Talking about business, aren’t we all trying to figure out the perfect algorithm to success? Now some businesses might have a better formula then the other but to strive to keep improving upon the present structure is a must.

Business i believe is like a perfect recipe. All the ingredients play an important role while no one individual ingredient can be considered the reason for the overall taste. It’s like a giant clock with all the big and small gears playing equally important part to run the whole system.

One such aspect is the image of the Business in the market which is known by the term BRAND. It’s the relationship between the business and its clients. Its everything that refers back and point to your business.

While you can certainly control the actual product or service you cater to your client but you can’t really have an absolute control on the image of the business like it is perceived in the market apart from controlling certain limited aspects of it. It is so because every client might have a subjective relationship and experience with your business and that isn’t easy to control.

While a business can come to life in a short span of time, the Brand aspect of the business always take time to gain value. For example apple as a business is a company that makes Mobile phones, computers, music players and tablets. But as a brand it might be symbol of carrying sophisticated, compact and clean gadgets with a hip and cool image. There was a time when carrying an ipod or iphone added a certain character to your image as a person for example, of being sophisticated and organized. Similarly getting your coffee at Starbucks might add another tint to your image as a person. So business is mobile phone and coffee but brand is carrying an iphone and getting your coffee at Starbucks.

While most people do have some idea about the business aspect and how to improve upon the quality of product or service but many of us find ourselves confused about how to add value to our brand.

There are various measures to give distinct character to a brand which will set it apart in its league. For example Apple and IBM both deal in computers but their brands still carry a distinct character which is exclusive to them. So if there is any way to make a consistent growth in your business genre, it is through giving your brand a distinct character and eventually people will develop a taste for it and will come back to you for the same.

Brand artifacts

Now we must first understand that whatever cue is used to hint your brand is called a brand artifact. For example the famous Bitten apple hints at the company ‘Apple’ similarly the encircled three-pointed star is famous as Mercedes icon. So these are brand artifacts of visual nature. Similarly if you have seen 20^th century fox’s logo reveal in the beginning of a movie, they have this music piece that plays in the background and that in it can make someone remember about 20^th century Fox Company without even looking at the visual logo reveal. So that then becomes a brand artifact of audible nature.

Brand identity

Brand identity is a set of guidelines to produce consistent brand artifacts. To talk about visual brand artifacts for example the logo, office collateral, marketing materials etc. The details such as the font type and colors used and how all constituent elements are required to be used in relation to one another and how the space between the elements follow certain ratios. All these minute details give a distinct and unique character to the brand and so long these guidelines are followed the producted artifacts will always be consistent.