When your company is in its early stages, presumably you\u2019ve thought through your offerings and done the hard work of choosing a company name. You might even have a logo or website. In terms of building your brand, these steps are a good start in the right direction\u2014but these things alone do not add up to your brand.<\/p>\n
Your brand, like your company culture, is everything. It\u2019s how you present yourself to existing and potential customers, what you have to offer, who you are. It\u2019s the promise you make and keep every day.<\/p>\n
Taking a thoughtful approach to branding is a way to actively help mold public perceptions of your company. Designing a functional product that solves a pain point and continually refining the product to make it an ongoing solution? That\u2019s branding. The key words and images you associate with your company? That\u2019s branding. Providing consistently excellent customer service? That\u2019s branding.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a firm believer in business planning. Without planning, how can you know where you\u2019re going and make sure you get there? Planning your brand is an important piece of the planning process. So how can you create your branding strategy? Here are the first steps:<\/p>\n
1. Competitive analysis.<\/strong>\u00a0Who is your competition in the marketplace? What do they have to offer? What customer needs are not being met? As you can see, in this way, branding is so closely woven into the fabric of your business that it\u2019s hard to see where business development\u2014and product development\u2014ends and branding begins. They really go hand in hand.<\/p>\n 2. Develop your brand positioning statement.<\/strong>\u00a0Once you understand your competition and have a crystal clear sense of the demand for your offering, you need to create your differentiating message. This is your brand position, which essentially boils down to:<\/p>\n [Your Company] is the X that produces the Y to Z.<\/p>\n In this equation:<\/p>\n X \u2013 What are you? What solution are you providing? The key rules are to be honest and keep it simple. This is the foundation of your company, so take the time to think it through. And remember,\u00a0what you exclude from your brand positioning statement is as important as what you include.<\/strong>\u00a0You can\u2019t be all things to all people\u2014and shouldn\u2019t try to be. Figure out your niche, your core audience, and don\u2019t deviate.<\/p>\n 3. Create space for growth.<\/strong>\u00a0As a startup, there\u2019s a good chance that your company is going to change as you grow. Perhaps your offerings will become more refined, or you might increase your offerings. A major pivot could substantially impact who your company is and what you do. When developing your brand, you need to build in enough flexibility to allow for these kinds of branding adjustments. What happens if you expand to a new market or new segment? Will your brand still make sense? As long as you can keep the core message on-target, you\u2019ll be in good shape.<\/p>\n 4. Think through your visual presence.<\/strong>\u00a0Colors, fonts, graphics\u2014all of these things communicate your brand. Even if you\u2019re not a visual person, you can see how important it is to have a connection between how your company looks and what it does.<\/p>\n 5. Establish your brand voice.<\/strong>\u00a0Is your company an authoritative leader in its field? A social company that\u2019s playful and quirky? Part of thinking through your company, is finding what voice is best to communicate who you are.<\/p>\n 6. Enforce your branding guidelines.<\/strong>\u00a0Once you\u2019ve thought through the details of your visuals and brand voice, you need to come up with some rules that encapsulate them. This makes it easy for everyone in your company to be aligned with the brand and to avoid any confusing off-brand messages. These guidelines don\u2019t need to be overly formal; a short list of do\u2019s and don\u2019ts along with specifics, such as approved fonts, will suffice.<\/p>\n 7. Get buy-in.<\/strong>\u00a0A brand is nothing if the people working for the company don\u2019t believe the message and feel personal responsibility for living the brand. When you\u2019re just starting up, it\u2019s easier to get employee engagement right rom the get-go. Your team should believe in the brand and take pride in the message it delivers.<\/p>\n Your brand can\u2019t be an afterthought. Building your brand, like any kind of business planning, is a powerful exercise to help give you greater insight into your company and to set your company up for long-term success. But branding, again, like any kind of business planning, isn\u2019t a \u201cone and done\u201d kind of exercise. It\u2019s a constant process of checking in to ensure that your brand is resonating the way you want with the people you want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When your company is in its early stages, presumably you\u2019ve thought through your offerings and done the hard work of choosing a company name. You might even have a logo or website. In terms of building your brand, these steps are a good start in the right direction\u2014but these things alone do not add up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1107,"featured_media":7645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nY \u2013 What is your unique selling proposition? What do you do that is critically important that nobody else is doing?
\nZ \u2013 Who is your audience?<\/p>\n