Branding… Do you know who you are? That is the biggest question branding needs.
In today’s society it is the most important thing to be seen if you want to succeed and earn money out of your product or service because there are way too many alternatives. For you to know how to stand out, you need to know how you need to brand yourself and then market it according to your core values and product/service direction.
I will not bore you with all the jargon regarding branding and will try to keep it as simple as possible. Hopefully with a daily explanation. I mean I will obviously give you some in-depth posts about different parts of it but I will make this as understandable as possible. I will also try to explain what those jargons mean.
Let’s start from the beginning.
When people use some fancy business words or phrases it can be confusing most of the times. Especially if you are new to the terms. I think branding is one of those words. The word contains many aspects and everyone can talk one branch of it for hours and hours. Nothing bad about it but sometimes we want to have just the shortcut explanation of things and here you have it.
Branding is how you show YOU (or your service/product) to the world and how everyone is perceiving it.
Now that is a very broad explanation of it. Everyone can show themselves on Instagram or Facebook (which most of us do) but the important thing is to do it DIFFERENT.
Why do you follow someone on Instagram? Why do you feel in a way when you see or read something? What makes you enjoy reading that writers book? Why do you listen to Beyonce? Because they do what they do in a different and unique way.
Seth Godin says it very clearly, “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
Maybe we should first get into WHY branding is important.
By branding, you will show your DIFFERENCE. You can be the strawberry in a bucket of blueberries. The strawberry will definitely pop-up (even if both are delicious) and show its presence.
But there are some other captivating factors that branding gives us. And they are needed!
- Branding improves your recognition. Think of Facebook. When you see a blue and a single f on it. You know in a millisecond that it is facebook logo. Strong branding ha?
- Branding builds trust. Trust is everything in business, it will take you to unimaginable places if your audience trusts you. Trust will be made either with a professional look or with heartfelt content where bonding happens.
- Branding inspires. Whether it is your workers or your audience, what you put out in the world will be inspired when you have a cohesive brand. This will bring you success if you play it smart 🙂
- Branding improves your financial value. Obviously when you are trusted your audience will believe in your future and are ready to invest in you. They know what to expect from you.
- Branding will start a culture/community that you will build. There will be a group of people who would take your brand and make it a part of their life. It will involve them in some sort of community.
Personal Branding is today’s reality on every level
Most of us think branding is only used on a company or product. But personal branding is huge. Celebrities, artist, sportsmen or other people classified as “famous” are usually being coached by a professional so that they do not ruin their career by some stupid mistake.
I am a huge believer that everyone should at least think about branding themselves. It is very important especially in business either you are the boss or employee. It is important to be known for a feature that will add value to you. Will it be your golden ticket to a promotion or maybe a better raise? Are you trustworthy to be let into the company secret? Are you a leader so that you can be a manager?
You don’t need to be faking it when branding. Just think of a good thing about your character and polish it in your job or wherever you need it to be shown.
The people around us do brand us anyway. Think about it! You probably are the funny one, clever one, trusted one etc. You can be all of them! Just need to focus on one depending on your environment 🙂
Personal branding should be taught as soon as possible to students
I wished I knew about branding when I was younger! It should be included in highschools/gymnasium as a class so that the younger generation can make wiser choices for their futures. That they know their way of acting is important for their personal branding and will affect it BIG TIME.
Once a teacher of mine told me this in a class. “You can be many persons even though you are the same person. Because you will not treat one person the same as you do with the other. You would be described slightly different by your parents, siblings, partner, close friends or by your colleagues if they were asked. But all those descriptions as funny, serious or trustworthy is still you!”
This is what I mean when you don’t need to fake to be someone you are not. Just polish the angle you want to be seen as.
I have always been seen as the smartest kid in the whole family by relatives, but alsı the boring one. I guess I was too serious, I don’t know 🙂 But my friends find me very funny 🙂
Branding has three legs that it rests on.
To make it short your voice + vision + appearance = YOUR BRAND
Your uniqueness is one thing (the most important part) but you need to fill it with some other things as well to make it stand out. It doesn’t help that you are good at doing something. How will you show it? How will you sell it? Who will buy it? How will you evolve it?
Your appearance is what your interactor will give a decision on to follow you or not. And trust me that only takes seconds.
Princeton researchers made five experiment on university students and gave them 100 milliseconds to rate the attractiveness, competence, likeability, aggressiveness, and trustworthiness of actors’ faces. According to the article, the given 100 milliseconds to rate was sufficient for participants to form an impression.
By this study, you see how important your/our appearance (their first impression of you) is. It is a study to rate other people by their outer appearance but this is still relevant to our online business. The same amount of time is enough for them to make up their mind if they want to buy, follow or ditch you. So this is not only about how YOU look but also how your product, service and how you carry it is being rated.
If we get back to the technical part, your brand(s) will visually be perceived by your;
- LOGO
- COLOR PALETTE
- FONT/TYPOGRAPHY PALETTE
- IMAGES
- SOCIAL MEDIA
It is important to marry all these small details. Think of it as a painting and you are the painter. When you have to look at the big picture, do you think is a masterpiece? It doesn’t need to be perfect to be a masterpiece!
Is it the way you want it to be? Is it in the right direction that you want to take?
Do you have neon colored birds flying in you forest (which might be a good way to highlight stuff that needs to be seen)? Or is it a complete painting regarding theme and colors?
What makes you unique is your voice.
This is your HOW, how you do things. That thing you do that makes you unique. It doesn’t need to be something no one else is doing, it just needs to be done uniquely.
Even if you have an identical twin you guys are probably doing things differently. The way you do it differently shows the difference between you, on who is who. Branding is exactly the same thing.
There are sooooo many people that are doing the same exact thing as you do but why are you being talked about or read? Do you give a better explanation? Is it more understandable? Has it easier access? Do you offer more choices?
Your vision is very important for you and your followers. Where will you take your fans/readers/customers at?
This is your WHY, why you do things. It is the way you portrait things through your pair of glasses. Why should people read/buy/trust your stuff?
Vision is first and foremost important for you. Where are you heading? Where do you want to go with your brand? How do plan to be there (eventually, cuz you will!)? What will happen when you reach there?
You need have the vision to be able to chase your dreams and have a destination to head at, so that you know which steps that need to be taken for it.
How will you be able to share your vision? Your dreams? Do you use pictures to SHOW them your vision? How do you tell them? Do you integrate a voice recording to your media outlet so that they FEEL it?
Your brand needs to show YOUR VISION, which is a visualizing to others; what they see/think/dream is what they comprehend of your vision.
Maybe the most important question on this subject is; Are you sharing their dreams and destination with them?
Ok! Let’s get this thing wrapped!
Branding you or your job is very easy when you have answered these questions. But the hard part is to answer them! Let see how easy I can help you with it.
There is three question you need to answer which will be the core of your brand and will be your guideline that you can have a look when needed.
WHY; Why do you do this? What part of this is important to do for you? What do you aim by doing it? Have you a goal that you want to meet?
WHAT; What do you do? Is it giving consistent and quality outcomes? What part of it is attracting?
HOW; How do you do what you do? Is it different from the rest? How do you make it attracting?
Making things YOUR WAY is setting you apart, that’s for sure! But I want you to think HOW it sets you apart. And if you know the WHY then you have a solid plan and brand!
That thing that sets you apart from the rest (you can ask friends or family for direction to help you with it) will be a point for you to polish and later on use it for your marketing.
I hope that I have been able to cover most basic but important things with you.
Hope to hear from you down below! What is it that makes you stand out? Have you figures out your 3 cornerstones for your brand? Comment down below!
See you next time!
Don’t forget to pin!
