Branding 101: How to Start from scratch
Lex Peters
Okay, so clearly, I have not uploaded a video. Want to know the truth? I’m actually very nervous about recording myself. BUT as many of you know, I like to have my goals on sticky notes on my mirror, and guess what’s up there this month. You guessed it, film my first video for the NOL column. So don’t worry, it’s coming, and this is my way of being accountable.
Now before I get started, I’m curious who reads my column. So if you read this or even skimmed it, please tweet at me or email me (links at the bottom) the word DinoDonut. Okay, thank you for reading.
Branding 101: Starting from Scratch
Anywho, let’s get into this month’s big theme: Branding 101: Starting from Scratch. This can apply to big and small businesses or even for your own professional branding. For this post’s purpose, let’s focus on branding as if you are branding yourself to either build your reputation in your field of choice or if you’re trying to get a job.
Find your audience:
First, let’s find your audience. Now a common misconception here is that you will have one audience. FALSE. While you should focus your audience down to 2-3, there isn’t one audience that will perfectly fit you. You are multifaceted, and so is your audience. When thinking about your audience, you can have about 2-3 personas that will connect with your audience.
For example, I work primarily in Customer Experience Design within Tech. My audience is people in the AV industry and people in Communications, PR, or Marketing. When I’m communicating to any of those subsets, I will lean towards a specific persona that aligns with that community. A tech meme might not relate with my comms people, but boy, will it get the attention of my tech following.
Your Mission Statement:
Now that you know who you’re talking to let’s talk about what you represent- your mission statement. What is the overarching message you want to get across to your audience? While it may seem remedial, purpose drives direction. When you know your purpose and have it clearly defined, you will present yourself in a way that aligns with your goals and becomes identifiable or recognizable amongst your peers and audience.
I will note here that your mission statement should be a living statement that evolves with you. As your or your brand changes, so should your statement accurately reflect what you want your messaging to be. Here are some examples of mission statements from companies and professionals to give you some inspo:
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- LINKEDIN: To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.
- NIKE: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
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DENISE MORRISON, CEO OF CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY- “To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference.”
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OPRAH WINFREY, FOUNDER OF OWN, THE OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK- “To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.”
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AMANDA STEINBERG, FOUNDER OF DAILYWORTH.COM- “To use my gifts of intelligence, charisma, and serial optimism to cultivate the self-worth and net-worth of women around the world.”
- MICROSOFT: To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.
Brand Messaging:
Once your mission statement is clearly defined, you need to create your brand messaging. This is how you sell yourself. In other words, this is your brand promise, your positioning statement, and your unique value proposition. What makes you DIFFERENT? Dig deep! How can you improve the lives of customers through your services? What about your work history makes you unique?
Visual Identity:
Now that you’ve defined your messaging, you get to create a visual identity that goes along with it. This is one of my favorite parts, but it can be a bit overwhelming. When it comes to picking your brand’s stylistic elements, like colors, fonts, and logos, I always suggest getting a professional. They will research your field and give you a visual identity that communicates exactly what you want it to. However, I understand that that is not always an option.
If you are picking your visual identity for yourself, keep a couple of things in mind. Color psychology is important; research what color best represents your field and try to base your colors around those lightly. Colors affect how people see you a lot more than you think. Why do you think most fast food companies have red in their branding? It’s because the color brand incites HUNGER. How fun and a bit tricky, right?
Next, you’ll have to look into fonts and logos. Here, I would suggest keeping it simple if you’re doing it yourself. Pick a couple of fonts you like for your brand, and pick two. These two should complement each other but provide a little spice. A good rule of thumb is a serif and sans serif font. Or script and print. As for your logo, good luck. Ha! Just kidding. Logos are pretty difficult sometimes, but I would suggest keeping it simple and create it in a program that doesn’t require a lot of design expertise like Canva! There are many predesigned logos that you can change up a bit to work perfectly for you. Easy Peasy.
Brand Voice:
Okay, so now you have your audience, mission statement, brand messaging, and visual identity, its time to hit the ground running and develop your brand’s voice. This is where you bloom like a flower, spread out like a proud peacock, really come into your own. Have opinions and share them! Customers and peers love people or brands with opinions who they can stand by and relate to. Your personality is important to your brand. A great way to think about this is that your voice should be in line with how you would want people to describe you. Do you want to be funny? Post more memes. Want to be witty? Tweet some witty remarks to other people’s posts or add some wordplay in your tweets. The world is your oyster! Go out there and express yourself. (However, remember that what you post is what most people will ever see of you. Make your impression count.)
Be consistent:
Last but certainly not least, be consistent. Pick a couple of social media platforms and SHOW TF UP. If you’re in the AV world, Twitter is where it’s at. If you’re in communications, Instagram should definitely be a priority. Regardless, if this is your professional brand, you need to be on LinkedIn. Share your successes. Share your peers’ successes. Start discussions in your industry. Ask people for advice. Anything to get into the thick of the community and conversation that’s just waiting for you to join. When you protect consistency, you will project confidence. While things may change like your industry of work or what your mission statement is, remember to always be yourself. As the great Dr. Seuss said: