How to build a brand in 10 simple steps

For many businesses, building a brand is the result of a long, organic process; however, with the right intentions—from developing the right concept to creating a logo—you can jump start your brand building. Let’s dive in to how you can build your brand in just ten simple steps:

According to Dazed Media’s 2031 A Future World Report, “46% of Gen Z feels connected to brands that are sustainable and have strong ethics, 21% care about brands being clear about their intentions and 17% say they seek out brands that have a clear point of view.” It’s clear that a strategic brand identity is more important than ever. Brands are tailoring experiences both on and offline to address these evolving consumer needs, not only to convey their ethics and intentions, but to shape how their audiences perceive them.

Build your brand with the Wix Logo Maker.

What is a brand?

Wix user and established brand consultant, author and designer Debbie Millman defines branding as “deliberate differentiation,” or the unique point of view which strategically sets a business apart from its competition.

Put simply, a brand is the story a company tells across all points of contact with its audiences. From its visual look-and-feel to the written language, these assets amount to a cohesive brand identity. While this article refers to the branding of businesses, the information presented here equally applies to all types of branding.

Before deciding how to build a brand, you might want to consider the different branding strategies necessary to build a brand. Some of the most well known- include, individual branding, challenger branding, multi product strategy, product line extension, sub branding, branding extension, co-branding, multi-branding, private branding, mixed branding, attitude branding, no brand branding, derived branding and social media branding.

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How to build a brand in 10 steps

1. Target audience: Know your people

2. Perform market research

3. Establish your brand identity

4. Create a brand positioning statement

5. Choose the right business name

6. Craft a catchy slogan

7. Design a professional logo

8. Define a visual language

9. Build a brand voice

10. Apply your branding consistently

01. Target audience: Know your people

Before building your brand, know who you're building it for. Get to know the people you want to reach—their habits, needs and what drives them. A little market research can help you find your ideal audience and understand the competition already in the game.

Who are you talking to?  

You're not here to reach "everyone"—and that's a great thing. The clearer you are about who your ideal customer is, the better you can shape your brand to meet their needs, speak their language and earn their trust. What do they care about? What frustrates them? What kind of brands do they already love and why? Go beyond just their age or location. Think about their mindset, motivations and what really matters to them.

Ideal customer

Create buyer personas, or fictional representations of them, by listing what you know or envision about them, such as their age, occupation and interests. Visit their favorite online environments, from most frequented subreddits, Instagram hashtags or Discord threads, to see what gets them excited, what products they prefer and how they talk to one another. Knowing your customers will make it easier for your brand to address their needs and speak their language. For example, if you're targeting a specific age group, like Gen Z, you need to understand Gen Z branding in order to speak to this audience.

Pro tip: Give your target audience a name and a story. Picture them as the main character of your brand's journey.

02. Perform market research

Great brands don’t guess—they listen. Market research helps you understand what your audience wants, what your competitors are doing and where your brand fits in.

Market competitors

Search online for other companies within your industry and niche that already target this market. Ideally, you’d complete a full SWOT analysis, but if you’d rather speed things up, simply note what works and doesn’t across each company’s design and marketing strategy. Survey their website branding and social media platforms for tone of voice and brand messaging and observe any elements you’d like your brand to include, as well as any that are missing or could be improved.

How to understand your market better

• Google's Market Analysis: Research trends, find potential customers and assess your competition. Discover what people are searching for, what products or services interest them and where they’re located. This can help you refine your brand strategy and focus your marketing campaigns. While the basic features are free, advanced insights require payment.

  
  

• Facebook Audience Insights: Get to know your Facebook audience—who they are, what they like and what they’re looking to buy. This tool combines data shared by users and third-party partners to give you a clear picture of your audience. Compare your target audience’s characteristics with the wider Facebook population to identify what makes them unique. Use these insights to create more engaging content and run smarter marketing campaigns.

03. Establish your brand identity

As part of your brand strategy, compose a list of adjectives describing your company’s character, as if talking about a person. Would it be better portrayed as classy or trendy? Is it reliable and mature or edgy and youthful? Before you write or design anything, you need to define the foundation. Here’s how to build a meaningful brand identity:

Purpose and values: What drives your brand?  

Every great brand starts with a purpose. It’s not just about what you do—it’s about why it matters. Maybe you’re simplifying daily life, making sustainable choices easier or empowering a community. That purpose becomes the foundation for everything you build.

Your values are how you bring that purpose to life. Are you focused on transparency? Do you put creativity above conformity? These values shape how you make decisions, treat your customers and grow as a brand. They’re what help people connect with you on a personal level.

Tip: Write a clear one-sentence mission statement and define 3 core values. Keep them front and center as your brand grows.

Unique value proposition: What makes your brand the better choice?

Your unique value proposition (UVP) is the one big benefit that sets you apart. Maybe your product works faster, feels more ethical or delivers an experience that’s simply more fun. A strong UVP solves a problem your audience actually cares about.

Start by thinking about what makes your business and approach different. More importantly, look at it through your customer’s eyes. What’s in it for them? What’s going to make them genuinely care about what you do?

For example, let’s say you own a local food delivery service. Do you aim to send out items as fast as possible or do you focus on your superb customer service? Maybe you use biodegradable packaging in your deliveries because your business values sustainability? Or perhaps your family-owned delivery service knows everyone in town by name? Outline this in your brand manifesto, an outward-facing declaration of your brand’s core motivation.

Tip: If a customer had to pitch your brand in one sentence, what would you want them to say?

What’s your brand’s personality?  

Picture your brand as a person. Are they bold and adventurous? Calm and wise? Maybe a little rebellious? Your brand’s personality should align with your mission and vibe with your audience.

This personality shapes everything—your logo, colors, photos, writing, even how you reply to emails. The more consistent it is, the more your brand sticks in people’s minds.

Pro tip: Pick 3–5 adjectives that describe your brand as if it were a character. Keep these as your guide to stay on track.

Going forward, your brand identity should shine through your various assets and experiences. Furthermore, defining your brand personality attributes from the start will prevent having to prematurely rebrand.

04. Create a brand positioning statement

Your brand positioning statement is a short message that sets your brand apart in the market and highlights its unique value. It's not just a tagline or an elevator pitch; it's a statement that says who you are and who you want to be.

To help you write a strong brand positioning statement, here’s a little template you can use:

We offer [product or service] for [target market] to [value proposition].

By including this step in your brand-building strategy, you'll be able to set your brand apart and gain an edge over your competitors.

05. Choose the right business name

The question of how to come up with a brand name is hardly ever easy to answer. A good name conveys your essence and strengthens your business’s credibility right off the bat.

Look for a short, sweet and easy-to-pronounce name to help people easily recognize and remember your business. Try to have it reflect your brand personality, core values or product. If we go back to our delivery service example, this business can pick a name to highlight either its speed and efficiency or its close-knit, familiar style.

Keep in mind that your name should represent your business but also keep expansion options open. For example, if you currently operate a ghost kitchen but dream of opening a full-scale restaurant, make sure your brand name accommodates your future business plans just as well.

Take a look at Trip, a line of CBD infused oils and beverages created to reduce stress and channel mental clarity. The brand name is clever, catchy and works almost as a play on words. It evokes several meanings including a journey of some sort, a psychedelic experience and a kind of stumble or fall from reality. This subtle name effortlessly takes both the literal and colloquial meanings of the word to effectively represent the brand.

To pick the perfect encapsulation of your brand, turn to online tools such as the Wix Business Name Generator. After answering a few simple questions about your unique business, you can pick from a large list of name options. You can rest assured that this tool only suggests options with available domain names, helping to streamline the process of naming your brand and creating a website.

If you come up with your own name or use a different name generator, be sure to look up your name of choice on search engines and social media platforms to check that it hasn’t been claimed yet. Finally, reach out to your local business registration service to verify that your name isn’t already trademarked.

06. Craft a catchy slogan

In addition to a name and logo, come up with a short, catchy slogan that captures your brand's spirit and values.

Not all businesses have or need slogans, but these phrases serve as a handy brand asset, helping people connect to your work. A slogan can show up pretty much everywhere, from your company’s business cards to its Instagram bio.

When crafting a slogan, look to successful catchy slogan examples from TikTok’s “Make every second count,” to Skittles’ “Taste the rainbow.” Notice how these unforgettable sayings portray a certain identity in just a few words—whether it’s a liberated, ‘anything goes’ atmosphere, or one that’s playful and colorful.

07. Design a professional logo

While your brand is the sum of your consistent assets over time —your logo sits at the heart of your branding efforts. A logo is often the first and most prominent presentation of your business to the world, and it can largely cement your initial brand perception.

If you need help with how to design a logo, look at existing brands for inspiration, like the interlocking C’s in Chanel’s logo or the handwritten Walt Disney signature. Notice that many of these famous logos aren’t literal in their design. Placing your brand’s identity and personality on display, without depicting your actual product, is a good logo design tip that may suit your brand.

Create and customize a symbol that’s right for your business using the Wix Logo Maker. Pair your new logo with Wix’s website designer to build a professional site that stands out. Once your design is finalized, download high-quality logo files and use them everywhere—from your website and its smaller favicon to branded merchandise and more.

Tip: Use lossless compression and webp file format to reduce file size without sacrificing image quality and apply your logo across your digital assets.

To ensure your logo appears presentable at any size and in any location, make sure that it’s flexible. A flexible logo has various iterations for different contexts. For example, a full design in most instances but just the icon or wordmark alone when space is limited.

Consider your brand values and voice in your logo design. Every detail from the color palette - your logo color combinations, to the typography helps communicate your brand’s story. For example, look at Opal Camera’s logo and branding aesthetic. The professional webcam company uses an understated logo and black and white color palette to embody the product’s core principles of upping WFH basics. The simple yet memorable logo pairs two interacting geometric shapes to create the concept of the product itself. We see a circle representing the lens in the camera and the triangle, indicative of the flash or an image being captured.

08. Define a visual language

Another part of your brand personality is your look-and-feel, or visual identity. While this encompasses your logo design, it extends to so much more.

A visual identity unifies a brand’s appearance, ensuring consistency across your business assets—from your website design to your newsletter layout, social media feeds, the design of your products, packaging and your brick and mortar signage. The shared visual will immediately and effortlessly bring your brand to mind.

Your brand’s visual identity can include:

• Brand colors: Brand colors are a palette of around five to ten colors. A consistent and strategic application of color can increase brand awareness. As an example, think of Slack’s quartet of red, green, yellow and blue, or Instagram’s gradient of warm hues. When crafting your business’s color palette, keep color psychology principles in mind. In addition, think of the colors most commonly associated with your industry. If we look at the food and restaurant industry, for instance, red, orange and yellow are often used to evoke appetite, while green is used to promote well-being.
  

• Typography: Your brand’s font scheme can speak volumes about your brand identity. Use one to three fonts consistently for a cohesive, easily-recognizable look. Consider whether you want to use a traditional serif font (with decorative “tails” on the ends of letter strokes), a more modern sans serif (without such lines), or combine different styles to create beautiful font pairings. While you can use free fonts, you might want to purchase one or two font licenses for your brand to ensure you’re legally entitled to all of the relevant typographical uses. These fonts, after all, will serve your business for the long run.
  

• Logo: Your logo serves as a tiny ambassador across each brand touchstone. Incorporate your brand colors and typography in your logo design to create a cohesive look and convey your brand values.
  

• Photography: As you build your brand, pay attention to the subjects in your photography, as well as the overall composition and style. Be sure to diversify your models and subjects to communicate your brand effectively across assets like social media posts and email marketing campaigns.
  

• Graphics, illustrations and icons: In addition to your photographs, integrate graphics, illustrations and icons in your visual identity to shape your brand’s messaging and contribute to a cohesive look. This can include everything from the CTA buttons on your website to your social media profile pictures and package labels.

Creating a brand style guide to outline your identity in one definitive place will help maintain consistency. As your brand grows and evolves, a style guide serves as a foundation for anyone who interacts with your brand—employees, external contractors, partners and stakeholders—to stay on the same page.

Your style guide also includes non-visual branding elements that guide every decision like your mission and vision statements. For further guidance, check out these brand style guide examples.

Pro tip: Learn how to make different types of banners (for example, explore LinkedIn banners ideas to inspire you) to level up your brand design.

09. Build a brand voice

Now that your brand has its own visual language, create one for your words, too. A brand voice is your communication style—how you talk and write to your audience. Your voice should extend to everything from your website’s written content and microcopy, to your hashtags and even the words you use when talking face-to-face with clients.

Your voice should stem naturally from your brand personality. If your brand is fun-loving and youthful, use casual language and occasionally even slang. If it’s formal and mature, you’d probably prefer professional-sounding language, with industry jargon here and there. The Wix brand voice, for example, treads a fine line between professional and fun, sounding honest, human and informative.

10. Apply your branding consistently

The single most important thing you can do to build your brand, whether it is corporate branding, personal branding, or something else, is stay consistent. As Jackie Treitz, Wix user and founder of the Paper Bakery, puts it:

Pro tip: For more guidance from Jackie, plus insight from her experience on the Netflix show Motel Makeover, check out her “In Conversation” on branding advice.

For a brand to effectively connect with its client base, it needs to be applied over and over again. Use all of the above mentioned elements—your logo, slogan, visual language and brand voice—in all your business ventures. As your business grows and evolves, your brand will too.

Most importantly, make sure that your brand extends beyond your visual assets. As Jason Saran of Brandswaggin, a Wix Partner and branding agency, explains:

You need to live and breathe your brand, and everything from your logo to your communication with clients should tie back to your company mission. Infuse your brand's personality and values into everything you do, and you'll get a base of loyal customers that come back for more. Branded merchandise—from mugs and tote bags to stickers and business cards—is a popular method to strengthen newly-established businesses outside of the web. You can then distribute them to employees to boost team motivation or to loyal clients to show your appreciation and gain their trust. Explore your options with these business card examples.

What are some unique ways to create a brand?

Building a brand should combine creativity and strategic thinking. Here are three unique tips that can help you build a strong and memorable brand beyond the normal.

01. Use storytelling

People remember stories better than facts. Craft a compelling narrative about your brand—why it exists, the problems it solves and the values it stands for. This narrative should resonate emotionally with your target audience and reflect your brand's personality.

02. Create a signature experience

Beyond just your product or service, design a signature experience that's uniquely tied to your brand. Whether it's the unboxing experience, customer service interaction or the atmosphere of your store or website, every touchpoint should reflect your brand’s identity. The goal is for your audience to feel a sense of consistency and special treatment every time they interact with you, making your brand memorable.

03. Collaborate with like-minded creators and brands

Partnering with influencers, creators or other brands that share similar values can help expose your brand to new audiences. These collaborations should feel organic, authentic and mutually beneficial. The key is to align with partners whose audience would naturally connect with your product or service, for a more meaningful partnership that enhances both your brands' credibility and reach.

What it takes to build a brand that sticks

Brand development is about shaping how people think, feel and talk about you when you’re not there. A strong brand stands on two pillars: strategy and marketing. Together, they define what you stand for, how you look and sound, and how you connect with the world.

Brand strategy

Brand strategy is your game plan for making your brand stand out and truly connect with people. It’s the big-picture guide that shapes everything you do—from what you stand for to who you want to reach and how you want to be seen. Think of it as a roadmap that helps you create a clear, consistent identity while making decisions that grow your brand in a way that feels real and meaningful to your audience.

Take Starbucks, for example. They set out to create a welcoming “third place” where people feel at home. Starbucks is focused on creating a sense of community and belonging around their brand. You are no longer simply purchasing a coffee, but an experience. That vision drives everything from their store design to customer service.

Types of Brand Strategies  

Businesses use different brand strategies to connect with their audience. These approaches can stand alone or be combined to align with your goals and audience.

• Purpose-driven: Focuses on a brand’s mission and values, highlighting why the brand exists beyond profit. It attracts customers who share the same beliefs.

• Product-focused: Shines a spotlight on the unique features, quality or innovation of a specific product or product line.

• Customer-centric: Puts the customer first by emphasizing their experience and needs, often prioritizing personalization and exceptional service.

• Competitive positioning: Sets the brand apart by clearly showing how it’s better or different from competitors in a specific market.

• Emotional branding: Creates strong emotional connections through storytelling, visuals and messaging that resonate on a personal level.

• Co-branding or partnership: Collaborates with other brands to combine strengths, reach new audiences or create something unique.

• Rebranding strategy: Refreshes or redefines a brand’s identity to stay relevant, attract new audiences or shift public perception.
  

Brand marketing

Brand marketing is how your brand connects with the world—it’s the story you tell, the vibe you create and the experience you share with your audience. It’s not just about selling a product or service; it’s about building trust, sparking emotions and turning casual browsers into loyal fans. Great brand marketing keeps your message clear and consistent while finding fun and creative ways to meet your audience where they are—on social media, in their inbox or out in the community.

Here are some ways to bring brand marketing to life:

• Content marketing: Share stories, tips and ideas that add value and naturally link back to your brand.

• Social media marketing: Connect with your audience on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn to build relationships and community.

• Influencer marketing: Team up with creators your audience trusts to introduce your brand in an authentic way.

• Email marketing: Send messages and offers that feel personal, keeping your audience engaged and your brand top of mind.

• Event marketing: Host or support experiences—virtual or in-person—that make your brand memorable.

• Public relations: Shape how people see your brand through news, interviews and media stories.

• Advertising: Create ads that solve problems, spark interest or speak to what your audience needs.

How to build a brand FAQ