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Learn some key tips about how to build a successful brand for your business.
Key learning outcomes:
Hey everyone. Andrea Anderson, Chief Ideas Specialist from Your Marketing Machines. Thank you for taking valuable time out of your day today to come and join me in talking about tips to building a brand for your business. Do strap in. This is going to be quite an exciting one for you. In particular, if you're looking to want to take a successful brand, like a brand as big as Branson into the business world. So let's get into it.
First and foremost, I'd like to do an acknowledgement to country. We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land and pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging for they hold the memories, traditions, culture, and hope of all Indigenous Australians. Thank you for allowing me to do that.
So why have you come to join me today to talk about branding? Well, here's where I'm hoping our aim is going to be for you today. And that is:
So we're just going to dive straight into it with step number one. That's right. Keep it simple silly.
We're going to sell with simplicity, because it's so important that we understand - if we keep everything simple, people are more likely to actually come in, Like, Know, and then get to trust you.
So, first questions I want you to be asking yourself, and this is all about you asking you, and that is what solution do you actually provide to the market?
Now the first thing most people say to me is “Andrea, I help.” No, no, no, no. That's not what I asked you. I didn't ask who you help. I'm asking you, what's the solution that you're providing to the marketplace. In other words, disregard the kind of audience, but actually look very clearly at the product or service you bring in market. What does it actually do? What solution or what problem does it actually forgive or achieve? It’s really important that you actually understand that.
The second question you need to have in the back of your mind when you're looking at building a brand for your business. And that is why should that person use me?
Why should I use you? What is it about your product that's going to help fix my problem? So really important, when you're looking at this, when you're looking at your brand, you want to be able to answer those first questions.
Step number two, this is where we find that emotional connection. This is where we find the love.
Now, true story. My husband, bless his little cotton socks, he loves BMWs. Loves the big Holden V8’s. I just want a car that's going to get me from point A to point B. It's got four doors, so I can get my dog in and out of the back seat really easily without any issues and hassles. And really, I just want to be able to know that I'm going to arrive at my destination safely.
Here's what he does. Bless his little cotton socks, because we're looking to want to update our car. He sends me a photo of the car he wants to buy. Now, men are probably going, “Uh Oh, I know where this is going”. Women, you’re probably going “have I heard this story before?”
Cut a long story short, he's already connected with the car. He's already seen himself in the car with the sunroof open (going and super sports speedy fast mode) without me and the dog. So when we're looking at building a brand, what we're looking to want to do is to create that human connection, that emotional connection, so that our audience will get to like, know, and trust us faster.
So, if you're wondering what happened with the BMW, guess what happened? We bought the BMW. Right? But not only does my husband actually have an emotional connection with BMW. Regrettably now, so do I. So important. Once again, as I said before, Human connection, emotional connection at that point in time with your brand association.
So when you're looking at that team and you're thinking what does that actually mean when you say emotional connection or human connection?
What are the pain points?
Two key things I want you to be aware of with your brand. And these are where we talk about the pain points. What are the key emotional motivators for people to seek your services? Why are they looking to want to speak to you? And if you tell me that it's because you’re quality. No, that's not the reason why. Because that's what everyone else says.
You know, when we're Googling it's because we're in pain, mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, physiological, financial, business, relational pain. That's why we Google. So you've got to be looking for what's the emotional connection. What's the pain points that our potential audience are feeling? And that's why they're looking for that solution.
Second question. I'm going to ask you to resonate on when you're talking pain points and that is how do you want them to feel after using your service or your product?
Do you want them to just go. “Oh, yeah, that was a good meal.” Or do you want them to say, “Oh my Lord, that meal was mind blowing”.
So the key here is when you're looking at it, we're talking about a personal impact. We're talking about there being an emotional connection. We're talking about being experiential here.
So there's four key aspects to creating that personal impact that you want people to have with your brand.
Step 1: What is the client’s problem?
Step 2: What’s your solution
Step 3: What is going to be the clients emotional response?
Step 4: What’s the personal impact on their life?
That's what branding for your business is actually all about.
So I'm going to just give you a quick example here. Belle Lucia is an Australian supermodel that happened to be found by chance at the age of 15. What most people don't know about Belle was that when she was found, she was very pimply faced. She had really bad skin, gorgeous eyes, stunning, natural, big lips, but she was covered in scars and she was covered with massive acne and she used to feel very subconscious about it, and was therefore not confident in front of people. That was her problem.
Her solution was that she went for laser treatment and skin rejuvenation creams and treatments. That was the solution.
Move to phase three. The emotional result from doing that meant that she was more confident. She got more energized. She had a higher self-value and self-worth, because she wasn't so conscious anymore about the quality of his skin or how bad skin looked.
Then if you actually stop and look at her personal impact in her life. What actually happened to her was she got picked up as a model. She's now been seen in a multitude of international magazine covers. She's traveled overseas. She has a more visual brand. She's become an Instagram icon and has a massive following around the world. All because the brand that she went with identified with her. They could actually not only help her, but they provided her with an emotional connection from here on in.
The key here for us is when you're looking at your brand. It's more than just the offering of a product and service. It's the experience you want people to have with you when they come on and take on board your solution and your brand.
So step number three: where is the confusion? What's going on? Why is it that some people get it right, and some don't?
There are some key elements here that we need to be aware of. Continuity and consistency. If you've listened to any of my presentations before you'll hear me talk about consistency is the key.
Well, it's the same in your branding. Remember people require between four to seven touch points before they will buy from you. So in some cases it could be anything up to 15 times of them interacting with you, before they actually decide you're the right person for them.
When you're looking at your touch points, when you're looking at being consistent and your brand and showing up, there are a number of different areas where you can do that.
Let's look at your online, for example. The below all need to be consistent in your brand:
The following are just some examples of things that need to be consistent with your brand.
Part two of the stage is congruency. Do your images, your colors, your fonts, your tone, your voice - do they represent and engage the desired emotional response that you're looking for?
With your marketing machines, the biggest part of our brand is actually a light bulb. Believe it or not. And the reason being is that we create ideas to ignite your business. So if you go to my website, you'll see that these light bulbs all over my websites. If you were to receive a proposal from me, light bulbs will be all through the website. In fact, one of the promotional items I give away is a light bulb. Everything about me is about creating those ideas to ignite your business and to keep you engaged, and to keep you inspired about your own business.
There are so many different brand examples out there that I can recommend for you to go and review, but it's so important that you need to be looking at that consistency, and congruency through your own branding.
If you're going to use colors, for example, make sure they're the same colors. Everything about my brand’s coloring is consistent. There is nothing that goes off color. If you're going to ensure that your brand is memorable, you need to be consistent in the way that you presented yourself.
Step number four is let's get personal. Let's really get to understand each other here. This is about that reconnection with your ‘why’. This is where we want to redefine your brand and really understand who you are, what you are, and why you are.
One of the first questions I always ask people when we talk about branding - I ask them “tell me what your BHAG is?” What is your Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal?
If I could give you everything you wanted, what is it that you would want to achieve for your brand? This could be around certain questions including:
When we're looking at asking those questions it’s not because we want to go into marketing speak, but it's because we want to understand the passion behind the brand. We want to understand what's going to get you up in the night and drive you to take a brand to market and compete successfully with your competitors.
Step number five is where we actually start to look at establishing that game plan. How do you want to be perceived and received in the market space? This is where we talk about your MOU. Your Market of Own Uniqueness.
This is where we ask the questions and we clarify from you:
For example, if you say that you don't want to be the cheapest in town, or seen as the person to go to because they're really cheap.
If that's not what you want to be, then why are you using language like “budget”, or “affordable”? Because if you don't want to be known as cheap, then why you using that kind of language? So straight away, there's an inconsistency there.
So the key here for us in step number five, when establishing that plan, is we just need to know, how do you want to be remembered? If I Googled you in one year or even five years time, what would you like Google to say about you? What would you like to be shown as? What would you like to be presented as?
When we're looking at developing your marketing blueprint and developing your brand there are three key things I want us to resonate on.
1.Define your objectives
2.Strategise how to achieve those objectives
3.Develop a language that speaks to your market
6.Brand Identity
This is that visual reference to your brand. This is the images, colors, and fonts that we use that ties in with the tone of your voice, and the messaging that we provide. It also underpins the way that you want to be perceived and received in the market space.
Creating an identity is much easier now that you have built a stronger foundation about your brand, and the emotive aspect of your brand.
Think of McDonald's as an example. McDonald's started the moment that Ray Kroc saw the photo on the McDonald brothers wall of one of the first McDonald's that they built with the golden arches. Ray Kroc said to the brothers “What is this?” It looked so futuristic. They said, “it's just a business that we own, it's just an example of a building that we built that's failing.” And here's where it begins to shift and change. McDonald brothers, all they saw was a failed business. Ray Kroc saw the vision of the business, he saw an American icon in those golden arches.
And even in today's market, since the 1950s, we now see advertising where we don't even see the “M” anymore. All we see is a packet of French fries and we know exactly what company that is. But he looked at it and he went I can see the future just in that particular building.
So it's real important that we understand the vision, and the BHAG.
When we’re looking at brand identity development, we're looking at:
And once again, remember this has got to be consistent so that it fits across all of your marketing platforms: online, offline, and also face-to-face.
One of the things I'm going to encourage you to do, and that is to actually look at setting up a Pinterest board. We are visual creatures. The reason why we people resonate to my light bulb. It's a light bulb, but people resonate with it. So one of the things you can do to help you become creative, and to start connecting with your brand on an emotional level, is to set up a Pinterest board.
What’s really cool is when you set up a Pinterest board you create a mood board, you go in, you find different imagery that appeals to you, different colors, different kinds of photos, different kinds of imagery. You might find that suddenly you love turquoise or you love teal or you found a love for things that are golden, that you didn't realize. The beauty about having a mood board is that when you engage a designer to help you create your brand, what they'll do is they'll look at your mood board, and inside the mood board, they’ll be able to define the best direction for you. It’s so valuable because we can see patterns and we see image styles and color schemes that you may never have actually thought about consciously, but yet subconsciously you love those kind of things.
It's from understanding your branding colors, that you start to create your logos. This is where people get it wrong. What they normally do is they say “I just need a logo”, and they go to freelancer.com or they go to Fiverr and guess what? You get what you pay for.
So my encouragement is that if you are going to go down the pathway of branding and having a brand that actually is powerful and appeals, my encouragement is look to engage a designer at some point to help you actually clarify what that may look like.
The next steps for you when you're looking at building your brand is to go back and look at, and review, your notes.
I want you to review this particular presentation and start to create an emotional connection with your business. If you have an emotional connection with your business that will start to show through, not only in the imagery and the colors that you use, but it'll actually show through and the language that you use to describe yourself as well.
Get the plan. Start planning your brand. How do you want people to receive you? How do you want people to remember you? Start game planning.
Then find the team to help you implement. It’s essential to know that you're not alone in this journey. That you've actually got people around who can help create the powerful brand that you deserve.
So, thanks for joining me on tips to building brand for your business. And I wish you all the very best for your future endeavors.