Brainstorm Your Brand: Brand Identity

As a solo/micro busi­ness own­er, you may not think that build­ing a brand iden­ti­ty is some­thing that you need to do. You most like­ly have a web­site, a busi­ness name, a mar­ket­ing plan, and maybe even a logo. But is that enough? The short answer is.. maybe?

It depends on Why you’re in busi­ness in the first place? What you want your busi­ness to accom­plish? Who your core audi­ence is? And How you want to be remem­bered? But if you’re try­ing to build any kind of long-term sus­tain­able busi­ness then build­ing a brand mat­ters as much to you as it does the big corporations.

When asked what brand­ing is, most solo/micro busi­ness own­ers say some­thing to the effect of my logo is my brand. Or they tell you all about their mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. Or they point to their sig­na­ture prod­uct or ser­vice. Or they sim­ply stare at you with that deer in-the-head­lights look because they have no idea at all.

Let’s set the record straight. Brand­ing is not your logo. It’s not your mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. And, it’s not your sig­na­ture prod­uct or ser­vice. Brand Strate­gist, Mar­ty Neumeier defines your brand as, “a per­son­’s gut feel­ing about a prod­uct, ser­vice, or orga­ni­za­tion.” What does that even mean?

Basi­cal­ly, it means your brand is what your core audi­ence says it is. This is why it’s imper­a­tive to know Why you’re in busi­ness. What you want your busi­ness to accom­plish. Who your core audi­ence is. And How you want to be remembered.

With­out know­ing these things, your core audi­ence won’t have any clue whether or not they can trust that you can pro­vide the solu­tion to their chal­lenge. In essence, they’ll believe your brand isn’t right for them when it may just be exact­ly what they’re look­ing for.

Your Brand Identity Matters

Your brand is the soul of your com­pa­ny. It defines your goals and objec­tives. It defines your mes­sage, your mis­sion, and your meth­ods. And it embraces your core val­ues. Let’s look at one brand who knows exact­ly what it stands for.

An ath­let­ic cloth­ing com­pa­ny that had hum­ble begin­nings in Van­cou­ver, Cana­da start­ing in 1998. A design stu­dio by day. Yoga stu­dio by night. A com­pa­ny that has nev­er wavered from those hum­ble begin­nings. Lul­ule­mon under­stands exact­ly Who they are as a com­pa­ny. Per their website:

Brand Identity for Lululemon

Why they’re in busi­ness: To cre­ate more than a place where peo­ple could get gear to sweat in, we want­ed to cre­ate a com­mu­ni­ty hub where peo­ple could learn and dis­cuss the phys­i­cal aspects of healthy liv­ing, mind­ful­ness, and liv­ing a life of possibility.

What they want their busi­ness to accom­plish: A con­stant that has nev­er wavered is our desire to empow­er peo­ple to reach their full poten­tial through pro­vid­ing the right tools and resources, and encour­ag­ing a cul­ture of lead­er­ship, goal set­ting, and per­son­al respon­si­bil­i­ty. Our core val­ues of per­son­al respon­si­bil­i­ty, entre­pre­neur­ship, hon­esty, courage, con­nec­tion, fun, and inclu­sion are lived by our peo­ple every day and are at the heart of our unique com­pa­ny culture.

Who their core audi­ence is: Guests, Ambas­sadors, and elite athletes.

How they want to be remem­bered: We cre­ate trans­for­ma­tive prod­ucts and expe­ri­ences that build mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions, unlock­ing greater pos­si­bil­i­ty and well­be­ing for all.

Lul­ule­mon cre­ates an ever-evolv­ing man­i­festo as a way to...” share our cul­ture with the com­mu­ni­ty. It’s an evolv­ing col­lec­tion of bold thoughts that allow for some real con­ver­sa­tions to take place. Get to know our man­i­festo and learn more about what lights our fire.”

As you can see they know their core audi­ence very well. Not every com­pa­ny would dare to be so bold. But this is what makes them rad­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent and sets them apart from their competition.

Questions For You

Here are a few ques­tions to help you shape your brand identity.

Why are you in busi­ness? Aside from the obvi­ous of mak­ing mon­ey. What is your big Why?

When you start a busi­ness mak­ing mon­ey is gen­er­al­ly one of the top rea­sons why. But, if the only rea­son you start­ed a busi­ness was to make mon­ey or try to “get rich quick” you didn’t start a busi­ness you cre­at­ed a side hus­tle. And one that most like­ly won’t last very long or be very profitable.

A busi­ness takes plan­ning and a deep­er under­stand­ing of what it is you’re try­ing to accom­plish. If you’re in for the long haul, dis­cov­er­ing Why you cre­at­ed this busi­ness will give you a foun­da­tion to build on. It’s time to chan­nel your inner 3‑year-old and keep ask­ing your­self Why you start­ed this busi­ness until you know exact­ly Why from your heart.

What beliefs and core val­ues are impor­tant to you as a company?

Click on the link to get a list of core val­ues for your­self and your busi­ness. Take a look at them and write down the ones you res­onate with.

What you believe about your­self and your abil­i­ties may very well either dri­ve your com­pa­ny for­ward or stop it dead in its tracks. And, the com­pa­ny cul­ture you cre­ate may attract or repel your core audi­ence. Know­ing exact­ly what you and your busi­ness stand for will allow you to move for­ward with integri­ty and confidence.

What do you do bet­ter than any­one else?

Know­ing where your strengths lie and what you’re good at will allow you to com­mu­ni­cate clear­ly with your core audi­ence. They’ll be able to eas­i­ly see just what sets you apart.

What makes you dif­fer­ent from your competitors?

What is the one thing that makes you rad­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent from your com­pe­ti­tion? How can you use what you dis­cov­ered in the last 2 ques­tions to set your­self and your busi­ness apart from your competitors? 

Pen­zeys Spice is anoth­er com­pa­ny who knows exact­ly what they stand for, what sets them far apart from their com­pe­ti­tion and they’re unafraid to stand up for what they believe in. To move for­ward, you have to lead the pack. They do it unabashedly.

Knowing Your Core Audience

Under­stand­ing who you are as a busi­ness allows you to com­mu­ni­cate that under­stand­ing to your core audi­ence on a per­son­al lev­el. Once they under­stand exact­ly what your busi­ness stands for, they can decide whether your brand is right for them or not.

Both Lul­ule­mon and Pen­zys Spice know their core audi­ence and go after them even if it means alien­at­ing an entire demo­graph­ic. Because know­ing your core audi­ence goes far deep­er than just know­ing their demographics. 

Drill down to who your core audi­ence is. You want to know them based on their traits and behav­iors. Think about peo­ple you know and asso­ciate with that have the same char­ac­ter­is­tics you want in your core audi­ence. Using the exam­ples below cre­ate a list of traits you want your core audi­ence to have.

Exam­ple:

• Fun­ny: Has a sense of humor. Likes to joke, are bub­bly and enjoy hav­ing a good time
• Spir­i­tu­al: Comes from a place of authen­tic­i­ty and grat­i­tude, able to see the pos­si­bil­i­ties want to incor­po­rate their belief into all they do, over­all pos­i­tive atti­tude and mindset
• Open: To try­ing new and dif­fer­ent ways to do things, will­ing to learn new tech­nolo­gies, will­ing to enter­tain new ideas, will­ing to help others
• Hon­est: No BS
• Action Ori­ent­ed: Will­ing and eager to take action, inter­act, try things out, team play­er will­ing to help others
• Good Com­mu­ni­ca­tor: Able to com­mu­ni­cate their ideas, able to take con­struc­tive crit­i­cism, able to give con­struc­tive crit­i­cism, par­tic­i­pates in the ongo­ing con­ver­sa­tion, polite and tactful
• Cen­tered: No mak­ing moun­tains out of mole­hills, easy in all aspects of style.
• Invest: Sees abun­dance and feels grat­i­tude in all they do. Will­ing to do what it takes to invest in themselves.
• Inspi­ra­tional: Deep desire to cre­ate last­ing change in their clien­t’s life, ser­vice-ori­ent­ed, com­ing from a place of want­i­ng to be the change

What three words would your core audience use to describe your brand?

Now that you know who your core audi­ence is, what lan­guage do they speak? Come up with 3 (or more) words that your core audi­ence would use to describe your brand. Remem­ber, these aren’t words you’d use, so do your best to hear them in the voice of your core audience.

At this point, you should have a pret­ty good idea of the Why, What, Who, and How of your busi­ness and the brand you want to cre­ate. Tak­ing action is your next step. Use what you’ve dis­cov­ered here to begin cre­at­ing a brand that defines the soul of your business.

If you found this post help­ful leave a com­ment. And, if you have any ques­tions or need any fur­ther help cre­at­ing your brand be sure to reach out: shonda@taylorberrydesigns.com. I’d love to hear from you.

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