Before you brand your company you need to clearly define your business! If you’ve been following along with our branding series posts you’ve done a lot of work up to this point.
So far you’ve filled out questions 1-4 on our branding questionnaire and now you can quickly define your company and what you offer in one sentence, you have a clear value proposition and you know your companies core values. Plus you have an understanding of your target market.
All of which are very important steps to getting to the core of your business so you can effectively brand your company. The very last step before you can start your logo and business collateral is to define your style.
WHAT THREE WORDS DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE?
What words come to mind when you think of your new brand? These three words will be the building blocks to your new branding. When re-designing my brand this was my favorite step because it brought so much clarity. Here’s some examples to get you thinking:
Classic, minimalist, feminine, masculine, rustic, vibrant, bold, chic, modern, whimsical, fancy, timeless, up-scale, etc.
COMBINING YOUR STYLE WITH YOUR TARGET MARKET
Now that you’ve picked three words to describe your style you’ll need to combine them with the 2-3 words you chose to describe your target market groups.(Not sure what I’m talking about?
See our post on 3 Tips to Define Your Target Market). Do your design styles and your target market groups styles match up? If so you have a clear direction for your branding that not only defines you but also your buyers, influencers and promoters as well.
Let’s use my business as an example:
For my business the three words I choose to describe my style were classic, rustic and feminine. The two words to describe my target market groups were timeless and classic.
Add them together and the three words to describe my brand identity = classic, timeless and feminine.
To help you get started choosing descriptive words download my descriptive words worksheet! Over the years I’ve kept a list of all the descriptive words I’ve come across. And I want to share it with you because I know it’s not an easy task.
To download my worksheet all you need to do is subscribe to my FREE resource library. My library contains a bunch of helpful worksheets, printables and guides.
IT’S TIME TO BRAND YOUR COMPANY!
This is the fun part. Now that you have a clear vision of your business its time to get inspired by design. Start by creating a Pinterest board and label it Identity Ideas.
Now find pictures that represent the three words that you finalized above. Don’t limit yourself to a certain amount of pictures. Revisit your pins occasionally to make sure you don’t stray from those three words.
After you’ve completed pining it’s time to work with a graphic designer. I’d love to work with you to bring your vision to life.
Related: 3 Tips to Define Your Target Market