and manage feedback on relevant platforms.
Advertisements: You must run ads from time to time to create brand awareness, attract leads and get sales. This becomes especially important during festive seasons or new developments.
Media Outreach: To establish thought leadership – you must put yourself out there. Look for interviews, guest editorials, articles or features to tell your story and establish yourself as a trustworthy brand.
Offline Activities: From organizing camps to sponsoring events, build real-life connect with people by meeting them on the ground.
For a consolidated, effective strategy, you can buzz the top branding and marketing company in India.
Rebranding a business requires more than a logo change- it requires a full reassessment. This is how to go about it:
Assess Current Brand: Analyze your existing brand’s strengths, weaknesses, and market perception.
Define Your Objectives: Clarify why you’re rebranding and what you want to achieve (e.g., targeting a new audience, shifting brand values).
Research Your Audience: Understand your target audience’s needs, preferences, and expectations.
Revise Brand Identity: Update your logo, colors, typography, and visual elements to reflect the new direction.
Refine Your Brand Message: Develop a clear, consistent message that aligns with your new brand purpose.
Update Your Online Presence: Revamp your website, social media profiles, and marketing materials to reflect the rebrand.
Communicate the Change: Announce the rebrand to your audience and explain why the change was made.
Implement Consistently: Ensure the new branding is applied across all touchpoints for a unified experience.
To ensure that your brand stands out from competitors, you must find your differentiator and a unique positioning. Here is how you can go about it:
Audit your brand: understand what it stands for, its strengths and weaknesses and what’s unique about it.
Audit the competition: figure out what they promise they are making, how they are addressing the customers and what makes them unique.
Identify gaps in the market: now, check for the blind spots and figure out what audience needs are remaining unfulfilled. Think both in terms of problem-solving and personality.
Craft your messaging: once you know where your opportunities lie- tailor your brand’s message accordingly. Make sure it is impactful, emotional and non-transactional.
Remember, differentiating yourself depends on both your ideas, concepts and messaging- and also the brand’s look and feel. To create a unique and memorable brand experience- plan your brand strategy with India’s top brand consultants.
Your logo is your brand’s most important visual identity marker, and along with your brand name, forms the most important brand asset. Your logo is a strategic marker that represents your brand to your audience. So whenever they see your products or visual messaging, they associate it with the positive feelings you want to invoke in them.
Your logo is an essential branding tool- and it should appear on all your products and marketing materials. These include- website, packaging, visiting cards, company spaces, letterheads, presentation decks, social media posts, posters and videos.
If you want to create a good logo that strategically fits your brand- talk to India’s top brand designers.
To check if your branding is effective, here are some methods to use:
Brand recognition surveys: Quarterly/ every six months about how easily audiences can identify your brand.
Revenues & Sales: How much you are selling and whether it is meeting expectations.
Web traffic analytics: How many people are coming to your site, how long they are staying, what they are interacting with, what they are buying.
Social media metrics: Look at metrics like reach, followers, engagement, comments, shares.
Email response: Check how many have subscribed, open rates, click through from links in the emails, replies or redemption of codes/ offers sent.
Market position: Lastly, whether your market share has gone up or down, or how you have performed for the set period when compared to your competitors.
Be objective in assessing how your branding is performing and whether it’s driving the results you want. Accordingly, fine tune your approach.
Some common branding mistakes that unfortunately, a lot of companies fall prey to are:
Failing to deliver on your brand promise: your brand is a promise- and you must ensure you are living it. For example, if you promise that your customers will get an all-natural pain relief solution but your product is full of harsh chemicals, that’s a serious shortfall on your part.
Identity markers and messaging not syncing with your offerings: imagine an ultra-feminine teenage brand having a grey and white, minimalistic palette or naming themselves “Maturity”. When your brand is completely at odds with its modes of expression, it fails.
Bad PR: Bad public relations or marketing can spell disaster. When Dolce & Gabbana put out an extremely racist ad – Chinese customers were up in revolt. The company sought to apologize but the damage was done, and the brand will forever be associated with the scandal.
Failing to innovate: The world we live in is constantly changing, and customer expectations are also rising. A brand that does not innovate can fade away- Nokia being a textbook example of this mistake. This is the reason why even ordinary soap brands constantly launch new formulations and fragrances.
Some other mistakes can be- becoming too trend-driven, not tracking efforts, being inconsistent with branding & messaging, being a copycat brand and many, many more. Know more from this comprehensive list of common branding mistakes and how to fix them.
