Heard of the Branding Bridge? No?
Then, you might want to read this before you go further.
So you’re on your way to building the perfect bridge that will allow you to reach out to your ideal customers. In Plank One, you learned how important it is to start with a pulse check or brand baseline. Now, on to Plank Two: Your Brand Discovery, where you “discover” everything that makes your brand unique and probably a thing or two about your brand that you didn’t even think to use in your marketing campaigns.
Why It’s Important
Usually, we don’t begin with “why it matters” until we explain the function of a brand building step. But so many business owners ask us why this step is needed. Why not just dive into branding strategies?
‘Why take the time to discover my brand? I know it already…” But do you really?
Can you answer the following questions about your brand:
- Do you know who your ideal customer is? Could you describe them in detail?
- What are your target markets or the markets you should be pursuing?
- What are your company’s assets? What do you do best?
- How are you unique? What’s your value proposition and can you condense that into an elevator pitch.
Brand Discoveries are a Vital Step that Can’t Be Missed.
They’re the only sure-fire way to gain clarity about your purpose, your values, your goals and your mission.
Clarity leads to important business insights into your operations, your business plan, your marketing and sales tactics. And if your team shares a consistent purpose and clear objectives, trust us, they will perform much better.
A discovery process also ensures that your brand remains consistent in everything it does, from your visual identity, to company communications, messaging and tone.
What a Good Brand Discovery Involves
A good discovery involves many layers, like peeling back an onion to reveal the core or essence of your business.
First Layer: Find out what makes you unique. Brainstorm all your strengths and yes weaknesses too!
Second Layer: Plan out your goals. Realistically, where do you want to be in a year, 2 years or 5 years?
Third Layer: Assess where you are now. Research your closest competitors, see what changes are affecting your industry, consult customer surveys or questionnaires.
Fourth Layer: Strategize. Create a plan of action that will move you toward the goals you set in the second layer. Develop strategies that address all the stages of the customer value journey.
Imagine your brand foundation: built for growth and future success
Unlock Access to Our E-book:
The Small Business Guide to Brand Strategy
This guide is full of information on how to create an overall brand strategy that will help you successfully market your business. It helps you craft an authentic brand story, then helps you uncover when, where and how to communicate it to your target audiences.
How a Professional Workshop Helps
As painful as it may seem to have an outside party scrutinize your business, this long, hard look in the mirror may be just what you need to propel you to greater insights and discoveries about your brand.
A discovery workshop performed by professional branding consultants can involve many helpful assessments, such as a brand audit, which should be performed every 2-3 years, or competitive research, where they explore changes in your industry and what your competitors are doing.
An outside branding expert can often spot problems much quicker and more effectively than someone closer to the brand. They can also help you speed along the discovery process. What could take you months, even years, to develop, a branding expert can create in a few weeks.
Boost Your Brand Consistency with a Brand Guide
At the end of your explorations, you should have enough information to develop a comprehensive Brand Guide. Your guide should include all the essentials, such as:
- Your organizational goals, vision and values
- The characters of your brand essence
- Your brand identity design and visuals
- Brand voice, style and messaging
- Taglines, straplines and brand naming
At the end of our OG Brand Workshops, you will be presented with a professional guidebook, so the work is done for you. But if you’re performing your own discovery, makes sure you write it all down, so that you can refer to your notes regularly to ensure brand consistency and clarity.
Want to see what our Brand Discovery Workshops can do for you? Visit our portfolio to see some of the results, then contact us for a free initial consultation.
Note: We extend our sympathies to all those affected by the Covid-19 crisis and the many small businesses struggling during this time. If your business is in crisis, or you’re ensure how to market your brand, product or services during this time, we can help you convert to online sales, build an ecommerce site or develop strategies on how to keep customers and clients engaged, informed and loyal to your business, even if your storefront is temporarily closed. We’re here to help. Contact us for more info.
