Branding 101: How To Build A Strategic Brand in 2024

What's up Brand Builders? Stephen Horahan here of BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video you're going to learn Branding 101, how to build a strategic brand so you can understand the machine that influences audiences to choose your business over your competitors again and again. So what exactly is branding? Well look, it's a pretty broad question and when you sit down and think of it, there are many different perspectives on this, a lot of different players with different opinions and different positions on what branding actually is. But when you strip away all of that complication and really think about what branding is, it's about making a business more appealing to a certain group of people than the competitors and the aim of the game here is to influence their buying decision. Now a lot of people believe that branding is about how a brand looks, you know the logo, how it appears visually and for the most part they are right to some extent but really that's only the tip of the iceberg, beyond the iceberg, below the surface, you have a machine of elements all working together to make up the brand. If all you have is a logo, if all you have are the visuals, then there's no mechanism behind that brand to make those connections with the audience. So to answer the question what is branding, it's all about understanding exactly who that audience is and then building a brand and an ecosystem around that to make that business more appealing to that group of people. So why exactly is branding so important? Well think about the alternative for a second, you have a business and you want people to buy your stuff but in order for them to buy your stuff you're going to have to influence them. Now if all you know about branding is that you need a logo and a website and you go out and pay a designer to get that logo and to get that website and you put that website out into the world, what do you have to influence those people? The assumption there is that people are just going to come to your website and see that you have a good looking brand, you have a website copy telling them what you do and then they're just going to hit that buy button but the reality is completely different. There are so many businesses vying for the attention of your audience and they're doing their very best to influence their buying decision and they're not just using logos and websites, they're digging deep to understand exactly who their audience is, how they tick, what makes them tick, what drives them, what motivates them, what are their fears, what is it that they really want to achieve and what problems do they have that the business can solve. Once they understand all of that then they can devise a plan of how they will communicate to them that will influence how they feel and think about that brand which will ultimately influence their decision. Okay so what is the difference between brand strategy and brand identity? These are two terms that are often used synonymously or if people see these terms side by side they can't really differentiate between the two. The brand identity is the visual brand, it's how the brand shows up in the world visually so we're talking here about those visual assets, we're talking about the logo, the color palette, the fonts, the image style, you know everything that the brand uses to show up visually is the brand identity, that's how the brand is represented visually. The brand strategy on the other hand is the plan behind the brand and how they're going to engage and resonate and connect with that audience again to ultimately influence their decision. Now the brand identity will have an influence on the audience, they will see that identity and if the colors and the style match what they like it will draw them in but it won't influence their buying decision just with the visuals. Behind those visuals there has to be some kind of strategy and some kind of messaging that's going to speak to who they are. That's where the brand strategy comes in, within the brand strategy you understand who that audience is, you understand what the competitors are offering them and then you have a position in the market that's different from those competitors and that difference is going to offer your audience an alternative to what's already out there in the market and with that difference, with that understanding of what you do and the value you're going to bring to the table it's going to help them to make their decision. With that position you need to communicate that position well and you do that through your messaging strategy, you do that through your storytelling and you also do that through your brand personality. They are the characteristics that you use, the traits that you use, the verbal identity, how you're going to speak to your audience, are you going to be cheeky, are you going to be fun, are you going to be formal or authoritative, what is it that's going to draw them in to help them to choose you over your competitors. All of these elements come together in the brand strategy and that is the make up of the strategy and on the front lines of that is the visual identity so they work hand in hand together to ultimately influence the audience, the perception they have of the brand and their buying decision. Now behind every successful brand are a set of familiar fundamental pillars that provides the foundation for that brand to grow. So let's dive into each one of these pillars. First up is the brand DNA. Now within the brand DNA you have a few key ingredients here. You've got your purpose, your vision, your mission and your values. Now this is probably the most common area of branding that people are aware of before they get into positioning and differentiation and personality they will probably come across these elements first and foremost and they tend to be overlooked a little bit in terms of their importance. People put together a purpose statement, a vision statement, a mission statement, some values and then they don't know how to communicate them but communicating them is not the name of the game. The brand DNA is about who the brand is internally and it's there to guide decisions and actions as to where that brand is going, where they're going in the future, what are they committed to in order to achieve their vision for the future, what do they hold dear in the way they do business through their values. These are all internal guideposts to help the brand make the right decisions so that the brand stays on track, it stays on brand in terms of where the leaders want that brand to go and what perception they want to create in the market. So it's really important to have the brand DNA first and foremost so that the leadership team and everybody within the brand knows where they're going. Next up is the target audience. I have seen this mistake time and again. Business leaders, they come to the table with a business plan and they have an idea for a product or a service but they really haven't taken the time to consider exactly who they're trying to help. They know there's a market out there for their products and their services but every market is broken up into segments and if you turn up with a product or service to the market that is meant for the entire market, most likely you're going to miss out on pretty much all of those segments because you're not relevant enough to those segments. So think of your market as a pie. Now if you turn up to the market and you try to appeal to that whole pie, then chances are you're not going to be able to do that. If on the other hand you segment or you slice up that pie and you hone in on a particular slice, then you can identify what differences those people have within that segment to the rest of the market. And when you understand that, when you understand those differences, when you understand what makes them tick, then you can appeal to them more specifically. So this is without a doubt one of the most important aspects in the whole spectrum of branding and marketing is getting clear on exactly what segment of the market you want to target so you can appeal to them more specifically and be more relevant to who they are. Next up is your positioning strategy. Now again, going back to the leader going into the market for the first time, having a product and a service that the market wants is great. But if your product and service is the exact same as everybody else in the market, first of all you're at a disadvantage because those other players in the market already have that awareness. They already have a head start on you so you're not giving your audience anything to really choose you over them. So you're at a complete disadvantage if you just have the same as everybody else. So what you need to do is you need to understand what your competitors are offering your audience and then look for gaps and opportunities as to what the audience wants and what they're not getting from your competitors in the market. And that's where your opportunity for your positioning strategy lies and your differentiation in the market. So this is really about showing up to the market with something different to offer, an alternative to what's already out there. And look, this doesn't necessarily need to be disruptive. You don't need to be an Uber going into the market disrupting the taxi industry. It just needs to be something slightly different. Maybe it's the way you provide your services. Maybe it's done with you instead of done for you. Maybe there's an element of convenience to it. Maybe there's something along the brand experience that's a little bit different to what your competitors are offering. But this is really, really important to show up to the market, not just with the same as everybody else, not the same products and the same services targeting the same people. Target someone different. Target a specific segment of the market and give them within the market something different than your competitors are offering and they will turn their attention towards you. The next pillar is your brand personality. Now, showing up to the market with a great visual brand is a really good way to get some attention, to get some visual attention. But let's say, for example, you have a beautiful looking website, you have a beautiful logo and then your audience turns up to your site and your website copy is bland and it's dry and there's nothing really there to draw your audience in. You're speaking in corporate tones. It's very, very easy to lose the attention of modern consumers today because, quite frankly, you know this yourself, we don't have a lot of attention to give other people or other brands and we really need to feel drawn in to give our attention and brand personality is a great way to do that. And this goes back to understanding who your audience is, not just what they want, not just their desires and their fears, but also what is their personality? What traits do they have? What is it that they're trying to achieve in life? Are they chilled out? Do they have a connection with the earth? Are they driven? Are they full of energy? Do they want to save the world? Are they authoritative? Do they have a desire to have a high status in society? What is it that drives them and what are their personality traits? When you really understand that, you can understand how to show up with your brand. And archetypes are a very, very good foundation for you to build your brand personality with. If you don't know what archetypes are, I have a video on brand archetypes. I'll leave that in the description, but it's about understanding the personality of your audience and then really putting together a personality that's going to appeal to who they are and using traits within how you communicate and not just your visuals here, but your messaging as well. What tone of voice are you going to use? What traits are you going to use within your communication, within your writing? And that will really help to draw in your audience because you're showing up to the market with a bit of personality and something different to what's already out there. The next pillar is your verbal identity. Now I touched on this with the brand personality and verbal identity is essentially an extension of your brand personality. It's the way your brand speaks in the market, how it talks, the language that it used, the tone of voice it's going to use. Are you going to show up with rough language, rugged language? Are you going to be a little bit edgy or are you going to show up a little bit more relaxed, more eco-friendly, a little bit more soft in how you communicate with your audience? There's a lot of scope for differentiation here just within your verbal identity alone. Really thinking about how we are as people, how we connect with other people and the people that you like within your lives. Do you tend to have a group of friends that are energetic and a little bit more edgy and use bad language? Or do you tend to gravitate more towards people who are laid back and speak in soft tones? Just understanding this alone about yourself and your own life and the people that you're attracted to will help you to understand how brands use verbal identity. Again, this goes back to who your audience is, who you're trying to connect with, who you're trying to appeal to. But as I said, there's a lot of scope for differentiation within your verbal identity but it's really understanding the role that you're going to play in the market, who your audience is and the way you're going to resonate with them. Next up is your brand messaging. This is probably one of the most impactful tools of influence that any brand has and it's probably overlooked more than not by brand leaders who go into the market trying to build a brand. They put all this focus on how the brand looks, the logo, the website, how they're appearing in the market and they put very little emphasis on the messaging that they're going to put out there in the market. Now, I'm not just talking about copywriting here, copywriting on your website. This is the whole spectrum of communication within your brand. You need to define exactly what you want to say to your audience, what's important to your audience when it comes to choosing a brand, when it comes to overcoming the problem that they have, what is it that they're looking for and what signals will provide them with the idea that you have what they need. Your brand messaging is super important in determining exactly what you want to say to your audience and how you're going to distribute those messages across channels. Now, again, this goes hand in hand with your brand personality. The messages that you put out there into the market is what you're going to say and the personality and the verbal identity is how you're going to say them. Understanding what you want to say is super critical in influencing how your audience perceives your brand. The next pillar is your story. Your brand story can come in different forms. Of course, you have the founder's story, so who the founder is, where they've come from, where they're going to. Now, in all honesty, your audience is not too interested in who the founder is. Now, that will probably crush a few egos here, but really building a brand is not about you. It's all about your audience. The story that your brand needs to be telling or certainly needs to be focusing on is the story of your audience. Now, you can do this in many different ways. You can look at past clients or past customers that have been through the process that you provide and document that. Document that through case studies and testimonials so that they can tell their story that will resonate with your future audience or with your future customers. But this is really about resonating and connecting. We're all drawn in to stories. We certainly remember stories a lot more than we remember facts. If you're able to make that emotional connection and if you're able to tell a story that kind of aligns with who your audience is, the journey that they're on, where they're coming from, where they're going to, the challenges that they're having along the way, they're the kinds of stories that draw us in. If you think about this yourself, when you sit down to read a story and there are many different characters within the story, you tend to take the position of the protagonist within the story and you tend to follow their journey. That's exactly what we want to do with our audience. We want to tell that story. If your story is super aligned with the journey that they're on, they're going to be drawn in. Thinking about exactly what you do as a brand, where you've come from, where you're going is great. But when you really nail down your audience and their story and you weave that in to the stories that you tell and the messages that you put out there in the market, then you're really going to draw your audience in because you will confirm to your audience that you understand their journey, what they're going through, where they're going, and what they're trying to achieve. Then, of course, you have your brand name and your tagline. This might seem strange that it's so far along and we haven't mentioned this before, but really if you think about it, your brand name and your tagline is a strategic tool. It tells your audience who you are and what you're about. If you do this early on in the process, then you're not going to have the added advantage of knowing the position that you want to take in the market, the difference you're going to offer, the personality that you're going to show up with, and the messages that you're putting out there into the market. When you have that information, putting together a brand name and a tagline is far more effective because it's helping you solidify that position. It's helping you to communicate to your audience exactly how you're going to help them and what you're all about. This is a really, really important part of branding. It tends to be tacked on to services that are out there, but in my opinion, this is probably one of the most important aspects in the whole spectrum of branding because when people see your brand name and they see your tagline, you think about how many people will see that. If you're able to throw a hook out with that brand name and that tagline and it resonates with them quickly, it tells them quickly what you're about and what you can potentially do for them, that will help them to bring them into your world. Really defining a brand name that is aligned with your position in the market and the position that you're trying to own and the message that you're trying to get across to your audience is really important. If you do this too early in the process, you're going to miss that opportunity and unfortunately, that's how most brand names are created. They're created by the business owner before considering the strategy, but the right way to do it is to consider the strategy, then develop the brand name and the tagline. Last but not least, you have your visual identity. Now, we're getting to the visual identity at point number nine when a lot of people believe when they think about a brand or building a brand, this is the first point that they will look towards to build their brand, but really think about all the elements that we have considered up until this point. We've considered who the audience is. We've considered the competitors in the market, how we're positioned in the market, the difference we're going to make, the personality that we want to show up with, what those traits are and the verbal identity within that personality as well, and the messages and the stories that we want to send out into the market. Now, think about all the tools we have at our disposal to design the visual identity and think about the designer in this position being able to reflect on the strategy and allowing that to guide their designs compared to a designer who is sitting down with an open brief to design a visual identity for brand name X. So, designing the visual identity with the strategy in mind is the best way to do this because we can really consider that personality and those traits and weave that into the visual identity that we are designing. So, again, a really, really crucial element in the brand when we see the brand for the first time, it has that immediate impact on us and there is no element within the brand that is as impactful as that visual identity in that short space of time that we have to really draw our audience in. So, it's really, really important, but it's really brought into the context of how important it is, is really under the microscope when we consider the strategy beforehand and we consider how that strategy can influence the design. So, now that we know all the pillars, what is the process in putting all this together in building the brand, in building those pillars and then getting that out there into the market? Well, simply following those pillars that I've put forward, which are in chronological order, should be developed in that chronological order, that is the process that you need to follow. So, brand DNA, the purpose, the vision, the mission, the values, understanding what's important to the business leader, where the brand is going and what they are committed to in the way they do business and then looking into the market to who the audience is and what really they're trying to achieve and what segment of the market you're going to target. Because remember, you can't target the whole market or you're simply going to blend in. You're not going to really appeal to those because you don't have enough specificity. Targeting a segment within the market gives you that opportunity to add specificity and then when you know that target you want to go after, you can look at who's already serving that audience and what they're not doing well, what gaps they're leaving in the market. That's where you find your positioning strategy, that's where you find your difference and that's where you're going to be able to add value to the market. Once you've done that, once you've defined your position, then it's all about how are we going to show up in the market, what's the personality we're going to lead with, what are those traits and what are those verbal identity elements that we'll use, what are the traits that we're going to use when we speak to our audience. Then we move into the messaging and the storytelling so we're understanding what we want to say to our audience so that when we go out into the market and communicate with our audience, we're influencing their perception about what we mean in a strategic way instead of just blurting out anything that we think they want to hear, we have methodically sat down and understood what perception we want to have in the market and what messages we need to put into the market in order to achieve that perception. Then we go into the visual identity design, we get our designer on board and we put that visual identity out there into the market. Now that is just building the brand, that is building the vehicle that is our brand that we're going to be able to use to communicate to the audience. Then it's about your marketing strategy, a lot of people think that the brand strategy and the marketing strategy are one and the same, they are not. Now it's about understanding where your audience is congregating, where are they online, where are they physically and how are we going to engage them on the front lines of the market, what are they going to respond to and how are we going to draw them in. Do we have a funnel, are we going to guide them along every step of the journey until they become a customer. So thinking about all those different steps of the funnel, all those different potential channels and platforms that we can use to engage is super important in getting your brand out there into the market. It's not just about building the vehicle, it's about understanding where that vehicle must go in order to appeal to your audience. Now look at the end of the day as I said in the beginning, branding is simply about making a business more appealing to a certain group of people so that they choose that business over the other businesses that are in the market offering similar products or services. So really thinking about who your audience is and what they are going to respond to, I can't emphasize how important that is because your brand is not about you, your brand is not for you, your brand is owned by your audience because it's a perception, it's not a tangible thing, it doesn't live on a billboard or a website or even in your office, it lives out there in the marketplace as a perception and all we can do as brand builders is try to influence that perception as best we can. So if you think about your brand and branding in those terms as something that is out there in the market that your audience is going to form by themselves, then we can think about how can we help them to form that perception and that is what branding is about at the end of the day. It's about understanding that your brand is a perception and all we have as brand builders is the ability to try and influence that perception through our position, through our differentiation, through our personality, our messages, our stories and our visual identity. When you understand what branding is from that perspective, you have the tools at your disposal to be able to influence your audience. Now if you want to dive deeper into brand strategy, then this video here will help you out. But before you click it, if you want to become a master of brand, make sure you hit the like and subscribe to get notified when new videos like this come out. Until next time, brand like a master and I'll see you in the next video.