Branding is something very important to every business, whether the business knows it or not. Many people have created step programs to build this or build that, but to me, building Brand You is more of a process of climbing ladders then walking up steps. 6 steps are easy to climb. However, six ladders take effort to reach the top.
Ladder 1 – “Only You”
As Brand You, you have to identify the human nature and personality of the brand. You have to discover what influences the brand and how these influences might impact the image of brand you. A great way to start climbing this ladder is to create brain storming sessions with current customers and potential customers that can assist you in discovering the human nature of your brand.
Ladder 2 – “Family Values”
What does your brand stand for? What values are behind you and your brand? Spend some time discovering what your brand values are and how those values affect your everyday clients. A great way to review your values is to spend time reviewing why you started your company and what tools or products did your early customers prosper from. Ask your early clients if they have any stories about what made them your clients and also make sure to ask them why they are still your clients.
Ladder 3 – “Get all Emotional”
Identify the emotional strings of brand you. Spend a lot of time, even after you have created Brand you, surveying your former customers to see why they left and what they needed from you to stay. Remember your former customers believed in you enough to buy your product in the first place, see what made them stop believing.
Ladder 4 – “Hungry to the Core”
After you have reviewed and discovered more about your company, it’s time to create the values Brand You is going to stand on. Address the strengths of your brand and then determine from any weak points what will make you stronger. Base your core values on those two points, always maintaining your strengths but continually growing your weaknesses into new strengths.
Ladder 5 – “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”
Now that you have established core values based on your strengths and your weaknesses, it’s time to review a piece of the 70’s that everyone wanted you to start creating, your mission statement. I am sure your mission statement is somewhere between 3 to 4 paragraphs. Now take that mission statement and throw it away. That’s right, throw it away. Now that you have freaked out and are staring at your mission statement sitting in your trash can, I want you to create a short, no more then a sentence, purpose statement. This statement needs to simply establish with your clients and future clients what your brand stands for.
Ladder 6 – “The awkward Teenage Years”
The awkward teenage years are full of development. The time it takes to develop your brands appearance and any artistic elements that will need your time and effort to create a stronger brand. The reason I call this the awkward teenage years is because with each and every day you are discovering more about your brand. This ladder really isn’t a ladder; it’s more of a combination of the previous five steps, reclimbed to create the identity of brand you.
Now that you have climbed your ladders what is the identity of brand you?
Most businesses today recognize the power of blogging and are using it to their advantage. Everyone from the bigger companies to much smaller businesses are taking advantage of the free advertising and wonderful increase to website traffic that can be gained from successful blogging. There are some mistakes that you should avoid if you are blogging for your business. Unfortunately, these mistakes have been learned the hard way, but you can learn to avoid these mistakes before they happen to you.
