Your brand is one of the most important assets you can have for your business. That is why initiating the branding process early on is pivotal. Your brand is how your target audience perceives you. This is how you communicate who you are and what you stand for to your audience. Your brand identity is a cultivation of multiple factors including your logo, mission statement, unique value proposition, and much more. Before we jump into the 11 steps of building a brand, let’s consider what a brand is and why it is important.
What is a Brand and Why is it Important?
A brand is a product or business that has a unique identity in the consumer’s mind. A brand is created through various elements and acts to differentiate the business from its competitors. A strategic brand will allow a business to connect with its consumers and draw more attention. A business can leverage its brand in many ways including launching new products, influencing purchase behaviour, boosting marketing and advertising, and much more. Thus, it is crucial you take the following 11 steps to ensure a successful brand.
1) Research the Competition
Before you start the process of establishing your brand, it’s important to know the competition. Conduct research and perform a SWOT analysis if you have time. Observe the strategies employed by others in the industry, noting their successes and failures. Explore their presence on social media, website layout, advertising tactics, brand positioning, mission, values, and more. All of this research will serve as a guide in crafting your brand and deciding on various elements associated with it.
2) Identify and Research Your Target Audience
Your target audience should be specific rather than broad. A broad target audience encompassing everyone will prevent you from having targeted branding. Once you identify your target audience, you can research their preferences, habits, and perspectives which will guide your company in determining the branding which will best entice this segment.
It’s important to start by researching your target audience by talking to those in your audience. Identify the brands they shop at within the industry. Try to find out what these brands are doing that these individuals like and don’t like. You can also check what social media platforms these individuals are on. This will help you when deciding where to communicate your brand. It’s also important to investigate trends within the industry particularly for your target audience to identify what you can leverage within your branding. Once you have started this process, it is important to continuously research your target audience to determine how they feel about your brand and what adjustments you should make.
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3) Establish a Visual Style Guide
You must create some sort of a “guide” for the style and visual aspects of your brand. This includes the colour palette, typography, graphics, illustrations, etc.
Your colour palette is the selection of colours associated with your brand. This will be used in your logo, website, social media, etc. As colour psychology is a prominent field of study, it is important to consider it and see what colours are associated with your industry and elicit certain moods. You must think about what you want customers to feel when they see your brand colours. Consider how red might be associated with love, passion, and anger.
The typography refers to the font used in your logo, website, any text, etc. You should select only a couple of fonts which you will use consistently so they can become a part of your brand. You may consider serif fonts or sans-serif fonts. You might want to do some research as there have been studies done regarding various fonts and the influence they have on a reader. Ensure the font is simple and easy to read.
Whether it’s photography, icons, graphics or illustrations you should set some standards as to how they should look. You might want to have specific guidelines for colours, moods, filters, etc. This will ensure consistency in all branding related to visual aspects. It will also help to further convey your brand identity through the use of these visual elements.
4) Brand Positioning
A brand’s position refers to the place you occupy in a consumer’s mind. It is generally the unique position you hold relative to competitors. A brand positioning statement is typically four to six sentences that set your brand apart and communicate who you are.
A strong brand positioning can help you differentiate your business in a competitive market. It is important that this statement accurately communicates who you are and what you will deliver as this must be realistic and achievable.
5) Brand personality
Your brand personality is the adjectives you would use to describe your brand as if it were a person. This will allow consumers to create associations with your brand to certain terms. It will humanize the brand and make it easier for customers to connect. Is your brand fun? Trendy? Smart? All of these factors have the potential to shape a consumer's perception of your brand and impact their decision to make a purchase. Establishing your brand personality early on will also help in crafting other elements such as your brand voice, name, logo, etc.
6) Brand Voice
Your brand voice is not only what you say but how you say it. It is your communication style. It’s important to maintain consistency in your brand voice as it will become associated with your brand. Your brand voice will extend to your online communication, social media, advertisements, and in-person interactions.
Ensure you take the time to outline key aspects of your brand voice including certain wording, tone, and elements that will help to convey this. Your brand voice must consider what your brand and business comprises. If you have a brand that sells products for children, you might consider a more casual and fun voice. If you are selling a software product to large corporations, you might consider a more sophisticated, knowledgeable, and professional voice.
7) Create a Name, Logo, and Slogan
The name, logo, and slogan for your business are not your brand but rather elements of your brand identity. They help to communicate and convey what your brand stands for.
Your brand name should be short, sweet, and easy to remember. It must connect back to other brand elements such as your brand personality, story, etc. Ensure that the brand name isn't overly specific, as you'll want it to remain relevant even if you expand or pivot your business in the future. Your brand name serves as a means to readily identify your brand across various channels such as stores, advertisements, and conversations. Make sure to do the proper research to ensure the name has not been used already. The name must be available for social media handles to prevent confusion with any other brand. In generating a name, you can use applications such as the Wix Business Name Generator or Shopify’s Business Name Generator to aid in the process.
Your brand logo is a very important element of your brand. Your logo is how consumers will identify your brand in various situations. You must take the time to develop the logo as it will be hard to change once created and associated with your brand name. The logo should be unique, easily identifiable, and scalable to fit various platforms. The logo must encapsulate your brand story and values. Ensuring the correct colour palette and typography will aid in consistent brand messaging while communicating your brand story. If designing the logo yourself, you can use applications like Canva to do so. Some might consider outsourcing this task to individuals who are experts in logo design.
Although not necessary for every business, it can serve as a strong brand asset if crafted properly. A brand slogan should be short, catchy, and to the point. It will be another identifier of your brand that is ingrained in consumers’ minds and boosts brand awareness.
8) Brand story
A brand story tells customers about a company’s history, mission, purpose, and values. It can be conveyed in a narrative form and even touch on the story of the founder. This is a way to humanize the brand and allow customers to connect to the brand through its storytelling. This is where you can utilize an emotional appeal to create meaningful connections with your target audience. Your brand story can be featured in the About section of your website and be shared on various platforms. This will encompass the various factors we have already mentioned and tie them into one compelling narrative.
9) Create a Website
Your website is a crucial element in your branding since customers will go here to learn what you do, who you are, etc. Your website is a central hub where you can feature all your branding elements. It will showcase your logo, brand name, brand story, messaging, colours, typography, and much more. A website is not the single most important part of a brand, but the lack of one could be a reason why a customer is deterred. The lack of a website will prevent a customer from easily learning more about your brand. This is a great way to expose customers to multiple branding elements all on one platform making it a crucial element.
10) Implement, Track, and Adjust
Once you go through all these steps and establish the various elements of your brand, it is time to implement it. Once you implement it, you must give it time to take effect. It is important to consistently monitor the performance of your branding through metrics such as search traffic, website visitors, sales, interest, etc to determine the effectiveness of your branding. If you are seeing signs of minimal changes you might consider making adjustments to your branding.
11) Ensure Consistency
Once you have established the various aspects of your brand, you want these to become associated with your brand. You want people to see your logo and automatically associate it with your brand name, to hear a slogan and know it is your brand, or to hear the brand story and know who it is about.
To do so, you must consistently apply your branding in everything you do. It must show up in stores, social media, your website, your communications, etc. Without this consistency, you will fail to create a strong brand for your business.
Conclusion
Now that we have talked about these 11 steps, it’s important to remember that branding is not a one-time process. It is a continuous journey over the life of the brand. You must consistently enforce these elements as your brand continues to evolve. As the business evolves and customer perceptions change, a rebrand may be necessary. If you do have to rebrand, remember that it should still be recognizable to consumers. Now it’s time for you to consider, what type of brand do you want to create?
Written By Kaitlin Duong
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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.
