Why is it worth thinking about your business as a brand? Isn’t branding just for big, global companies who have the money to spend on it? What does the word “brand” really mean, anyway? This article will answer these questions, help demystify the branding process, and show you that a brand is much more than a logo.

Let’s start with the basics:

What is a brand? A brand is a perception or set of associations consumers have of a business. Those perceptions originate from the story you tell about your business, the vision, the values you hold, the products and services you offer, and how your customers are transformed as a result of using those products or services.

Developing a brand requires defining, articulating, and asserting your messaging and then translating that message into channels where consumers can interact with your business. It requires research, brainstorming, data, insights, and a clear vision for your business.

What I’m saying may all sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people dodge this first. They come running towards media platforms, influencer marketing, and video production. They start building a tower with no basis, and then wonder why it all falls apart when it’s windy.

FOUR INGREDIENTS FOR A SUCCESSFUL BRAND

1. Brand Development

Consider this the blueprint of your tower. Brand Development is the early strategy, plan, creative design thinking, and architecture of your brand. the niche market, customer, and business factor. it’s the guidelines, rules, and foundation before you start digging for the base of that tower.

Simply:

1. Who you are?

2. What you do?

3. Why you do it?

4. Who you do for?

5. Who else doing that? and why you’re doing it better?

what’s simply called the Golden Circles.

THE GOLDEN CIRCLES

There’s a lot to unpack from each of these simple questions, and this exploration is the force behind a well-made presentation of your brand.

Which are:

1. Customer, market, and brand analysis

2. Elevator statement

3. Signature story

4. Positioning and purpose

5. Benefits and reason to believe

6. Brand personality, voice, and tone

7. SWOT analysis

8. Messaging strategy.

2. Brand Expression

Based on your brand development and visual identity guidelines, brand expression is the external evocation of your brand. From offline advertisement and printable to online platform and media comms. it’s your way of communicating your brand to your intended audience.

3. Brand Expansion

This is the distribution phase for your brand process, the expansion that shouts your messaging through mass forms of marketing. In the brand expression phase, you created the collateral; in this phase, you’re distributing it in service of your business, brand goals, and objectives.

4. Brand Authority

This is the phase where you showcase your dominance, provenance, and authority in your particular industry. This is about establishing that you know what you’re talking about from a place of experience and success.

Sound like you’re ready to elevate your business?

and Interested in working together? I’d love to hear from you! Get in touch.