Baby Steps: Identifying Your Brand

What is your brand? Have you ever heard this confusing (and often loaded) question? As a company in any industry it is crucial for you to know that answer. Here’s why:

What’s your vision? What image are you trying to project to your key audience, your customers, your viewers? An important element to keep in mind (for any company, be it well established or just starting out) is that ensuring a true and lasting connection is crucial. Knowing who your viewers are and identifying their interests is important, but creating a personal bond will bring you farther, more quickly, and more meaningfully than simply preaching your company’s features.

Consider the typical user experience as you shop for that perfect item of clothing or jewelry. Say the employees assisting you take the time to understand what you need and what you personally wish for – when you find your item, you will connect with the experience more and appreciate that they patiently walked you through the process, asking you detailed questions to zero in on the specific item that will address your needs in the best way. Simply shoving various items in your path would not have worked so well, right? By applying that caring to your own viewers, you build a foundation of trust.

Once you have confirmed what image you want to convey, communicate with your employees so that they are consequently on board and familiar with that image. Being able to verbally and emotionally broadcast your company’s vision is crucial to maintaining that authenticity that rings true with your audience. When creating a website or microsite connected to your company, ensure that all written content is consistent across all of your platforms.

Are you passionate about helping others achieve their vision? Is your focus to promote green energy? Are you stressing the importance of developing a mobile site? Make sure that this vision and goal is steady throughout your organization – having that unified goal will connect your employees more thoroughly and will get you to that goal with more enthusiasm and passion.

If your image is sound, and resonates well with your employees and audience, then you can continue to brainstorm how to visually represent that brand. And now, getting back to the main question – tell a story with your brand! Work with a creative agency that can help you bring your vision into the sights of your audience, creating a graphic representation of your mission.