A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO ACHIEVING A STRATEGIC BRAND

You started your business with a purpose. You saw that something wasn’t done right in the market or there was always missing something. You wanted to be a bridge for your dream customers so they could experience something like never before. But lately you haven’t been attracting your dream customers or your audience isn’t responding to your exciting launch the way you anticipated. Well, you're not alone. In fact, you've probably heard it before. Among your friends and family, you know it will be said again. “You need to build a brand! How else will they trust you?”

<p style="font-size:16px;">But how do you even get started? I know it can be so confusing, especially when you have to check off 723,458 things off your business to-do list like yesterday! I'm here to tell you that all you need is one thorough process. That is the Strategic Brand Process. With the help of it, you can take your business from where it is now to building a brand you've always dreamed of:a remarkable, memorable, and profitable one which becomes a magnet to attracting your dream customers!

You must have heard it from a zillion designers online “Your brand is more than just a logo”. But what does that even mean? For your business to become a successful brand, your audience needs to know, like, remember, and trust you. A strategic brand does not only leave a lasting impression on its audience, but also compelles them to buy and advocate for them.

A Strategic Brand is your personality, voice, tone, and messaging all combined to speak directly to your dream customers, aka your super fans. You need to dive deep into who you are, and what you're all about, and create a plan to brand your business so you can stand out in the same of sames.

This is why you don’t just need a logo to represent your brand. You need an entire system that speaks for your brand, and most importantly your audience. Remember, we can only run a successful business, when we are actually making a bank. In order to do so, it's important our customers know we are here to serve them.

Big brands all have a streamlined brand management process, a systematic approach to managing the company's brand. It involves analyzing their competitive environment and establishing a marketing strategy that includes identifying their target market, communicating with them, and positioning their brand in the minds of their audience. This is because they understand that <i><b>a branded experience</b></i> is the key to a successful product or service. Because as customers are evolving, they want to see and advocate for human brands. Brands which have set values, voice and a personality that they can relate to.

A strategic brand process aligns your organization's leadership, strategy, and communications around your brand and its purpose so that people experience it every day. Only when your audience starts falling in love with you, would they be more inclined towards consistently purchasing from you.

It's a tall order for today's modern brands to accomplish. But I got your back. I have broken down this strategic process into 3 main phases that will help your small business attract paying customers and superfans. Let's get to it!

Brand Core

It all starts with the ‘WHY’. You may have heard this before, a brand's name and logo should start with “why?”. I couldn't agree more. Every part of your brand must start with the “why”. While I incorporate the mantra "start with why" regularly into my work, I’ve finally started to truly understand how powerful this ethic is for brands and businesses.

Brands are about people. Not businesses. Not products. Rather, brands are about the emotions it creates in the minds of their customers. Brands are about the relationship it establishes with them. The most important word in business is ‘why?’. When you know this ‘WHY’ then everything else falls into place.

A brand's core value is the promise of what a company can and will deliver. If you are building a brand, then it is all about achieving your core value. Your core value is what makes everything about your brand worthwhile. It is what makes the brand unique, provides trust, helps build customer loyalty, and makes the everyday experience of using the product or service memorable. People buy brands because it promises them something unique or includes in the set of other brands not doing that thing.

In his 2009 book “Start with Why”, Simon Sinek explains “There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it. Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief - WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care? People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it,”

Sinek makes a great point about figuring out “why” you do what you do. As humans, we tend to respond in a dopamine rush when we get positive reinforcement for our endeavors — like how when you see ads, e-mails or posts that say things like “You’re awesome!” or “Welcome to the club!” it makes you want to share that information with others in order to increase your own feelings of positivity and buy the product or the services offered.

When we dig deep into your brand’s core, what you do, why you do it, and how you do it differently than everyone else ties your brand’s identity together. This is why your brand is more than just your logo. It’s essentially the marriage between what your brand is all about and what your customers are expecting out of you.

For today’s modern brands, it’s important your brand’s identity evokes an emotion and for your customers to recall you by how they feel when they think of you.

In this strategic brand process, we accomplish it by a vision and most importantly your vision statement. We further break it down by narrowing down your brand’s core values, aka the non-negotiable beliefs of your brand, so your customers can connect to the core of your existence!

Brand Positioning

We live in a world where brands are fighting for a customer’s attention. It is essential to know how to develop your brand, how to share what you stand for and why you can bring value to people.

Positioning is the art of designing a brand's offer and image, so it holds a distinct place in the mind of the audience. Simply put, your brand’s positioning is telling your dream customers what makes you so different and why they should be invested in your brand and its products / services. The goal of positioning is to separate yourself in the sea of same

1. Dream Customer Persona:

This process begins with a quest to find your super-fans and what I love to tell my clients, eventually date them {not in the literal sense}. When we consider dating someone we want to know who they are, where they are from, what their favorite hobby is and what their dream vacation looks like. Then when we begin to date them, we take a keen interest in their likes, disikes, fears, and aspirations.

Similarly, in order to date your super fans you need to first take time to get to know them. Understand their demographics and research their psychographics.

In this way, you will have a deep understanding of who your super fans are and what would make them buy from you.

2. Understanding Your Competitors

Yup! You read that right. As a strategic brand it is important that you not only understand your audience and your business, but also understand your competitors. Now this doesn't mean you go ahead and copy your competitors' ways. Instead observe and analyze what they have been doing right and the current gap in the market. This is where you can fit in, by asking yourself “What is it that my competitors are doing or not doing that is making our dream customers want more?”. You can use several tools to accomplish this from a simple google search to advanced marketing tools like SWOT analysis and competitor mapping.

Understanding your competitors is your gateway to showing your audience and dream customers why they should choose you and what is that you do so differently. Now that we are on this point, time to move into the next phase of solidifying your positioning statement

3. Finding Your Secret Sauce

Your unique secret sauce aka your differentiator is the brand experience that your audience gets with you that they can't get elsewhere. We do this by using various tools to nail down your brand’s Value Proposition, USP, Differentiator statement and Positioning Statement. These statements along with your brand’s values form your brand messaging that convey one thing to your dream customers. That is that you are the one for them and why!

In your brand’s authentic voice they share your brand’s unique elements to your unique audience about their unique needs.</p>

Let's now imagine your super fans receive an email from your competitors, or from people who sell similar products as yours, why wouldn't they choose the competitors every time. What can we do to ensure that doesn't happen? In this case, your products will change their lives and is exactly what they have been looking for all along! </p>

This is your brand’s Unique Selling Point. By creating a unique USP for your product that distinguishes you from competitors will instill trust in your customers' minds.

Brand Personality

Your brand's personality is a reflection of its values, perception, and core beliefs. In other words, what your business stands for; is the way your brand is conceived and reflected in everything from product packaging to customer service. This can be tricky to manage as it involves both promoting the value of the brand and maintaining consistency across all areas of communication.

Today’s customers want to invest in a brand that is more human-like. And guess what, humans have a personality. A specific way they interact, a set of strong beliefs and a unique way of communicating our thoughts, opinions, fears and beliefs. Similarly, today’s modern brands need to be able to exude personality. Not only so you come off as different from your competitors, but also so your brand can be more relatable.

I personally love to use The Brand Archetype Method for all my clients. It is of great efficiency because it allows a designer to easily pick the right colors and shapes that will create a logo that looks natural, with clearly defined boundaries. When designing for brands, it's really important to get to know your personality a little better.

Customers buy with emotions not with features or a price tag. They want to live the dream and experience it. Having a strong brand personality and using its essence in your visual and verbal expressions, aka your brand designs and content, will help connect the dots for them. It will show your dream customers how using your brand’s solution will improve their lives.

Think of your brand personality as the way you communicate with customers in your chosen media. It helps you stand out and gives you something to talk about when talking about yourself. It's important to meet your brand's personality and live it.

Now all this can seem daunting, this is why we have created our FREE brand identity checklist to help you get a step closer to your unique strategic brand. If you are looking for an expert by your side and a done for you solution, we got your back!

At Amyable Studios Brand Strategy is the backbone to all our design work. It's the bridge that connects your business strategy with your marketing strategy so you can build a brand and show up and attract your dream customers.

Strategically aligned designs not only look pretty, but also use science to evoke an emotion and jog your audience’s memory. To help them associate a positive feeling with your brand and to have them trust your brand, so they keep buying from you over anyone else.

Using your brand’s unique strategy to create unique designs that embody your unique story and speak to your dream audience is why we exist. I believe that through strategic discovery, branding can be exciting and uplifting. This is why I work to create a fit that is right for YOU – a fit in your values, your purpose, and your future. I also want your experience with us to be something you enjoy–filled with genuine relationships, authenticity, and advocacy.

Discover the value of a strategic brand process. Let’s reach your brand goals together! Book your FREE inquiry call with us today!

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