After years of working in the Brand and Marketing space and producing content on the how, what and why of Branding — with a prompt from my network — I have decided to bring all the information together to create the ultimate guide which will help you through each step of the branding process.
There are 5 key steps we will be covering in this guide:
We’ll then wrap it up with putting in some measure to track the brand roll-outs success.
The vision consists of 3 key categories — the what, who, and why — but maybe not in the way you’d expect:
When you’re launching your brand, it is always good to identify the market that you know needs your product… Sounds easy enough, right?
Well if your answer is “My product is amazing, everyone will want it.” You need to dig a little deeper. Everyone is not going to hear about your product, at least not right away. What to identify are:
A couple of great tools you can use to measure how the market is trending are Google Trends and Uber Suggest.
This obviously will then dovetail into…
It’s one of those great buzz words right now the ‘Buyer persona’, it may seem a little early in the process to start considering however this can definitely shape the character and tone of a brand.
When you put together a buyer persona you should not write based on the customers you have or the ones you expect will buy, write based on the best type of customer that you’d want to do business with. That way as you form the brand, you build it with your perfect customer in mind.
Considerations to keep in mind:
A great tool for a guided process and with a great user interface is HubSpots Make My Persona tool.
There are more than just the extrinsic motivators for a customer purchase, there is always a consideration around ‘What’s In It For Me.’ This resonates intrinsically for customers based on the experience and how they can share that experience.
What can you create within your brand to get people saying “Wow! That was fantastic, I loved how they did…” becomes the sticky element that taps into someone's emotional, creative, ego or cultural state.
Creating a brand is creating a culture, how do you connect with customers and make them a part of that culture?
There are so many players in the space, picking one can be tricky, especially if you have never worked with an agency or freelancer before. This section will give you the requirements you’ll need to choose your agency.
In this section we will talk about the what in branded collateral you’ll need to hit the ground running and the important considerations when writing a brief to ensure a consistent execution.
The first thing to do if you haven’t already is to review the market. Have a look at the industry and your competition, what they are doing in the space and what they have done in the past. Ask yourself “How brave will my brand be?”
Often when it comes to brand colour, we do an industry comparison chart. This can be an easy way to get cut through in using brand colours which are unique within your industry:
When making other considerations for the logo and brand elements, keep in mind shapes;
Image credited to VectorStock
Patterns:
Image credited to Canva
Iconography;
Mammograms/Initials;
Image credited to Tes
And Fonts:
Image courtesy of Better Than Success
Note: When choosing fonts, unique fonts are great for a logo but when trying to replicate across your collateral you will need to install custom fonts on each computer that the business uses and presentation computers or your font will just default to the computers choice. A work around for this is to have a print font (custom) and digital font (default on most PCs/Macs) that way you will always know how it will appear.
Then, you can combine a range of these elements to then create your unique brand style. For example with our brand Ucidity, we adjusted the font to have unique ‘i’, these have become the feature of the brand. We then bring the ‘i’s together to create a ‘U’ icon which also looks like 2 people. The dots of the ‘i’ then formed the circular patterning used throughout our collateral, and all of this is combined with a unique color palette of dark purple, green and orange:
After years of small brand launches, we have put together a list of what we have found most businesses will need to hit the ground running: https://ucidity.com.au/offerings/small-business-development/
For most brands this will include:
Your logo, business card, email signature and website are definitely the minimum when going out to market. This way when you meet someone you have something to leave behind, somewhere they can learn more about you and professionalism in your communications. Your letterhead, promotional collateral and PowerPoint template will help maintain the brand qualities and support you or your sales team when going to market. This then ties into any of your online channels such as social media, if you are getting your collateral design, you might as well get the digital assets done to.
Every touch point is important when connecting with customers. It is where they build trust with your brand. Inconsistencies in a brand fracture that trust and can create doubt for a buyer.
This question comes up quite often. It is hard to get each member of the team consistent in the perception of a brand or the target for a piece of collateral/campaign. This is where a brief is extremely important, the more clarity you can provide, the more aligned the outcome.
Here’s what you’ll need to identify:
We’ve gotten into the unfortunate situation with a new client where they can’t locate any of their existing artwork or the original logo files. Working files are not free, so budget to purchase them if you think you may require them in the future.
When creating your initial logo at a minimum you should aim to get the logo in:
Vector formats retain their editability which means they can be expanded to any scale (Very necessary for merchandise or large format) whereas pixel based formats will lose clarity when expanded and contracted.
Definition of file formats:
Also look to get a guide of some sort which at least charts the brand colours in CMYK, RGB, PMS (Pantone). You may not know what these are, but an agency will definitely appreciate it and it’ll ensure colour consistency.
Definition of colour profiles:
Also request any fonts used, preferably in .otf or .ttf as it works on both Mac and PC. It is best to ensure this is on all team computers so when they are updating a document it retains its formatting.
Definition of font formats:
Your design files will typically use one of the following formats:
We often create templates in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint as we understand the needs of our customers to be able to turn around professional looking documentation or proposals in a timely manner.
Just remember the creative files are I.P. of the designer just like a blue print for a product is the creative I.P. of the product creator. It isn’t legislated or protected in the same way, but just as if you wanted to buy a patent there is a cost associated.
As you roll-out your brand, I always suggest reviewing it using the 3 C’s (and there’s a fourth at the end) — Conviction, Consistent, Congruent.
This is about you as the business leader:
Review all your collateral, print it out side by side:
All about feeling now, the feeling your customer will get when they interact with your brand:
I’ve mentioned it earlier, but before printing out 10,000 flyers have an impartial party ensure that the copy is customer focused, speaking directly to the customers needs and that it captures the elements of the 3 C’s above.
Now it’s all done, you’ve created a brand! Kick up your feet, grab a drink and wait for the money to start rolling in . . . We wish!
It’s time to think about how you will maintain the brand and continue to engage the market. These days there are so many considerations above, through and below the line.
The fastest way for you to start leveraging your brand awareness is to start by taking advantage of the digital Through The Line channels — Content and Social Media. This is part of a solid Inbound Marketing offering which is focused around content creation.
Inbound marketing is great for lead generation and brand awareness, this includes:
Choosing the right platforms is important, in the early days focusing on brand awareness through creating content is a great way of putting your message out and building raving fans.
Congratulations on the momentous undertaking. You've given birth to an idea and now you’re nurturing that baby into a brand.
Remember that trust is built through each touch point, the more authentic and consistent the connections, the longer the relationships will last. We humanise brands we love, create a relationship with the brand culture and want to be part of the energy that brands create.
Track and measure as much as possible, have a system where you can record data and customer feedback. Continually review this so you can tweak and tighten up the brand message and maintain its customer focus.