How to develop a brand identity for your blog ? part 6

Posted on 27. Sep, 2008 by Roy in Business

Let there be light… But Which Company?

If you missed my earlier posts of the series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5. And here goes part 6:

What is a brand after all? A brand is actually an image that is constructed in the target audience’s mind. But what is an image?

In some cases, if the company has different physical outlets (where people actually buy your products or services), the brand image may get directly associated with the common look of the shops – color scheme, logo or even people.

Now, what happens with a blog or a website?

You get unique designs, logo, color scheme etc. so that people can easily remember you or associate you with something (do not forget that we think in terms of associations). For example, you will find that almost all the blogs and websites on finance have green as their base color (color of $$$ is green) and image based blogs are black in color (to focus on different shades of an image).

Do you need to follow such norms?

Some of you must be thinking that if you follow these norms, how would you develop your unique identity? You might be thinking that you have also become a part of the regular bloggers by following these common norms.

You are wrong. A seasoned brand strategist actually uses these common associations and crosses the first line of image development. The first line is actually the most crucial line as far as communication is concerned. If you cannot make the visitor understand who you are in the very first opportunity, you got troubles.

However, color scheme is only a part of the image development – you have so many other elements like logo or content to differentiate your brand from others in the same niche.

Another important point:

Do you know how people think? We think in terms of images. When I say cat, you start thinking about a cat (not a dog) but your cat and my cat is never the same. My cat may be black in color with short hair and yours may be white with long hair. But there is a common association (a cat) that carries our conversation further.

So what do you think? Do you need to follow some common norms?