A brand identity is a unified system that helps communicate your brand. It is the tangible aspect of your brand that a customer can interact with. As your audience comes in contact with your brand identity they will start to be conditioned to the look and feel of it, making them familiar and aware of who you are.

Design in Brand Identity

Design plays a huge role in developing a brand’s identity.

Every aspect of a brand identity should be carefully planned out and designed. Your design should strive to communicate your brand’s message in a cohesive way.

What Are Some Things That Make Up A Brand Identity?   

A brand identity is composed of many different elements. Some brands have and implement all these, and some grow and later adapt or bring in the rest of these elements.

1. Logo and logo variations
2. Color palette
3. Tone of Voice
4. Typography
5. Imagery and photography
6. Patterns and textures
7. Sound

All these elements are used when creating marketing materials and content for a brand. It’s important to keep everything cohesive so your audience can easily identify you. A way to assure that this happens is by having and implementing branding guidelines.

Branding Guidelines

Branding guidelines are used to help keep a cohesive look and feel. These guidelines are standards or rules that explain your branding and communicate your overall brand. Having rules for your brand helps guide those working with it in the creative process, to assure that the most important aspects of the brand are being communicated.

What are some things that Brand Guidelines Include?

Some brand guidelines go very in depth and others just cover the basics. All guidelines should focus on communicating a brand’s core essence in order to guide the creative process. Examples of things that you will find in a brand’s guidelines are:

1. Brand history.
2. Vision and mission.
3. A brand’s key values.
4. The brand’s message.
5. Logo usage.
6. The tone of voice.
7. Typography.
8. Image and photography styles.
9. Other creative elements used to communicate the brand.

Having these guides when creating marketing material or content, helps everything look and feel the same across various platforms. Even as technology and trends in society evolve, having these set standards allows for a brand to adapt, and still be recognizable.

Overview

Brand identity is how a brand looks, sounds, and feels. It is the thing that your audience and customers will interact with. Assuring that your brand identity is consistent is extremely important, so you can build that recognition. The more your audience is exposed to your brand, the more they can become familiar with you.  

Today we’ll cover the basics of what you can do in order to start branding your business.

Understanding and Identifying

Before you start the process of branding your business you need to understand and identify some things.

1. Your audience or target customer.
2. Your market or niche.
3. Your competition.
4. Your goals, mission, and vision for the future.

Understanding this information is crucial to the branding process, it’s the foundation that will guide all your decisions. Take your time when identifying this information because it will serve as the blueprint to everything you create.

Brand Message and Mission

The way that I like to think of brand message is, as your overall mission explained in the simplest way. Keep in mind a brand message is not your tagline or slogan, but it will help guide you when you are creating one.

Coming Up With Your Brand Message

Think about what your company physically does and then think about why you do it, and how it brings others value. Take that information and refine it until you can communicate it in as few words as possible that anyone could understand.

Let’s use the brand Nike for example.

Nike physically creates products and goods for athletes. The value they bring goes beyond their products because they are motivating and giving athletes the tools to become better. Nike wants to empower and help athletes all over. Nike’s brand message is “ To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world,” and you can see this theme throughout everything they create.

Your brand message is the core of your existence, having one will guide all your actions when transforming your business into a brand.

Your Brand Name

If you’re coming up with a name or changing your current name it’s important to understand why. If you already have a name and don’t plan on changing it, it’s important to evaluate and question it as well. Like everything else, when branding your business, you need to really question whether what you’re using or about to use is the right tool to get the job done.

Coming Up With A Name

Think about what you stand for and who your target audience is. Are there any words or phrases that describe you or can resonate with your customers? If so write it down and keep asking yourself the same question over and over. Eventually, you’ll have a list full of different ideas you can use. You can start combining words to make up your own or spell it in ways that will be memorable.  The goal here is to try to come up with something that is simple, easy to pronounce, and timeless.

Try to steer away from any slang words because it ties your brand into a certain era of time, which will age your brand along with the customers who use it. Also, remember to ask yourself what connotations or associations might your name have when out on the market.

Although the right name is important, don’t let it keep you from moving forward. Put thought and strategy into it, but never let it hinder your progress.

Your Logo

Your logo is the face of your brand, it will be used anywhere and everywhere and will be the thing that people will associate most when they think about your brand. If you can afford to hire a designer to create one for you, I would recommend doing so. If you can’t make sure you really think about the design decisions you are making.

Whether you have a designer create a logo for you or if you’re creating one yourself, it’s important to know what to look for in a successful logo.

There are 5 things you should be asking yourself when faced with a decision on your logo.

1. Is it simple in form?
2. Is it memorable? Can it be easily identified?
3. Is it timeless?
4. Is it versatile? Can you use the logo in various context and not look out of place?
5. Is it appropriate for the for the intended audience?

It’s super important to keep in mind that the decision on of your logo doesn’t come down to personal preference. Your logo serves a purpose and should be designed for function.

Your Tagline or Slogan

Your tagline or slogan is a phrase that communicates what your brand stands for and delivers. The goal when coming up with an effective tagline is to create something that has meaning, is simple, and memorable.

Use your brand message as a guide when coming up with ideas. Think about your audience and how they would react to your tagline. Share your idea with others and see if they can understand what you are trying to communicate. Continue to refine it until you have something that your brand can use in any situation.

Branding Your Business

Now that you have the basics of branding your business, start to implement these techniques and ideas. To build a brand you have to think bigger than just a business, use the blueprint you outlined when making decisions. Your brand will grow and evolve but that is only part of the journey. Remember that building a brand takes time, and we have to continue working on building it with patience.

Answer Who You Are

Having a brand helps answer who you are, why you matter, and why anyone should care. When you answer these things it will be easier for your customers to choose you, it allows you to communicate the essential qualities of your product or service, and it explains why you exist. It will give you the power to control the narrative when talking about your business even if you’re not in the room.

Brand Touchpoints

As a business, you engage with your customers in many different ways. Everything from your website, advertising, emails, products, videos, etc. All the different ways that you could be engaging with your customers are considered touchpoints. Each touchpoint gives you an opportunity to build a relationship and increase your awareness. When you have a brand you are communicating the same emotional experience across every touch point. Having a consistent experience will let your customer know they can always count on your business to be the same in every encounter. Through strategic design, you will develop this experience, and start to gain loyalty and perceived value.   

Emotion

We know that customers make choices based on how they feel, so don’t leave that up to chance. Start working on your brand so you can navigate how the world sees you. 

Get more tips on how to grow your brand.

Your brand message communicates your vision and mission and allows you to control the story of your brand. Let’s talk about how you can come up with a brand message that’s perfect for you and your organization.

Coming up with the right brand message

Like anything else in branding, coming up with the right brand message requires some piecing together. A brand message takes into account a number of different variables including your audience, yourself, your competition, and what goals you have for the future of your company. It is extremely important that if you don’t know any of these, that you stop reading this right now and do some soul-searching. Have the answer to who your audience is, who you are, who and what your competition is, and what are you trying to achieve. Our goal when coming up with a brand message is to delicately find communicate a message that will cover all of these topics.

Your Customer

Your target market who are they? What matters to them? What values do they have? Understanding your target market is essential when coming up with a brand message. (Check out this article on how to research your target market if you would like some tips on how you can find the answers to these questions.) It is important that you keep in mind that you are building a brand that brings value to other people. Identify what that is and write it down.

Yourself

Your brand should be extremely customer-centric, but you also have to have your own voice. Your brand has to stand firm for something, whether its a certain idea, value, or goal that is something that will drive your brand in everything you do. This something will be what sets you apart, it will be the thing that will connect your customers and your brand. Understand what this mission is and write it down.

Your Competition

Study your competitors, not to copy them, but to see how you can position yourself in the market. Find out where they stand and what their values and goals are. Knowing this information will give you an idea of how you can be different and stand out. Read about their mission and what drives them, and then see if it aligns with their actions. Understanding this will show you how you can do a better job when you communicate your message.

Your Future

Take a look at your brand and what you want it to be. Stare into the future of your brand, what is it doing? How is it bringing value to your customers? What other markets have you entered? Yes your brand will evolve and nothing will be exactly as you see it, but if you have an idea it is easier to reverse engineer how to get there. Know what you want to do, because your brand message will remain the same and still be relevant no matter what you look like in the future. Knowing that your brand message fits your brand now, and later when it is a lot more influential and successful, is a sign a strong brand message.

Putting It All Together

You have your brand message right in front of you, you just have to do piece the puzzle together. All the different things that you wrote down are the ingredients to craft your brand message. Where do all these things line up? How does all this come together? What is there in common? Those are the questions you should be answering, and once you do you will have an IDEA of what your brand message is.

Refining Your Idea

Now that you have an idea, it is time to simplify it. The goal of an effective brand message is to keep it as simple as possible. What is the simplest way to communicate your brand message? If I was explaining my message to a child would they understand it? You want to keep refining your message ideally until you can communicate in as few words as possible.

Once you have your brand message assess how it fits in with your current products and services. How does your story align with what you currently offer? This message is the narrative that should carry throughout every product and service you put out on the market. The brand message you develop will guide future products, ideas, services, ads, designs, you name it. Make sure you’re different enough to stand out, but not so different that customers will see your brand as a risk. Our goal is to create a message that is right in the middle, and from there you can continue to be innovative and push the boundaries.

Spread Your Message

People make decisions based on their feelings. The right brand message will pull at those emotional strings. The right brand message gives them a narrative they can relate to, it allows them to become part of your “movement”. Your brand message will inform and guide the future of your brand. Having a brand message will build relationships with your audience, build your reputation, build trust and loyalty, and give your brand a why, to its existence. Take the time to carefully think about what your brand message will be and share it with the world.    

Knowing Where To Look

The word research seems so daunting like you have to invest a huge amount of time, money, and energy to be successful. Although there are definitely different tiers on how to conduct research, knowing the right places to look for information will actually save you a tremendous amount of time, money and energy.  

Look at your Competitors

Every industry has an industry giant, someone that has the means and resources to hire a research team to go out survey, test, and challenge the current market. Why not leverage their effort? Carefully study how they interact with their customers, look for all the different ways they communicate or reach them. Take a look at what services or products they are offering and ask yourself why? Try to really understand their reasoning on the decisions they are making. The great thing about today is that thanks to social media everything is transparent. That means you can see in real time what your target market is saying about your competitor’s products or services. They may be out on the market quicker, but use that to your advantage.

Look At Other Popular Products or Services

So similarly to looking at your direct competitors, take a look at other products or services your target market is using. Ask yourself is there a need in my market that requires them to also buy these products or services? Is there any way I can implement this to fit with my brand, so my customers can see me as someone that can fulfill all their needs? I would also pay close attention to how they communicate and reach the market as well. Once I gather “data” on what they do and also what my competitors are doing, I look for patterns that they both have in common. Those patterns show me that my target market positively reacts to those variables.

Use Social Media

As I mentioned social media is very transparent, and almost everyone has some sort of social media. Check out your customers’ individual social media pages. Pay attention to what they talk about, what’s important to them, if they have any difficulties etc. Look at their lives to try to get a better understanding of them, and pay close attention to what they have in common.

Examine how your target market interacts with you

It’s easy to get caught up just doing once your business starts running, and it’s important to take a step back and examine everything. Your audience interacts with your brand in one way or another try listening to what they are saying.

How Does your Target Market Interact With You?

Take a look at different ways in which your target market interacts with you. Listen to their feedback, what are they saying? What kind of reviews are they leaving? What are they saying about your products or service? What kind of post are the most liked on your social media? Pay close attention to every detail and ask yourself why?

What Do Your Customers Think of You?

The whole point of conducting research on your target market is to see in what ways we can improve our business and build a brand. Sometimes the easiest way to get this information is to just ask. We can do this in a number of ways, by calling customers directly and asking for their feedback, sending out a survey, or using social media to get their opinion. Building a relationship is the best way to build a brand and leave a lasting impact.

Allow Room For Growth

Growth is what we should all be striving for, finding different ways on how to improve is what keeps businesses innovative and relevant. With that being said it is important to keep in mind that you’ll never understand everything about your target market. Your customers will continue to evolve along with the rest of society, especially now in the modern age of the internet. Trends will come and go, and ideas will rise and fall faster than ever before. Trying to constantly be on top of everything is not gonna be possible, so fully understanding your target market won’t be possible either. Keep your mind open about opportunities you uncover while you study your target market. Look for different ways that you can serve and bring value to your customers. Embrace new ideas if they align with your brand, and evolve along with your audience.

In Conclusion

The more you can learn about your target market the more clear it will be on how you can deliver your message and serve your customers. There are plenty of ways that allow us to research and find information, without having to have a research team. The world will continue to change, but that shouldn’t keep us from trying to understand those we serve. Be open to evolve and embrace ideas and technology to allow you to continue to bring value to the market because your relationship between you and your customers is what will grow your brand and make you memorable.

If you have any questions please let us know by contacting us.

Define the character

YOUR BRAND IS NOT THE MAIN CHARACTER! Keep that in mind when crafting a story for your brand. The protagonist in your story is your audience or customer, make sure you position them as the hero of the story.

Do some research on who exactly your target audience is. Find out the ins and outs of their lives, what do they struggle with, what are their goals, what are their likes and dislikes. Find out as much as possible, because your entire story will be based around them.

Define Their Problem

Your character has a problem or conflict, what is it? Maybe they are struggling to get in shape, or maybe they are a small business owner who doesn’t know how to scale their company. Whatever the case may be pinpoint the problem, and write it down.

Become Their Guide

That problem or conflict your hero has, who will help them solve it? You will. This is the part of the story where your brand makes an appearance, as the guide. Your brand takes the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and your job is to present the hero with insight, and a plan on how they will overcome their conflict.  

Present A Plan

Now that you have been identified as the guide, you have to present the plan for success. Identify their problem, let them know you understand exactly how they feel. Introduce the plan and walk them through how it can be implemented.

Show Them What Success Looks Like

Show them what happens once they take action. Allow them to see what success looks like by purchasing your product or service.

Give A Call To Action

Now that you presented your plan, let them know how they can use your plan to solve their problem and give them a call to action. “Contact Us”, “Subscribe”, “Sign-up”, “Buy Now”, whatever it may be let them know how they can take the next step of the journey.

The End.

This strategy sounds a lot like the plot to a Hollywood movie right? Well, that’s because a lot of movies follow this method since it works so great. You’ve seen this story so many times except in different forms and with different characters, it’s time you applied this to your brand strategy and start telling your own brand story.

YOUR BRAND STORY

A well thought out brand story can be applied anywhere from your social media, pictures, website, videos, ads, and everything in between. Having a brand story to tell will make your brand more relatable, it will create customers that will believe in you and your brand. You will improve connection and engagement, so plan your content around this strategy and you will see how your brand will start growing and attracting the right people. 

If you have any questions or would like us to work with you to tell your brand story, Contact us.

Considering creating video content for your business? Did you know that Youtube is the second biggest search engine? Or that more than 500 million hours of video are being watched on Youtube a day. I’m sure you have heard stories of businesses that have scaled tremendously from creating video content. Well, a big reason for that is because video content is so engaging. Data shows that one-third of online activity is spent watching videos. With statistics like that it’s hard to say that video content is not a way to market your business.

The truth is that in today’s modern age there is an audience for just about anything. Sure it can seem scary to get up and put yourself out there in front of the world, but we’re entrepreneurs we like to take risks. In this post, I will talk about the basics of how you can start creating videos for your business. I’ll cover things like:

1. What kind of videos you can create for your business.
2. How to plan your videos.
3. Things to think about while filming.
4. The editing stage.
5. Where and how to get your videos out there for the world to see.

You understand the impact of creating video content for your business, but what do you talk about? What are some ideas to get you started on creating video content for your business? Well, there are three different types of videos that work really great with businesses.

1. Video content that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry.
2. Video content that establishes social proof in your products or services.
3. Video content explaining your products and/or services.

Let’s dive a little deeper into each area.

Being a thought leader in your industry

What’s great about this specific type of video content is that it allows for your audience to really trust you, and it also gives your company a face they can relate with. There are a couple of different ways to create videos that fit within this category.

1. Doing a question and answer session with your audience about different questions in your industry.
2. Talking about trends or events that are currently happening in your industry.
3. Informing your audience about things within your industry and your thoughts and experiences with those subjects.

Establishing Social Proof

This is a way that you can show the world how amazing your business is. What’s great about this type of video is that other people will do the talking for you.

1. Compile as bunch video testimonials, talking about how your products or services have brought value or made someone’s life easier.
2. Create a video of your employees talking about why they love working in your business, the company culture, why they love representing your brand, and the morals and values by which you lead your business.

Explanation of your products and services

When you create this type of video content, you get to guide your audience on how your products or services bring them value. You also get a chance to demonstrate how your products or services work.

1. Create a tutorial, and demonstrate how your product or service can solve someone’s problem.
2. Create a walkthrough of the process of what it is like working with your business, or the experience of using your product.

Now that you understand what types of video content you could create for your business, let’s take a look at the steps you can take to create your videos.

Plan out your ideas

In order to be efficient, it is important to plan everything out. Start off by deciding what type of video you’ll be creating. If you are going to be talking about a specific topic make sure you plan what you are going to say. If you are going to be answering questions, make sure you have those questions ready. It is crucial to be prepared because this is the part of the video that your viewers come and see. No one will stick around to watch a video that confuses them when they have questions. Make sure you are knowledgeable about what you’re talking about.

Think about how you can hook your viewer. There is so much competition for your viewers’ attention. If you can’t hook them within the first couple of seconds they will click away from your video. Some ways in which you can hook your viewer is:

1. By asking an engaging question.
2. Stating an interesting fact.

Make sure that when you apply either of these two that it somehow ties in with the topic of your video.

Plan out how you can make your video different. You can find a video about almost anything nowadays, how will you stand out. When you stand out you will be memorable, whether that is from the music you choose, the location you choose to film, or even the clothes you choose to wear.

The planning stage of the process is probably the most important because it guides everything else. Really focusing on this aspect will set your video up for success.

Filming your video

Once you have everything planned out it is time to start filming. Some things to keep in mind when filming are:

1. Use an HD camera. Today’s smartphones have phenomenal quality, and if you don’t have the budget for a good camera, a smartphone is a great alternative.
2. Keep your background in mind. Make sure that there is nothing that can distract your viewer.
3. Lighting. Make sure you are in a well-lit location. Natural lighting (by a window) is always the best if you can’t afford any fancy lighting setups. If you do invest in a lighting setup make sure you don’t create any harsh shadows.
4. Audio. If your audience can’t hear what you’re saying they won’t receive your message. If possible invest in an external microphone for your camera. Always try to get the best audio you can.
5. Look presentable. You don’t have to pull out your Sunday best, but keep in mind that you are representing yourself and your business.

Editing

Now you have the meat and potatoes of your video, but it doesn’t end there. Taking that extra step to edit and compile your footage really will make your video stick out. There are so many free and paid applications you can use to edit your videos. Here at Mendo Creative we personally use Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects, but you can always start out by using the free software on your computer. The best part about editing is that no matter what level you are or what software you are using there are hundreds of video tutorials out there. Invest some time in learning your software.

Some simple editing techniques to make your video stand out are:

1. Cutting out any unnecessary footage.
2. Adding some background music.
3. Color-grading your footage.

Sharing your video

Youtube is the most popular platform to share your video, but it is not the only one. Video can be shared through Facebook, Vimeo, and now even IG tv. There are a couple of things to keep in mind before you upload your video.

1. The title of your video- Make sure you give your video a title that talks about what your video is about. The right title will also help people come across your video. Remember to not use any click-bait titles or anything that will confuse your viewer.
2. The description- In the description explain what your video is all about, this is also a good place to link to your site or other social media pages.
3. The meta tags or hashtags- These tags help in searching for your video, there are some SEO strategies that can be applied here in connection to keywords, but when starting out use tags describing what your video is about or topics you are covering in your video.

In conclusion, it is important to remember that results come but not overnight. If you are consistently posting and following these steps you should see some return on your time within 6-9 months. This is a marathon and not a sprint. Even when it seems like no one is watching stick with it because it just takes that one right person to come across your message or video and everything could change.

If you are new to video marketing here at Mendo Creative we can help you on any part of the process. Contact us if you would like us to work on any part of your videos.