The Building Blocks of a Brand
Your brand is more than your name, logo and tagline. It’s more than your identity and your marketing. It’s the values of your organization and the way your target audience feels about you.
So, yeah, it’s kind of important.
Big companies like Coca-Cola have spent decades and tens of millions of dollars building their reputation and brand – something that you probably don’t have the time or budget for.
Here are the basics of brand building and discuss the benefits of hiring a full-service agency like Greenlight Advertising to build yours.
Before you can start the process of constructing your brand, you have to assemble some things first. Here are the building blocks you need to include in your brand guidelines:
Target audience
Who are you trying to speak to with your marketing? The answer to this will inform every decision you make about your brand.
You need to understand more than the demographics of your target audience, you have to clearly understand their pain points and what they’re looking for in a solution.
One way to do this is by creating buyer personas. These are rough sketches of the typical person you’ll be trying to sell your offering to. They should have in-depth information like age, location, job title, political views, use cases and similar brands they use.
You will probably have more than one buyer persona. To keep them organized, many marketers find it helpful to name them.
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Research the competition
To understand how you stand out from competitors, you first have to understand how you differ from them. Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of their products and how they compare to yours.
Look for things like under served sectors or market inefficiencies that you can capitalize, while paying attention to things like pricing, voice and digital presence.
Define your position and purpose
Your brand can’t appeal to everyone, and by this point, you should have an idea of what differentiates you from competition. Your brand strategy will help you focus on your niche.
Define it by answering questions like:
• Why does your business exist?
• What problem are you solving?
• Why should customers choose you over the competition?
Outline your brand’s voice and personality
Think about what your brand should sound like. How do you want to tell your story? What adjectives would you use to describe your company.
Your marketing should always align with this identity to create consistency and memorability.
Make sure your voice and personality are compatible with what resonates with your audience.
Create your brand story
Stories connect people on a personal level, which makes them a very powerful tool for marketing.
Your brand story tells people both the history of your business as well as your mission.
Create your brand as the hero, show how it overcame conflict and delivers on its promises.
Choose a brand name
There are different schools of thought as to how you should name your business. You could opt for a descriptive name like Office Depot, your family’s name, a la Heinz, or something else entirely, like Amazon.
Whatever you choose, it should be unique and memorable, easy-to-pronounce and recognizable.
Keep growth and expansion options in mind. For example, if you currently run a landscaping company, but could possible expand into deck-building, a name like A1 Lawncare won’t work well with your growth plans.
Pick a Logo and a Slogan
Your logo sits at the heart of your branding, which makes it incredibly important to have a good one. You may be able to design one yourself, but it’s a smarter idea to hire a professional.
It’s also time to come up with a short catchy slogan that conveys your spirit and values. You don’t necessarily need a slogan, but it will help your audience remember you.
Select a visual identity
Chose a palette of five to ten colors around which to build your brand. Pick one color to be your primary and strategically use that to increase impact. For good examples of this, think of Home Depot’s use of orange, or John Deere green.
You should also select one to three fonts you’ll regularly use. This will help create a cohesive and easily recognizable look.
Consider how you want to use graphics and illustrations, including photography and icons. Create a style guide that describes how and when to use each of these assets.
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Don’t be afraid of a rebrand
While consistency is important, sometimes your brand needs to be updated or completely reworked. If your strategies aren’t working, a rebrand could be a good idea. This could be something as simple as a minor logo change or it could be a huge reworking of what you stand for.
Why you should hire professionals for branding
Marketing for any organization is a lot of work. And while you may have expertise in many things, it’s always a good idea to bring in experts who have the knowledge, experience and creativity to make your brand truly powerful.
A good agency, like Greenlight, for example, will do thorough research into your market to identify trends and opportunities that you may have missed. They also will have access to tools and resources you may not.
Finally, an outside agency like Greenlight will give you objectivity. It’s easy to get too close to your brand. An outside company can provide a fresh perspective and identify issues your internal team may overlook.
Greenlight Creates Creative That Gets Results
Greenlight Marketing has a team of experienced creative professionals with decades of combined experience. They have worked on accounts ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups and understand what works – and just as importantly, what doesn’t.
They combine established principles and innovative approaches to create campaigns that address your targets’ problems and paint you as the best possible solution. Dedicated to constant evolution, they’ll work with you to understand what your brand represents and then determine solutions to help you reach your goals.
Greenlight Marketing can leverage your Product Listing Ads to not only provide comprehensive auto feed data but also help maximize your audience reach; ensure your information is accurate; and provide the right offers to the right users to optimize performance.
Call Us Today (816) 601-1956