Discover your brand's spirit animal

Brands are seeking to stand out, get noticed and be remembered.

If you’re in the forefront of the audience’s mind, they are more likely to choose you when they’re ready to buy a product or use a service.

A key element of your brand strategy should be to define your brand's personality traits, as these will set you apart from the competition. Humanising your business allows you to excite, add humour, be sincere and resonate with the customer, leading to a deeper emotional connection.

This emotional connection fosters loyalty, turning regular customers into brand advocates.

Animals are powerful symbols to personify your brand and what it represents. If your brand was an animal, what would it be?

Choosing your brand’s spirit animal

There’s something wonderfully non-threatening about comparing your brand to an animal, which can reveal powerful insights.

Is your brand…

• An octopus - Intelligent and creative
• A bear - Strong and confident
• A colony of bees - Community focused and hard working
• A toucan - Social and playful

Go deeper than the obvious

With this exercise you need to delve deeper into the traits and personality of each animal. Get into the specifics and the nitty gritty to truly understand who you are or who you would like to be.

You may think of your business as a lion (a confident leader) but when you delve deeper, reflect honestly, the owl (analytical, problem solver) may suit you better.

Everyone in your team will have a different perspective which is great. You can look for commonalities and build out your brand personality from these.

How to use your brand spirit animal

For most of the time this is just one exercise to uncover powerful insights that form part of your brand strategy. Your spirit animal is hidden, internally facing. It can help unify your team and provide a clear vision.

If your spirit animal is a bear, you may use bold, confident phrases in your messaging. If it’s an elegant swan, you may create a minimal, streamlined brand language.

In some cases bringing your spirit animal to the fore and creating a brand identity around it can be impactful as they evoke strong emotional connections and can be easily remembered and associated with your brand.

Take Red Bull as an example...

The bull is a powerful and energetic animal, and the drink is marketed to provide a boost of energy. The logo is designed to evoke an image of strength and power.

Or Duolingo...

The Owl is known for their generally inquisitive nature and makes a perfect symbol for the acquisition of knowledge. Duo – the brand’s mascot – encapsulates the friendliness, warmth, and wisdom you’d hope for when learning a new language.

Discovering your brand animal is just one way that we help organisations like yours create a powerful brand strategy.

Talk to us to find out more about starting your brand journey.