Creating Brand Identity for Small Business: How to Boost Your Sports Facility’s Recognition

In the competitive world of sports facilities, standing out is crucial for success. A compelling brand identity not only distinguishes your business from competitors but also resonates with your target audience, which fosters loyalty and trust. Unfortunately, many sports facilities aren’t protective of their brand and often neglect to build a strong brand identity. Whether you’re managing a local gym, a sports complex, or a specialized training center, creating a brand identity for a small business is essential for attracting and retaining customers. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through the essential elements of a brand identity, as well as tips on how to create the perfect one for your facility. 

Creating A Brand Identity for Your Small Business

The first part of creating a brand identity is creating your mission and target audience. This should be done when you write up your business plan. Your mission, or business objective, is key to creating your marketing plan. Also, you can write up who your target customers are. This includes their age range, income, location, skill levels, and more. Your mission and typical customers tie directly into the formation of the rest of your brand, from the name and logo to marketing guidelines. 

First, a business should pick a name that is easily memorable and rolls off the tongue. My sports facility is called DNA Sports Center – but everyone calls it DNA. It’s both easy to say and easy to remember. Many sports facilities I’ve worked with in the past tend to go for similar names – names that include MVP or Elite are popular choices. Connect your name with your mission, as well. This can help you create your logo. 

Visual Elements of Your Brand Identity

Logo development is critical to help your brand stand out. In a world with hundreds of brands just like you, standing out is key to your success. Think of fast food restaurants – can you immediately recognize their logo? Your logo should be memorable and easy to pick out. We recommend connecting your logo with your mission. For example, DNA Sports Center’s mission is Developing a New Athlete – or DNA. Our logo (shown below) integrated imagery of what actual DNA molecules look like. This connection made us memorable – we had to protect our brand to avoid others copying our idea. 

A part of a brand identity that most people don’t usually think about is the color and font of the business. However, it can be crucial to determining the memorability of a brand. Colors evoke emotions within a person. For example, the color red can evoke excitement and energy. It is a common color within a few high-paced industries, including sports. There are many aspects to consider when choosing colors for your business. Fonts can also play a key role. For example, some fonts may appear more modern or traditional. The font you chose should reflect the facility’s character and atmosphere. Most facilities tend to go for a clear and bold font. Mainly, the colors and font should fit well together, reflecting the true character of your facility and appealing to your target audience. 

Using Your Brand Identity to Market Your Facility

One important thing to consider when creating your brand identity is that it must be able to switch to any marketing platform you use. For example, if your logo looks great on social media but is illegible when printed out on a brochure, it will be difficult to market. Your name should be easily readable within your logo. It should be able to be resized as needed. On social media platforms with a circular icon (like Instagram), your logo needs to be cropped to fit that shape. Think about where you would like to market your facility when creating your brand identity.

Also, you need to stay consistent across all your marketing. If your social media fonts differ from the font of your logo, it may confuse potential customers. Having a style sheet that lists the font, exact color shade, and other important brand elements can help keep your content similar on multiple platforms. Your brand identity is essential to the success of your business, and it’s important to consider how customers will come across it.  

Conclusion

Creating a brand identity for small businesses like sports facilities can be difficult, especially for people who don’t know much about marketing. There are a lot of different elements that can influence how your business will be perceived. To get a custom look at your marketing plan, book a free consultation with our experts.