Building a Brand
1: What is your brand’s purpose?
People don’t buy what your do; they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with everybody that needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. – Simon Sinek
2: Do your research.
Go and do your research on your competitors. Find out what they are doing good and find out what they are doing bad. The goal here is to differentiate your business from your competitors. The big thing here is to find out does your competition have a purpose? Because that is where your business can shine over everyone else.
3: Who is your customer or client?
You have to know who your target audience is. You can’t be everything to everyone. I talk about this episode 14 – Dream Customer. You have to create a customer avatar
Story
“I don’t know if Alexis will like this,” said an executive at Sally Beauty Supply.
Confused, my friend Perry Belcher asked, “What?” He set down his new scented hand sanitizer that he had brought in to pitch at the meeting.
He picked up his new UV nail polish and handed it to the group. “Okay, well, how about this product?” he asked.
They looked at it, opened it up, and smelled it. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that Alexis won’t like this either,” they replied.
More confused than ever, and now a little frustrated, Perry brought out his third and final product to pitch to them.
In a similar fashion, they looked at the product, gave it a quick once-over, and then said, “Sorry, Alexis definitely wouldn’t be interested in this one either.”
More frustrated, Perry looked at the two execs he was talking to and finally blurted, “Who is Alexis?! Is she the decision maker? Why isn’t she in this meeting instead of you two? Is she here? Can I just talk directly to her? I know that I can convince her that your company needs to sell these products!”
There was a moment of silence, and then both of the execs burst out in laughter.
“Alexis isn’t a person. She’s our customer avatar!” one replied.
“What?” Perry asked. He had never heard of a customer avatar before. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Alexis isn’t a real person?”
The execs just smiled at each other and asked Perry to follow them into another room.
When they entered the new room, he saw a wall full of pictures of “Alexis,” a fictitious character who represented Sally Beauty Supply’s dream customer. The wall also featured a full bio about who she was, how many kids she had, where she lived, how much money she made, and the type of home she lived in.
The execs then went on to explain that everyone in the company was trained that when they make any decision about what products to purchase, what colors to use in the stores or their branding, what ads to run, what promotions to create, what their websites looked like, and what music to play in their locations, everything was run through the lens of Alexis’s eyes.
If it was something that Alexis would love, then the answer was yes. If it wasn’t something she would love, then the answer was always no.
They didn’t run a product-centric company; they ran a customer-centric company. Their customer avatar is what drove everything from the products they created to the ads that they ran.
Brunson, Russell. Traffic Secrets (p. 13-15). Hay House. Kindle Edition.
4: The brand’s mission & vision
Have you thought about your brand mission and brand vision? In essence, you’ll have to craft a clear expression of what your company is most passionate about. This is your why; the reason you get up every day. Before you can build a brand that your target audience trusts, you need to know what value your business provides. Envision a projection of where your brand aspires to go, what it aspires to be, and what impact it will have on the environment you are in—think 10 years out. The mission statement is a now, every day, statement of commitment that is a roadmap for accomplishing your vision. It will inform how you execute your brand building strategies. Everything from your logo to your tagline, voice, message, and personality should reflect your mission and vision. Your brand vision is a future, someday, aspirational statement that your brand drives towards achieving.
5: What do you do?
There will always be brands with bigger budgets and more resources to command their industry. Your products, services, and benefits belong solely to you.
Starting a brand that is memorable means you dig deep to figure out what you offer, and no one else is offering.
Focus on the qualities and benefits that make your company branding unique.
Assuming you know exactly who your target audience is (see Step 3), give them a reason to choose your brand over another.
It’s important to note that this is not just a laundry list of the features your product or services offer to the customer or client. Think about how you provide value that improves consumers’ lives (outcomes or results that are experienced).
Here are a few examples:
6: What does the brand sound like?
Your voice is dependent on your company’s mission, audience, and industry.
It’s how you communicate with your customers, and how they respond to you.
A brand voice could be:
There are endless adjectives and possibilities that can build a brand voice behind your messaging.
Ultimately, you want to choose a brand voice that makes sense and resonates with your target customers. (Again, going back to Step 3!)
⇨ Learn how to find your distinct brand voice
You’ll see that if you find and use the correct brand voice, you have the strongest chance of connecting with consumers.
This is particularly important when publishing blog articles or social media posts. Maintaining a consistent voice will help your brand image become recognized on multiple channels in the same way. A community of followers, readers or subscribers will come to expect a certain brand voice and brand personality when they consume your content (see the next step).
7: What is the brand’s personality?
Customers aren’t looking for another cookie-cutter company that offers the same thing as everyone else.
They are looking for an experience tailored to their needs, backed by genuine personal interaction.
Wondering how to brand your business in a unique way? Make your personality stand out in every aspect of your brand building process.
Be consistent with this brand personality across all points of contact.
It can be as simple as:
8: What is the brand’s story and message?
When building a brand, tell customers succinctly who you are.
Use the business voice you have chosen for your brand.
Your messaging should be intricately associated with your brand and conveyed consistently.
This part of the brand development process goes beyond your logo and tagline to define the key aspects of:
A brand story is an opportunity to communicate on a human level, making a direct emotional connection with your consumers.
What this means, is that the language you use should be understood immediately while striking an emotional chord.
Make it simple and clear.
Most importantly: when creating a brand story, address not what your product can do…but why it is important to your customer.
⇨ Learn how to create your brand message
9: The tagline and logo
When you think about how to build a brand, visuals probably come to mind first. We haven’t even talked about these until this deep into the brand building process!
This step may be the one where you need help with creative execution.
The most exciting (and arguably the most important piece) of the brand building process, is to create a brand logo and tagline for your company.
This logo will appear on everything that relates to your business. It will become your identity, calling card, and the visual recognition of your promise.
So be willing to invest the time and money by creating something exceptional to reinforce the visual identity for your business.
Need help branding your business? Hire a professional designer or branding agency with logo and identity design experience, to help make your brand stand out.
Their expertise will ensure that you get a unique and timeless mark for your business.
A designer can also develop brand guidelines, to ensure consistency for any future application of the logo and associated brand color palette or fonts.
A strong brand style guide will include the following things:
10: Integrate your brand into every aspect of your business
The brand building process never stops.
Your brand should be visible and reflected in everything that your customer can see, read, and hear.
Let me explain.
If a client walks into your office, or a customer walks into your store—your brand image should be on display both in the environment and with personal interactions.
Anything tangible–from business cards to advertisements, to packaging and product–needs the stamp of your logo.
On any digital platform, ensure that your brand looks the same everywhere. Use your brand style guide to create consistency with visuals such as color and logo use, fonts, photography, etc.
Your website is the most important tool for marketing your brand. When you design your website: incorporate your voice, message, and personality into the content.
Profile pages for social media networks should be branded visually, and with your chosen voice for engagement.
www.freshsparks.com, Sonia Gregory, 11 Simple Steps for a Successful Brand Building Process
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