Actions speak louder than words. If you don’t keep your promise, your audience will call you out.
Branding isn’t a logo or a business card. Branding is the process of defining who you are, identifying who you appeal to and creating a system to bring the two together.
YOUR PROMISE
Branding starts with a promise. Any time you interact with a service or product, you have an idea of how it will improve your life. You drive a BMW because it’s fun and is symbolic of a certain social status. You shop at Whole Foods because you want healthy, ethically sourced food.
Your promise is the tangible benefit of interacting with your brand. How do you bring value and an experience to someone’s life?
Knowing this first is important because the purpose of branding is to tell the right people what you bring to the table. If you don’t know what makes you special, no one else will.
SO, HOW DO YOU UNCOVER YOUR PROMISE?
Don’t make it up. Talk to people who interact with you and your organization. They will be thrilled to give their opinions. Ask them questions like, “Why did you choose to buy or partner with us over someone else?” or “What’s your favorite memory working with us?”
Take a step back, listen and be open to the feedback. What value do your fans say you bring to the table? It may not be what you think it is.
Take that feedback and convert it into a promise. Then, support it in every action of what you or your organization does. Actions speak louder than words. If you don’t keep your promise, your audience will call you out.
Southwest Airlines promises an airline “with a heart.”
In other words, in the cold and frustrating airline industry, the company promises to be the smiling, helpful voice with quick, simple answers to your stressful problems. That’s why it empowers every employee to solve customer problems on the spot. Southwest embedded that promise into its culture and management structure. Because of this, Southwest has thrived and grown. The company delivers on its promise consistently.
So, how do you start identifying what those actions are? You identify your personality.
YOUR PERSONALITY
We experience a lot of content. Whether it’s online, in a store or in our homes, we experience branded material in almost everything we do. And we often only experience it for fractions of a moment.
Now, imagine how difficult it is for your audience to remember your brand and content? Personality is how you make sure the right audience remembers you.
The way you make someone feel and the way they experience you are directly informed by the tools and tone you use to communicate with them. Is your company serious? Is it laid back and youthful? In life, most communication is done face to face. But as a brand, you don’t get a face. You get a website, a storefront or social media. And you only get one first impression.
The words you choose, the order you use them in, the pacing — all of this is informed by your personality.
Look at your website. Look at the colors you use on your signs or advertisements. Look at your customer experience. What does that personality look like to you? Is it warm and accommodating? If you’re a brand that promises “southern hospitality,” great! You’re on the right track. Is it professional and clinical? If you’re a doctor’s office, maybe that’s exactly what you want to communicate. That’s the start of your personality.
Memorable personalities give us a little surprise. What if you combined the two and created a warm, inviting doctor’s office that’s still professional and clinical? Now you’re starting to create a distinct personality that someone will remember.
What’s important isn’t necessarily the personality itself. It’s communicating it in a way that’s consistent and authentic. It should clue your audience in on who you are, what you believe in and what they can expect from you.
THE SYSTEM THAT BRINGS THEM TOGETHER
Now that your promise and personality have been established, you can look at your logo, colors and website: the visual system. The goal is to create a system of rules that articulate how to communicate who you are to the people who care. Branding strategists and designers do the visual system last.
Here, you work with a designer to experiment with different visuals to represent your promise and personality. You’ll begin to set up parameters for when and where to use all the individual visual elements like logos, colors and photography styles.
For example, you and your designer may decide to use journalistic-style photos of people interacting with your product in a real-world application rather than stock photography or photos from a staged set. When you document and enforce all these types of decisions in context of your promise, personality and visual system, you’re creating a timeless branding system.
THE IMPACT
An investment in a full-scale branding system makes an impact. But, like anything else, it’s never a guarantee. If your company is incredible and ready to change the world, a strong branding system is going to draw attention and empower your followers to recruit more new customers, donors or supporters. Consistency empowers people to introduce them to your team. Branding isn’t a logo; it’s a system to build community.
With a love for branding and identity design coupled with experience in print, motion, and 3D graphics, Zack Graber brings a positive outlook and a gentle spirit to every project he works on. Zack has a passion for great design, and his work reflects a world-class aesthetic, true professionalism, and the obvious fact that he’s having a great time doing what he loves. He’s currently the Art Director for Parisleaf, a branding and digital studio in Gainesville, Florida.