Written by Andrew Holliday | April 27, 2017

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Your brand is not your logo.

Your brand is not what you say it is.

Your brand is what your customers say it is.

Branding is the art of shaping perception. 

This sounds simple enough, but it’s not. Crafting the perception you desire takes research, strategy and precision execution across every form of communication and every customer interaction. Successful branding starts with building a specific ideal customer persona, progresses to a communication strategy around your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that will act as a company bible, and finishes with consistent execution across:

  • Logo
  • Positioning Statement
  • Website
  • Store/Restaurant Environment
  • Social Media
  • Advertising & Marketing
  • Employee Communication
  • Customer Service

Every point of customer interaction must be aligned to create the desired perception. Consistent execution of the same message and/or experience builds recognition, and from recognition grows perception.

Action Steps:

  1. Build your ideal customer persona. At the end of this you should have a specific person you’re talking to, not a demographic profile. What do they watch? What do they read? What do they eat? What do they drink? Where do they shop? How old are they? What do they do for fun? Do they have a family? What kind of house/apartment do they live in? What’s their name (literally give them a name so you’ve created a person to talk to)?
  2. Define your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). What do you do better than anyone else? What is the one thing you want me to remember about your business? Why should I choose you over the competition? Your USP should be unique. Avoid generic BS that everyone says. Tap into what truly makes you different. If you don’t have anything truly unique about your business, you need to spend some serious time working on your product and/or service to develop a differentiator before taking a step forward. A few examples:
    • Zappos = Customer Service Above All Else
    • Apple = Design Driven (Products, Stores, Packaging)
    • Toms = Giving Back (One for One)
  3. Write your communication strategy. Once you’ve defined your USP you can translate it into a communication strategy that will act as the guide for everyone in your company as well as all of your vendors. This document will precisely spell out what your USP is and how it should be consistently conveyed across all forms of communication. Keep this document extremely simple. The key is for everyone in your company to be able to easily convey the same differentiating points using the same language without having to go back and read it from something.