Branding Bootcamp: Everything You Need
To Know!
Grab some coffee and a snack becasue here's everything you need to know about creating a successful brand!
Don't forget to download the step by step guide to create a successful brand below.
What is a Brand?
To put it simply, your brand is your business’s reputation. It’s how your business is perceived by your audience, and ultimately what differentiates your business from others in your industry.
It’s super easy to get brand and branding mixed up so here’s a breakdown of the difference.
// Brand vs Branding //
Your brand is made up of your company values, vision, mission, experience, the quality you promise to provide, etc. A brand is what develops the beliefs or opinions about your business to your audience. Think of your brand as the foundational pieces to your business, and overall the reputation it holds.
Branding stems from your brand, but the key difference is that it refers to the visual aspect of your business. Think of it like this, it’s taking everything that makes up your brand and turning it into something tangible. The act of branding is creating the brand identity which you’ll learn more about below.
Why Branding is Important?
When you build a brand you’re setting the foundation for your business’s success. This ties into every area of your business from the voice, visuals, the relationships, to the vision and mission. That’s why we encourage our clients to never take a shortcut in developing their brand. Creating just the logo and color palette before you’ve settled on the foundational pieces will create hurdles down the road. In order to have a strong brand, we need to make sure you’ve carefully considered your core values, vision, mission, and voice of the company.
// First Impressions Are Everything //
It’s like when you go on a first date. You don’t just wear a nice jacket over a half put together outfit.
No, you wear a whole outfit from the shoes to the jewelry that is carefully chosen and go so well together. Why? Because we want to convey a message to our date. We want to show up and show off as our best selves.
Design is the same way! It communicates a visual message to your audience. The first impression can make or break your audience's decision to work with you! Whether you want it to or not your brand conveys a message to your audience, and by having consistent branding you’re automatically more desirable to your audience just by having an awesome first impression.
// Good Branding Builds Trust //
It’s no secret that bad design screams sketchy! Have you ever landed on a website and questioned if the site was legit based on the design? I have and my first thought is “am I going to get a virus…”
Having a consistent brand builds trust with your audience, and having a consistent brand with a killer brand identity you are now seen as a trusted professional that your audience is naturally drawn to. A good brand is a visual insurance that you can be trusted.
// Brand Recognition //
How do you create brand recognition? Ask yourself this one question. If your logo was not visible would your audience know that’s your brand?
We tend to associate brands with their logos, but a good brand knows that in order to create brand recognition they need way more than just a logo.
Your brand needs to show consistency from the logo, colors, blogs, graphics, social media, and printed materials. You want your audience to know it’s your brand based on your style and personality.
How do you do that? Utilize consistent fonts and color scheme throughout all visuals published within your business. Ensure the messaging is consistent in tone, and bonus tip, use high-quality images that contrast well with your color scheme.
// Be Memorable //
Humans are naturally visual. Images tell a story, colors evoke emotion, and letters show personality. If you know your audience, and what they need then speak into that with your visual identity. Your audience will remember you if you show up visually appealing across all platforms in a memorable way and the more they see you the more memorable you become.
Brand Terms You Need to Know
Brand:
Brand refers to your business’s reputation. It’s how your business is perceived by your audience.
Branding:
Branding refers to creating the visual aspect of your business.
Core Values:
Values that shape your company culture. These values will shape the decisions made for the company, behavior, strategies, and relationships. They reflect what's important to the organization.
Vision:
What the company desires to achieve in the long run. It's a defined direction for the company's growth.
Mission:
A company's mission statement defines what the organization is, and why it exists.
Brand Identity/Visual Identity:
This is your logo, colors, website, social media, printed materials, etc.
Brand Messaging:
This is the big picture of your brand. Your messaging tells your audience what your brand stands for, your values, and what differentiates you from others in your industry.
Brand Personality:
This is the combination of the characteristics and qualities of your brand. Think of your brand as a person, what type of personality would it have?
Moodboard:
A group of images, and elements that represent a mood to give visual representation to the vibe of what feeling you’re looking to convey.
Logo:
A logo is the designed identity mark that identifies a business as who they are. It’s what makes the connection between a brand and it’s audience. Think of a logo as the first hand-shake!
Style Guide:
This is a one-stop-shop for all aspects of your brand. It encompasses all of your branding guidelines to ensure consistency.
The style guide should have the logo uses, colors, typography, textures, imagery, etc. It will typically have an outline of what is and is not acceptable for your brand. This is super important for designers and printers to understand how to use your brand correctly.
Brand Strategy:
These are your goals for the development of your brand, and the steps taken to implement your brand in the marketing of your business.
Favicon:
This is your website icon. The small icon is seen in the tab list next to your site name.
Step by Step Guide to Creating a Successful Brand
Okay so you know what a brand is, and it's importance. You even know what each term means, but you're probably wondering what's all included. What are the steps to take to create a successful brand?
If you're asking yourself any of those questions download my Branding 101 freebie below. It's a step by step guide to creating a successful brand.
In this freebie, I give you actionable steps to take to develop a professional brand. Not to mention I have a few of my favorite branding bonus tips and tricks that will help you get started today!
xo, Hannah
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