Amy Will - Launching & Building a Brand For Dummies

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When you have an intimate understanding of “who” your brand is — its mission, vision, values, and personality — you’re ready to formalize it in the form of a brand identity statement. In this section, I lead you through the process.

Clarifying your brand’s identity in your own mind and the minds of your team members is important, because brand identity drives the look and feel of the brand and ensures that everything you do to project its identity is consistent. If you don’t have a clear idea of what your brand’s identity is, your brand assets and messaging will be inconsistent, reducing their impact and causing confusion in your target market.

When writing your brand identity statement, make sure that it includes the following essential elements:

Your brand’s name or tentative name: Discussed in the later section “ Naming Your Brand”

Your brand’s point of differentiation: What your brand offers that’s better than the alternatives

Your target market: The people you most want to be enthusiastic about your brand

Your brand’s mission or vision: Its purpose

Your brand’s values: The one or two at the top of your list

Your brand’s personality: Traits that you express in words or in the tone of your brand identity statement

Your brand’s identity is its essence — its lifeblood. This identity is communicated through the brand’s name, logo, tagline, content marketing, advertising, signage, and public engagement.

Your brand identity statement guides everything you do to develop the brand identity you want to project. This statement must cover all the essentials listed in the previous section clearly and succinctly. Here’s a template for structuring your brand identity statement, but don’t feel locked into it:

[Brand name] offers [point of differentiation] to [target market]. We are committed to [mission] through [values] with our [brand personality].

Here’s an example:

Athletipro offers a quick and easy online shopping experience and speedy delivery of equipment and supplies to amateur and professional athletes and everyone in between. We’re committed to empowering each customer to achieve optimal health, fitness, and performance through research and innovation with our unequaled passion and drive.

Before you invest time and effort developing a brand consistent with your brand identity statement, put it to the test. Seek feedback from others within your organization and from people outside your organization, preferably from existing or prospective customers in your target market. But you can consult friends and family members if the other options aren’t available.

As you gather feedback, use it to answer the following questions:

Does your brand identity statement resonate with people and appeal to what matters most to them? If not, find out what would appeal to them.

Is the promise (mission) conveyed in your brand identity statement realistic, and can your brand deliver it consistently? If you’re talking to existing customers, ask them whether they think your brand is living up to its promise.

What’s the brand’s perceived personality, and how does it compare with how you want your brand to be perceived?

What do you think you need to do to bring people’s perception of your brand more in line with the brand identity you envision?

Now more than ever, you need to catch the attention of prospective customers quickly and hold it for more than a few seconds. People are constantly being inundated with advertisements and offers, so your brand name needs to stand out. Choosing a brand name is one of the most important branding decisions you’ll ever make.

Maybe you have a brand name in mind; maybe you don’t. Either way, work through the brand-naming process described in this section. If you don’t have a name in mind, this process will stimulate your creativity. If you already have a name in mind, this process will put it to the test and perhaps even lead you to a much better name.

The process of naming your brand can influence your decisions about brand positioning and identity; it can elevate your concept of the brand and its mission and values. Outdoor Voices, an athleisure brand, was inspired by adults encouraging children to use their “inside voices.” Outdoor Voices encourages the opposite. Its mission is “to get the world moving” with active wear for both indoor and outdoor recreation. The brand targets teens and adults who want to step outside their comfort zones.

Before you start thinking about naming your brand, be aware of the following characteristics of a good brand name:

Positions your brand advantageously

Clearly communicates your brand’s identity

Reflects your brand’s promise or offerings

Is easy to say and spell

Is unique — available to trademark and available as a domain name (for use as a website address and part of your email address)

Is memorable and concise

Accommodates future expansion

Is consistent with your chosen brand architecture — a branded house or a house of brands (see Chapter 1)

Here are a few examples of descriptive brand names to use as inspiration:

AutoZone vehicle parts and supplies

Energizer batteries

Drano drain opener

Mr. Clean household cleaner

Ziploc storage bags

Windex glass cleaner

Dairy Queen ice cream

A descriptive brand name can certainly help, but it’s not essential. Plenty of successful brands have nondescriptive names, such as Google, Target, and Louis Vuitton.

Brainstorming is a creative activity in which you suspend critical thinking and give your right brain free rein. It’s generally a group activity involving several team members gathered in a conference room with a whiteboard and markers, calling out and jotting down ideas that pop into their heads.

I encourage you to take the same approach, alone or with others, to come up with a long list of possible brand names. Suspend your critical mind, and jot down any brand names that pop into your head or the heads of other participants. There should be no criticizing, ignoring, scoffing at, or crossing off any ideas.

Encourage everyone to participate, consider alternative perspectives (such as the target customer’s), and explain their thinking. Sometimes, digging into the thought process behind a suggested brand name can spark additional ideas.

When you have a long list of brand-name candidates, narrow it down to three to five names. At this point, you switch from right-brain (creative) mode to left-brain (critical) mode.

You can start by crossing obviously lousy names off the list, but as you cut more names, competition for the top spot stiffens. Evaluate the remaining names based on the criteria presented in the earlier section “ Following brand naming parameters.”