5 questions to ask as you build your brand
WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?
Before you can decide how you want to position your company, you first need to establish who you want to appeal to in your messaging by developing a buyer profile. What type of business or individual will benefit from your product / service? How do they currently engage with your competitors’ offerings, and what insights or trends can you leverage to inform your brand?
WHAT ARE YOUR BRAND ATTRIBUTES?
How would you describe the brand’s personality? (tone, voice, mood, characteristics, values, etc.)
Establishing a creative brief without having established your brand attributes first is nothing more than a shot in the dark. You’ll waste valuable time, energy and money working through iterations of logos, graphics, messaging, and more. Decide how you would describe the brand’s personality. What’s your tone, mood, voice? What are your company values and characteristics? How do you want to be perceived by your target audience? Answering these questions will help lay the foundation in developing the overall look and feel of your brand, and provide your team with a roadmap from which to operate moving forward.
WHAT SETS YOU APART FROM YOUR COMPETITORS?
Figure out how your business or solution fits within the competitive landscape? No *brand* is an island. Sure, you have a “special sauce” that sets your product / service apart. Maybe you’re even a pioneer in your space, providing an entirely new solution to a problem – but regardless of how cutting-edge you are, there is always an alternative… even if it means the consumer is choosing an entirely different solution instead.
WHAT ARE THE SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM GOALS OF YOUR COMPANY?
In order to develop a brand that will support the company’s vision for the future, it’s important to identify your top short term and long term goals. These goals will help inform the KPIs (key performance indicators) for all future initiatives – marketing or otherwise. It will also help provide clarity around the company’s values and visions for success, which is an important component when laying the brand’s foundation.
WHAT ARE THE TEAM’S PERSONAL PREFERENCES?
Before you start selecting color palettes, iconography or font choices, it’s helpful to take stock of the team’s likes and dislikes. Are there any specific visuals the team prefers or would like to avoid altogether (fonts, colors, graphic elements, etc.)? This will help you redirect as needed before spending too much time on a brand that a key decision maker will veto due to personal preferences.
Not only is it useful to understand the team’s likes and dislikes, but you’ll also want to unpack the reasoning behind those decisions. If someone hates the color blue because they prefer warm tones, or doesn’t like a particular font because it uses all caps, then those opinions can help inform your choices moving forward.
By working through these 5 key questions at the onset of your brand development, you’ll be able to limit the number of iterations needed before the team is able to reach a consensus on the brand aesthetic.
