Hope your week was amazing! Mine? Well, while other people may have spent last weekend enjoying a BBQ, or watching Netflix, I was doing a deep dive on BRANDING. Most companies don’t realize how important branding can be for their business, but don’t worry – we are here to pass that knowledge on to you.

The first thing you need to know is, there are a lot of misconceptions about branding. So let’s start with what branding isn’t:

• Branding is NOT a LOGO. That’s just a symbol of the brand.

• Branding is NOT a TAG LINE. Although those can help make a brand memorable.

• Branding is NOT a PRODUCT. There are lots of products – branding is what makes someone pick one product over the other.

We all want a well-defined, attractive brand, but the biggest thing I learned is:

Your brand is not what YOU say it is,

it’s what THEY say it is.

Branding is the gut feeling someone gets when they think about your company. It’s your business’s reputation that lives in the hearts and minds of your potential customers.

People experience the reliability of your products, or whether a service interaction was pleasant, and little by little it all shapes the picture they have of you in their minds. This is why branding matters – because ultimately, whether or not people choose to do business with you is based on one thing:

TRUST.

So, how do you build a successful brand for your company? Great question. It starts with a strategy to map out how you are different, how you are trustworthy, how you are memorable, and how you are likable by your ideal client. This is critical and foundational for building a successful brand. Do not overlook this and just jump into design and marketing.

Maybe it’s time to start thinking through what your current branding is saying to your clients. Take a minute to brainstorm some ideas about what you want to come to mind when people think about your company. Here are some questions to consider:

• Why do you exist?
• What makes you different?
• What problem do you solve?
• Why should people care?

Let’s start there, I will send out some more information next week. Until then, I hope you can start taking a step back and looking at your company from a different perspective…to see your customer’s point of view.

Let me know if you have any questions, I would love to dialog with you more

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