What are the Elements of a Brand?

Branded items are made of various materials and have a wide range of costs. 

The areas of interest in branded items come as the matter of the next concept of the series: branding.

Brands typically have a core or a compass that directs, leads, and guides the brand. This center is driven by a set of brand archetypes and a motivation, which represent personality traits, a well placed brand personality, and a distinctive promise which fills a gap in the market.

The brand compass is a summary of the most fundamental truths about your brand. It’s the outcome of the process of collecting data, research and position statements.

A brand compass charts the direction of your company and why. It consists of five parts such as purpose, vision, mission, values, and strategic objectives.

You are the business's method for solving the most fundamental question your company faces: Why are we getting out of bed in the morning? Your vision is the ultimate end state you wish to bring about with your work.

Your mission statement includes your definition of your goals in your career, outlines how you plan to achieve them, and to set some personal milestones for your progress.

While brand identity is the most powerful way to create and nurture a strong brand, only brand archetypes can deliver a brand's strength beyond what can be summed up with one very simplistic idea.

Although inspired by thinkers such as Plato, Freud, Jung and Joseph Campbell, archetypes are empirical ideational entities that are shared by, or find their "meaning" in our connection with, others in the population.

Identifying, which archetype your company embodies, can allow for you to dramatize the stories you want to tell about your brand using themes that people already understand and might identify with.

Brand personality refers to the way a brand, service, or organization looks and sounds like a person. It represents the brand perception. It is a spectrum of characteristics and behaviors that encompass everything from the brand story to the corporate identity.

Brand personality is what makes Apple the trendsetting auteur, or REI the pioneer in outdoor pursuits the fashion-conscious retailer.

A brand’s personality is one of the main reasons it is distinctive from others in its category, and the basis for the deep relationships customers experience with it.

Your competitive advantage is what you do better than any other company or organization.

To successfully define a sustainable competitive advantage, any business must understand what competitors have caught up to and stay ahead. As a result, it is critically important to clearly articulate how one’s business is different from its competition.

No single value proposition will always be sustainable as a business switch. However, the focus should always be on the customer.

To get an accurate end result, you need a framework that takes into consideration your business’s unique value, the customers you serve, and the competition you are up against.

Your brand promise is the solemn pledge you make to those you serve. Think “safety” and Volvo. For decades, Volvo has promised their customers the safest cars on the market. And they’ve delivered on it.

Your brand promise is expressed in many forms: taglines, messaging, advertisements, social media, and beyond. It can be explicitly stated or subtly implied.

An explicit brand promise is more immediate than an implicit one, but it’s important to keep in mind: the more explicit your promise, the higher the expectations that you will deliver on it.

The most important part of any brand promise is that it is kept—every time.

Your brand’s visual identity is the integrated system of visual elements that make it recognizable and differentiated. These include your logo, color scheme, typography, photography, iconography, etc.

An effective visual identity will embody all of the defining characteristics of your brand, including your brand compass, personality, promise, and archetype.

Your brand’s visual identity is its stamp on the world—an aesthetic system full of meaning that has the power to communicate your brand’s essence in a visual instant to all who experience it.

In contrast to its visual identity, your brand’s verbal identity is the integrated system of words and messaging that differentiate your brand and make it recognizable to audiences.

Your verbal identity includes things like your name, tagline, brand voice, brand story, brand messaging, and copywriting.

A brand’s name and tagline are its most immediate face to the world. They should be replete with meaning—either intrinsically or as the result of methodical brand narrative.

Its verbal identity humanizes your brand, making it identifiable to your customers. In every instance in which your brand’s voice is heard, whether via marketing collateral, advertising scripts, or website copy, your customers should be able to recognize it immediately—like an old friend on the other end of the telephone.