Have you ever stopped to wonder WHY you buy the things you buy? Have you ever REALLY analysed what it was that attracted you to your last purchase?
Outside of buying something based purely on price or necessity, you were probably attracted to your purchase because the BRAND spoke to you on some level. But what do we actually mean by this? What is this thing we call brand, and what are some of things we might consider when building one for ourselves?
There are libraries filled with books devoted to this subject, written by experts on this subject. However for my two cents, I’d like to share a couple of points that I feel form the foundation for building a brand that will last.
- Identity is more than just a logo. How do you want to be identified? Who are the individuals you are hoping to attract to your ranks? Remember, just because you want to be an eco-warrior, doesn’t mean you can’t also be a cutting-edge technology company, it’s not about WHAT you do, more HOW you do it. This means that you need to have a set of rules that CLEARLY communicate the ethos of the organisation to both your staff and customer alike. If you are 100% organic, then don’t just use the logo and write about it… you really need to both live and breathe that way of life. As soon as you say one thing and do another, you are on a slippery slope to nowhere, or at the very least some very bad press and socials.
Let me make absolutely clear, this is NOT a marketing stunt. It’s NOT just about SAYING you are something – it’s about actually living, breathing and BEING that thing!
- What does your brand stand for? Or perhaps you should ask yourself what YOU stand for, a question most people probably haven’t much reflected on.
If you don’t have a clear purpose other than to make money, then you are going to find it very hard to build a following – what are people going to identify with? Having a strong purpose for the things you do has many benefits, one of them being it allows you to easily say NO to people and opportunities that might otherwise pull you in the wrong direction. For example, if your brand was based around health and wellbeing and a large sponsorship opportunity made itself available from a petroleum company, then it quickly becomes obvious that the opportunity isn’t really an opportunity at all, the answer is a clear NO – regardless of the size of the cheque being written.
This strong belief system will make itself felt all the way through your company, affecting everything you do. Who do you partner with, who are your suppliers, what packaging do you use, etc? This then gets identified with you as part of your brand and becomes one of the main reasons people associate and do business with you. This robust identity will become one of your STRONGEST assets. Your purpose is also intrinsically tied to your identity, getting these two things nailed down early will certainly make your life easier going forward.
If I may, I’d also like to leave you with a few final musings –
When approaching a new challenge, either epically big or relatively small, everything always seems to bring me back to a singular phrase, being CLEAR on what you want. One might also argue that preparation also shares the same podium space.
As someone who likes to rush straight into things, I often found that rolling up my sleeves and “just getting on with it” led me to the answers I was looking for. BUT, more often than not it also meant backtracking, and sometimes even having to completely start from scratch.
Over the years I’ve countless times been proven that being clear on an outcome REALLY does save you time, energy, and straight-up, hard, cold, cash. Creating a brand for yourself epitomises this point, as changing tact once you’ve started your journey can be a truly costly endeavour.
SARA Ltd is at the start of her journey and these are all heavy considerations for her team on a daily basis.
