Amy Will - Launching & Building a Brand For Dummies

One key factor in branding success is consistency. Every time someone encounters your brand, you have the opportunity to reinforce your brand identity in their mind. Think of your brand as being a catchy song that gets stuck in the listener’s head. A brand style guide is a rulebook that ensures consistency by governing everything that contributes to the look and feel of your brand, including the following:

Corporate guidelines, including mission statement, values, and targeted demographics

Colors

Typography (typeface, sizes, and spacing)

Logos

Imagery (photos, illustrations, and infographics)

Tone of voice (fun, professional, caring, and so on)

See Chapter 6for guidance on creating a brand style guide.

Because so many people spend so much of their time on the Internet these days, creating a strong online presence has become an important part of branding. To begin to build an online presence, do the following things:

Claim a unique domain that reflects your brand, such as GirlGangtheLabel.com.

Build a website, blog, online store, or a hybrid of those three things in that domain. This site acts as your main hub. Then you can drive traffic to your main hub from other Internet sites, such as social media platforms and discussion forums.

Use the domain in your email address (such as amy@girlgangthelabel.com ) to reinforce your brand in every outgoing email message.

(Optional) Create a branded app (or hire an app developer to do the work for you) that further reinforces your brand while making it easy for customers or clients to place orders and stay connected.

See Chapter 7for details.

One of the most powerful ways to promote your brand is to form mutually beneficial partnerships with other brands, sort of like hitching your wagon to a star. If your brand is built around retail, getting your products into popular retail chains is one approach. I was able to persuade Nordstrom to carry my Girl Gang the Label fashion line, which was mutually beneficial. The partnership generated sales and revenue for both parties, increased my brand’s profile, and helped Nordstrom position itself as a hip place to shop.

Always be on the lookout for potential partnerships. Even if you’re flying solo or have a small business outside the retail space, you can find partnership opportunities to extend your brand’s reach and boost brand awareness. See Chapter 9for details.

After building your brand, when you have all the pieces in place, you’re ready to launch it. This step involves scheduling the launch, preparing incentives to generate interest, getting press coverage, and making it easy for users to share your content with everyone they know. See Chapter 10for guidance on executing a successful launch campaign.

At this stage in the branding process, your goal is to get your campaign to go viral. To achieve that goal, you need to do a big push in both traditional and social media channels — wherever the people in your target market go for information.

Promoting your brand involves everything you do during and after your launch to extend your brand’s reach and strengthen brand awareness. It typically involves the following activities:

Content marketing — sharing content that subtly promotes your brand without explicitly doing so (see Chapter 8)

In-person experiences, such as events, pop-up stores, retail locations, and conferences (see Chapter 11)

Podcasting — sharing audio presentations and interviews (see Chapter 12)

Social media marketing (see Chapter 13)

Email marketing (see Chapter 14)

Advertising (see Chapter 15)

Branding is a lifelong journey — the life of the brand, that is. As long as the brand is in existence, you need to care for it and protect it, which involves the following activities:

Auditing and scaling your brand to increase its reach while expanding brand awareness

Building on customer loyalty and longevity to transform customers into brand advocates

Protecting your brand from competitors and anyone who may try to steal your intellectual property

Attention spans are short these days. If you’re not putting something fresh in front of your target customers at least a couple of times a week, they’re going to forget about you.

Chapter 2

IN THIS CHAPTER

Figuring out what you’re really branding

Narrowing your focus to increase your impact

Making your business/brand an official legal entity

Finding the financing to start and grow your business/brand

Branding assumes that you have something to brand — a business, a product, a service, or even yourself. You need something you can stick a label or hang a sign on. If you already have that something clear in your mind, you can safely skip this chapter. If your vision is still a little fuzzy around the edges, or if you could use some guidance on coming up with an idea or getting your idea off the ground, you’ve come to the right place.

In this chapter, I introduce you to the various entities you can brand, and I highlight some differences in the branding process for each type. I show you how to find or choose a niche that improves your chances of success. I explain how to register your business/brand and choose the right legal structure for it. Last but not least, I reveal a few ways to get other people to help finance what may be a risky venture.

You can create a brand for just about anything — products and services, businesses and corporations, performers and groups (think Cirque du Soleil), celebrities and influencers, government entities (including nations) and nongovernment organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, even places (I ♥ NY, for example). The four most commonly branded things are businesses, products, services, and individuals (personal branding).

Sometimes, the lines dividing these different brand types get a little blurry. When you are the business, for example, do you create a business brand or a personal brand? In this section, I introduce you to the four most common brand types so you can figure out what you’re branding and how that decision will affect your approach to branding.

Knowing what you’re branding is important because it gives you focus and guides you in deciding what to do to build your brand. The overall approach and specific activities differ, depending on whether you’re branding a business, a product, a service, or yourself.