What You Need to Know to Grow Your Brand

Anyone who has an interest in building brands or rebranding, whether you are a Founder, CEO, a brand centric entrepreneur, small business owner, designer or are a lifelong student of the subject. This blog post is aimed at helping you learn how to grow your brand.

Here at Vivi Creative we are offering a 'Business Branding Bundle' which is free to download and offers you information and help for you to grow your brand. The bundle includes information, questionnaires, worksheets and help and advice for businesses who want to develop and grow their brand.

Firstly, I think it is important that you understand all the different aspects of your brand that we need to concentrate on.

What is a Brand?

Your brand is different to your branding. So let's first discuss the difference between the two.

There are many different ideas and definitions of what a brand is and what it actually means. Some people confuse it with what a company looks like. A few colours, fonts and a logo and you have a brand. It is a lot more complex than that, and there needs to be a great deal more thought behind it to create one that lasts the test of time. 

Your Brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.

Jeff Bezos

Your brand is what the public thinks about you, it’s what part of their mind you own, it’s what they remember about you and how you make them feel when they think of you. Your brand is a choice that people make to either decide to trust you with their money or not. 

In todays world all the choice is with the consumer, they are inundated with adverts  and pop ups everywhere they look online. It is now more than ever in their hands who they decide to spend their money on or with. Every time they see a branded touch point they build up a picture of a business, they decide whether they like it or not. They decide whether they want to buy into that brand.

Your brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service or organisation.

Marty Neumeier

What is Branding?

Branding which is the business that I like to think we specialise in here at Vivi Creative. 

Branding is how you visually represent your company or service to the public, how you tell your story to the customers and how you engage with them on a deeper level.

There are many aspects to your brand, the visual identity is only a part of it. It is the outward facing aspect of your brand, the customer touch points and journey they go on. If a business can match outstanding creative design and a great business idea together, then they are on their way to producing the golden egg… a charismatic brand!  

A CHARISMATIC BRAND is any product, service, or organisation for which people believe there's no substitute.

Marty Neumeier

The visual identity is an incredibly important aspect of your brand. It is how you portray your true self to potential customers. You are able to convey your personality, and attract followers through design. You want to aim to create a loyal base of customers who choose you over your competitors.

Why do you exist as a business? 

This is an important aspect of branding and if often overlooked by companies.

Why did you start your business in the first place? What was the main reason or the story behind setting out on your own. Starting a business is a big leap for anyone and can be a scary time in someone's life. To take that leap of faith and backing yourself to be able to do what you’ve set out to do.  

Your brand needs to tell that story, you need to be authentic to build trust in your potential consumers. Everyone loves a good origin story, it humanises your brand and makes you more accessible to the public. They may resonate with your story and immediately create a connection in their mind. 

A good example of an interesting origin story is 'Brewdog', one of my favourite beer brands. It was founded by two brothers who started out selling beer from the back of a van in Scotland and are now opening bars across the globe, more recently on the strip in Vegas. There are many different craft beer companies, but 'Brewdog' is by far the most successful.

Who do you exist to serve?

Who is your business aimed to serve? Who are your customers? What do they look like? It is important to delve deeply into this area, not just basic demographics, but to actually create a customer persona. What is their personality? Where do they hang out online? People's buying habits have altered greatly over the last few years, and especially recently due to the pandemic.

It is important to create a customer persona and ensure your brand voice and message speaks to them on a higher level, resonating with them and creating a trusting relationship. 

If your brand can cultivate a loyal following of consumers, known in the industry as your 'tribe', who time after time chose your brand over every other. You can rely on them to support you, to market you to the friends and family and help your business develop and grow.

Why do businesses need branding?

There are a lot of different ideas on branding, but one thing that everyone agrees on is that it is so important for businesses to have a strong brand. 

With regard to soft drinks, it’s a choice between Coca Cola or Pepsi? If you’re after a burger it’s McDonalds or Burger King? Buying a car, is it BMW or Audi? These brands have become so famous over time that they already occupy a place in your mind.

People make their choice based on brand, and a brand’s value can be determined by how recognisable that brand name is. People often even choose something based purely on the brand name. A well known brand can generate a lot of sales based purely on the reputation of the name. This is called your brand value.

What does branding do for a business?

• Brand Recognition
• Brand Loyalty
• Customer Retention
• Builds Trust
• Brand credibility
• Adds Brand Value
• Connects with customers on a deeper level

Where do you start when building a brand?

With a great idea! You need to strip it back and ask yourself why? Every strong brand needs a strong strategy behind it. Why do you exist? Why did you start? Why should customers care?

Repeatedly asking yourself 'why' is a good place to start to find the true essence of your brand.

You need to find out what you do that is different to your competitors and position yourself in the market. What is your Purpose? Vision? Mission? Goals? Beliefs? Who are you here to serve?

You need to decide on your brand values, what do you stand for? How are you going to resonate with your customers? You need to think about your brand voice and messaging.

At Vivi Creative we have developed a guide to help businesses think about their branding, with a variety of topics being covered, it includes worksheets and helpful strategies to grow your brand.

To learn more subscribe to my mailing list and download the 'Business Brand Bundle'

Heres a small example of what you can expect.

What's the difference between Brand Purpose / Vision / Mission / Values

There always seems to be confusion between these titles. Here at Vivi Creative we believe it's quite simply...

Your Purpose is WHY you exist in the first place beyond making money?

Your Vision is WHAT you want your brand to be in the future

Your Mission is HOW you are going to do to get to that point.

Your Values are HOW you are going to behave in order to get there.

A good example of this is Elon Musk and Tesla. 

Tesla’s Purpose was to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport and away from polluting fossil fuels.

Tesla’s Vision was to create a series of beyond cool electric vehicles and a network of charging stations.

Tesla’s Mission was to move the world away from Fossil fuels by creating a culture of technology, design and innovation.

Tesla’s Values

• Always do your best. We endeavour to apply the brightest minds and the best available technology to each and every new challenge. ...
• No forecast is perfect, but try anyway. ...
• Respect and encourage people. ...
• Always be learning. …
• Respect the environment.

So to give my own short opinion on brand, I think it is all to do with choice. Customers either choose to spend their hard earned money on you or not. We all have certain brands that we like, 

trust and regularly return to. My own personal favourites include BMW, Adidas and Apple to name a few. We actively choose to use those brands because of our relationship with them. 

To read and learn more, please subscribe to my mailing list and download the 'Business Branding Bundle', below are a list of the topics we discuss in detail.

• Brand Purpose
• Brand Vision / Mission
• Brand Core Values
• Brand Positioning
• Brand Differentiator
• Brand Naming / Tagline
• Brand Story
• Brand Archetypes
• Brand Voice
• Brand Messaging
• Brand Strategy Questionnaire
• Brand Worksheets
• Design Ideas
• Suggested reading

At Vivi Creative we would love to hear about your business and see how we can help you grow..

Thanks for reading.