You might think your brand is all about the logo and the product you’re selling. That’s just a small part in your overall brand identity. When we talk about branding we talk about the differentiators that will make people choose you over the competition.
Brand building is an ongoing process which defines your company’s vision and position in the market. Your sales will be increased and your customers will be engaged once you and your team are on the same page about your identity.
A successful brand has to be consistent in:
- Work environment
- Print & packaging
- Online and offline advertising
- Content strategy
- Sales & customer service
That’s why you need to think about what your brand represents to your company and to your customers and investors. Visual identity is important. However, there are also other aspects to take in consideration for a strong brand like company culture, brand guidelines and last but not least: your story.
Company Culture
Sometimes we get too tangled up on what our potential clients or customers are looking at and how we advertise our value proposition to them. This makes us forget that our team are customers too. If you want people in your team to marry your idea for a business, resulting in great work and loyalty, you need to build your company culture.
This is your company’s personality. It defines the environment in which your coworkers grow. Company culture includes work environment, company mission, value, ethics, expectations, and goals. Make sure to work on this topics and present them in a clear and objective way to your colleagues. This will make sure your brand is well understood so that it can be well sold by everyone in the organization.
Hubspot, for example, has made a great job presenting their culture to their customers. Maybe that’s why they’re amongst the top companies to work in the US.
Brand Guidelines
This is how a brand presents itself to the world. It’s kind of a reference tool that helps maintain consistency, by demonstrating what a brand looks, feels and sounds like. It’s important to make sure your brand looks and feels the same, even when you have different people working on customer service, marketing, design and ales. A brand style guide is important because it helps your business communicate in a consistent way across all teams and channels.
Do you have a solid mission and vision for your company? How about your values, your personality, your voice and your story? Get this all together and make sure everyone, including yourself, takes it in consideration for any communication.
Brand Story
Wait a minute, who are you? Do you know, as a brand, who you are and what you represent? The easiest and most effective way to solve this is through storytelling. You need to tell a traditional story: think of your brand as the guide for your customer (the hero of the story), like Yoda for Luke or Dumbledore for Harry Potter. They have a problem, and you will be the one to help them overcome obstacles and achieve goals. Remember: you’re not the hero of the story, so stop acting like it.
The story goes beyond what’s written in the copy on a website or the presentation used to pitch to investors or customers. Your story isn’t just what you tell people. It’s also what they believe about you, based on the signals your brand sends.
When you take into consideration all of the elements of your brand and you make sure they are consistent, there will be no confusion: Your customers and teams will know who you are, what you do, and what benefits they can receive from partnering up with you.