Brand Identity: Definition and How-to Guide

When you see a big red truck with white letters, you know you're about to see a Coca-Cola ad. That's brand identity: the distinct visual representation of a brand. Or, in simple terms, being able to recognize a brand based on just a few simple cues.

For PR teams, a strong brand identity means shaping public perception and keeping the messaging consistent for you or your client's brand. Today, we explore brand identity, why it's important, and how you can build it in just a few simple steps.

What is brand identity?

Brand identity is a collection of visual, verbal, and experiential elements that create a brand's distinct image and personality. It’s how a company or organization presents itself to the public and is designed to influence how consumers perceive it.

These are the key components of brand identity:

• Visual elements: Logos, color schemes, typography, and imagery consistently used across marketing materials.
• Verbal elements: Taglines, messaging, and tone of voice that communicate your brand’s values and personality.
• Core values and mission: The guiding principles and purpose that underpin the brand, differentiating it from competitors.
• Overall style and aesthetic: The design choices and creative direction that provide a cohesive look and feel, reinforcing your brand’s personality.

Why is brand identity important (for PR teams)?

Ask the average marketer about their wish list for 2025 and building a memorable brand identity is guaranteed to be one of their top desires.

Brand identity shapes how others perceive you. And not just the customers who purchase from you. It also includes journalists, partners, the wider public, and just about anyone who runs into your brand in any shape or form.

Second, a stronger brand identity makes for easier PR and media outreach. Once you've finished creating a brand identity, you have a solid foundation for communicating with journalists. They'll already be familiar with you when you start reaching out, making it easy to get your foot through the door.

Nike is an excellent example of a company with a strong brand identity. They have consistent branding efforts in terms of visual identity and messaging, allowing them to make a major impact on the sportswear industry.

On the other hand, consider a brand like GAP which went through a major rebranding in 2010, a rebranding that customers disliked so much the company had to revert to its original brand design.

How is brand identity different from brand image and branding?

Brand identity, brand image, and branding are closely related but distinctly different.

👉 Brand identity is how a business intentionally represents itself to the world. It includes the visual identity (logo design, color palette, typography), messaging, and overall personality.

👉 Brand image is how customers actually perceive your brand, and this does not necessarily always align with brand identity. It is shaped by experiences, reviews, social proof, and the emotional connection your brand builds with your target audience.

👉 Branding is the continuous process of building a brand by shaping, communicating, and reinforcing your brand identity. It includes marketing campaigns, storytelling, and customer engagement.

​​Key elements of a strong brand identity

Whether you're building a new brand identity or revamping your existing brand strategy, these are the key elements you should pay attention to:

The logo design and visual elements

Your brand's visual identity makes people recognize you. The logo, color palette, typography, and imagery should align with your brand's personality and remain consistent across different platforms.

The brand voice and messaging

How you communicate is a part of your brand positioning. For example, you could be formal, friendly, authoritative, or playful. Stay consistent in your brand voice and messaging to build trust and recognition.

Core values and mission

A well defined brand identity means determining what your brand stands for so you can connect with customers on a deeper level. This creates loyalty and differentiates you from your competitors.

Media presence and reputation

Public relations, social media engagement, and customer interactions all contribute to a brand’s perception. A strong brand identity includes managing these touchpoints to maintain a positive and trustworthy image.

With Prowly, you can build and maintain a strong brand identity with media monitoring and journalist outreach. Prowly helps you track the mentions of your brand, ensure that PR messaging is aligned across different channels, and helps you distribute stories about your brand to the right people at the right time.

How to build a strong brand identity in 7 easy steps

If you've never communicated brand values or created a brand strategy, getting started can feel like moving mountains. However, today we'll show you the basics of building a brand identity, design, brand story, and much more.

#1 Define your brand strategy

👉 Identify your brand's purpose and why it exists besides making a profit for shareholders. For example, Apple's primary purpose is innovation.

👉 Then, clarify your mission and vision: what do you want to achieve in the short and long term?

👉 Brand values come next: what principles guide your business decisions?

Last but not least, you need to define your unique value proposition (UVP), which makes your company and product stand out from everyone else on the market.

#2 Understand your target audience

Your brand elements should align with the expectations of your target audience, which you need to define first.

To tackle this step, first build up customer personas: the demographics, pain points, goals, and behaviors of the people who are your potential customers. The best way to get started is to do some market research, either by paying an agency or running your own customer surveys, interviews, and competitor brand analysis.

Once you know who you're speaking to, align your brand assets and messaging so you only speak to them.

#3 Develop a consistent visual identity

Hire a superb graphic designer to define what your company's brand identity will look like.

Start by choosing a brand color palette and sticking to it. Ideally, you'll need a brand style guide that contains this and all the other information related to your visual identity, such as brand fonts and more.

Speaking of which, choose a set of fonts that match your brand's personality, whether it's modern, playful, professional, or something else.

Document your brand guidelines to make it easy for the entire team to collaborate. This makes it easy for internal and external collaborators to work on collateral and create consistent campaigns.

#4 Craft distinctive brand voice and messaging

Is your brand formal, friendly, authoritative, or playful? Is it a mix of a few of these things at once? Decide on how you want the world to see you.

Then, create a tagline that your target market (and the broader public) can remember you by. For example, you don't have to think hard to remember who coined the tagline "Just do it."

When you've decided on your brand personality and key messaging, use it consistently across different channels.

#5 Build an online presence

The first order of business is to optimize your website and make sure it loads quickly and looks great across different devices and browsers. You should then optimize it for SEO and ensure that your most important pages rank for desirable keywords in your industry.

Create and maintain social media profiles, spending extra time and attention on those your target audience finds valuable. For example, a B2B brand might exclusively spend time on LinkedIn, while a clothing company might choose Instagram or TikTok as their focus of attention.

Create valuable content on your blog and social media profiles, providing value and education instead of pushing for direct sales.

And perhaps most importantly, engage with your audience. Whether it's replying to comments on Instagram, acknowledging reviews on G2, or creating new entries in your knowledge base following feedback, make sure to keep your audience engaged.

#6 Deliver a consistent brand experience

Train your employees so they understand what brand identity refers to and what makes your brand stand out. They should have information beyond the basics, like your primary and secondary colors. Employees should understand your values and long-term goals.

To create a memorable brand, always deliver an exceptional customer experience. Train your staff on resolving issues promptly and responding on every channel your brand uses for communication.

👉 Last and perhaps most importantly, your brand elements should be identical across touchpoints.
Email signatures, social media profiles, websites, printed materials, and everything else with your name on it should have consistent branding.

P.S. Here’s an article that might come in handy if you’re looking for a tool to measure the impact of your communication efforts.

#7 Monitor and evolve your brand

At this point, brand strategists will recommend you soak in information from your users. Run customer feedback surveys, reviews, and analytics to determine how your customers perceive you.

Make it a habit to track your online presence through media mentions. Tools such as Prowly let you get real-time notifications whenever someone mentions you on social media or anywhere online. Besides the context, you get brand sentiment analysis to determine if the mention was positive, negative or neutral.

Based on this information, adapt your brand identity, design and overall visual language, messaging and anything else that needs changes to appeal better to your target market.

PR’s role in shaping brand identity

Public relations teams can have a major impact on how your company shapes its brand identity:

1️⃣ PR helps with thought leadership and media coverage

As you create thought leadership content, PR teams can help disseminate it to reach the right target audience of journalists, content creators, and authoritative figures in your industry.

2️⃣ PR teams create press releases and form media relationships

Public relations specialists can whip up an attractive press release in a flash. But more importantly, they can reach out to relevant journalists and form media relationships instead of mass distributing one-off pitches. This allows you to get published even more quickly in the future.

3️⃣ PR pros are experts at crisis communication and reputation management

When things get ugly, PR can save the day, as they know the right tools to use, what words to say, and the actions to take. Instead of waiting until things are irreparable, PR teams navigate through the storm to help you come out as a winner.

With Prowly, you can automate the bulk of these tasks. Media monitoring helps you spot reputation crises and focus on your most important terms. With our AI-powered press release creator, anyone can create an engaging press release and send it to the right target audience.

Speaking of which, Prowly has a media database with over a million contacts that lets you filter and find journalists you can build relationships with.

💡 Tip: If you want to make your PR strategy truly robust, read these articles to learn how to manage your brand reputation and protect its reputation.

Common brand identity mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Building brand identity is not easy, especially if you're new. Here are some common mistakes that can hurt your brand recognition.

1. Inconsistent messaging across channels. For example, imagine you launched a new campaign on your socials while your website has completely different messaging. Driving people from your social profiles to your website may confuse them instead of enticing them to purchase.
2. No brand guidelines. Without clear guidelines on visual branding, your team won't be able to build a great brand identity, as everyone will interpret your brand's purpose and identity according to their own gut feeling.
3. Neglecting reputation management. Bad press will happen even to the best of brands and the way your brand interacts with naysayers and critics makes all the difference. Ignoring negative reviews and comments can cause considerable damage in the long run.
4. Not aligning PR and marketing. To an untrained eye, the functions of PR and marketing may seem similar, but they are entirely different. With PR and marketing on the same page, you can build and maintain a cohesive brand identity.

Conclusion + next steps for PR teams

A solid brand identity is like walking into a meeting sharply dressed. On its own, it may not do much, but combined with your offer and story, it dramatically increases your chances of achieving your desired results. Before building a brand identity, audit what you already have and how your target market perceives you.

Prowly can help you do just that. With our software, you can monitor the media for mentions and analyze them, spot trends, and manage crises in real-time. And when you want to promote something, Prowly's press release creator does all the heavy lifting for you.

Frequently asked questions

What are the seven key elements to brand identity?

Define your brand purpose and values, research your audience and competition, develop your brand positioning, create your visual elements (logo, colors, typography), craft your messaging and tone, implement these across all channels, and monitor and refine your strategy over time.

What is a brand identity example?

Apple’s brand identity is a prime example, with its minimalist design, consistent messaging, and clear focus on innovation. Emulate this by aligning your visual and verbal elements with your core values to create a memorable presence.

What creates a strong brand identity?

A strong brand identity is built on consistency in visuals, messaging, and customer experience while clearly reflecting your core values. Focus on cohesive design and communication strategies that resonate with your target audience to build trust and recognition.

How to build a successful brand identity?

Start by conducting market research to define your brand’s unique values and positioning, then develop and apply cohesive visual and verbal elements across all platforms. Consistently monitor customer feedback and market trends and adjust your strategy to maintain relevance and impact.