You know you have something to sell so – what is the first step to building a brand? Some of the initial thoughts that come to mind may include your name, logo, tagline … cool colors and merch, super fun events that give everyone FOMO (maybe) … but it doesn’t stop there.
The following article by Aura Branded is an overview meant to outline the elements of building and developing a brand that helps your business to – you guessed it – SELL.
We will review:
- Brand Ideation
- Common Components
- Guidelines + Identity
- Putting it all together
Brand Ideation
A good “brand” speaks for itself, capturing the essence of all the ways it makes people feel and how a business sells its products. The best way to begin creating a brand is to think of “who” its products are intended for – and how those customers would want to feel while purchasing, and using those same products.
After considering your customer, you can take things one step further by asking what problem a customer has that the product or service your business sells is a solution for. Identifying how the business solves this problem will be a key part of the brand mission.
Some thoughtful questions when considering the ideal customer:
- Who is your ideal customer?
- Why do they feel attracted to your brand?
- What do they seek out by using your products?
- What do they seek out in life?
Common Components
Once you’ve thought of your ideal customer, you can identify and curate the brand’s mission, through communicating values and displaying an aesthetic – this will be the foundation for establishing a targeted product line and developing the right marketing strategy for reaching customers.
A brand’s mission is the bottom line achieved through a business by offering its goods and services. A yoga studio may hope to deeply connect its students with their mind and body, while a ~*~romantic~*~ restaurant may hope to become the number one spot for date night and celebrations. A cannabis dispensary may aim to offer the best selection of products to their community, and a cannabis brand may hope to sell products that both elevate and inspire their customers.
For a “working” example – Aura Branded’s mission is to help small businesses thrive through brand and business development.
It is important that the values of a brand align with the way the business operates both internally, and with consumer audiences.
When establishing the values of a brand, founders and/or their creative team might consider:
- Service touch points
- Key features and benefits of the product or service offered
- Insights from the company’s history
- Incorporating existing values or beliefs that are important to the business or its customers
Examples of brand values might be:
- Efficiency and effectiveness
- Giving back to the community
- Living a healthy lifestyle
- Increasing creativity and happiness
- Being detail oriented
- Promoting positive thinking and peace
Guidelines + Identity
Once a brand’s mission and values are established, founders and/or their creative team will be able to clearly define the brand’s aesthetic with these in mind. The aesthetic can be made of imagery, tone, color, and more. Take a look at the graphic below for an example of Brand Guidelines + Identity:
The following graphic is a visual element, illustrating how Aura Branded’s logo, color palette, and font usage are meant to represent the values and mission behind services offered.
Creating a document to share with creative teams, vendors and partners enables a business to quickly and clearly communicate how their products and services look, move and feel in their market.
Some next steps are to use your brand’s guidelines and identity to develop brand support through key-enablers such as your:
- Events
- Social Media
- Website
- Catalog or Menu
- Swag or Merchandising
- The list goes on …
That is only the beginning: this type of tool enables vendors to easily create custom designs with your creative blueprint and partners are empowered to collaborate seamlessly, both can spread the love for your products and services with on brand marketing programs and support.
Are you ready to make the pitch?
Click here to download Aura Branded’s free Elements of a Brand Worksheet.
Thank you for reading this article – you’re definitely invited to share on social media and with all your friends who might dream of starting a brand.
