You’ve likely heard the expression that “beauty isn’t skin deep,” yes? It’s meant to convey that what we value about an individual is deeper than superficial beauty. I believe that’s true not just for people, but for brands, too.
Through my work with makers and product designers, I’m introduced to new product-based brands virtually every day. Through the years, I’ve honed my ability to look at a product and get to the heart of it in very short order. And I’ve noticed a disturbing trend that I feel compelled to address head-on. The following may be hard to read, but I assure you that it’s offered in love.
Many-to-most of the brands that roll across my wires these days fall into one of two categories:
a) Not yet well branded. The owner is likely early in their entrepreneurial journey and somewhat “resource constrained” (which is my gentle way of saying “broke”… I’ve been there, promise!). They’ve done a lot of the work themselves, though they’re not graphic designers, copywriters, or photographers by trade. The idea is that they’ll “make do” until they secure enough market traction and dollars to tag in the professionals. This category of entrepreneurs is aware that they need further brand development but have yet to access it.
b) Believe they’re well branded, but that branding is only skin deep. This second category of creative businesses mistakenly believes that their brand development work is complete because they’re either design-handy themselves and DIY’ed their logo or because they tagged in a professional to create the logo. Regrettably, a pretty logo can easily lull you into a false sense of security. After all, things look good, and that’s what branding is all about, right?
Well, yes and no. Branding is much more than skin deep. It’s more than aesthetics. Brand development- at its core- is the process of creating a consistent emotional connection to a product, person, or service. It’s a way of creating meaningful differentiation between your product and everyone else in the today’s densely crowded marketplace. A pretty face is a great start, but it’s hardly the complete story. A beautiful logo in the absence of a strong core of branding is a hollow shell of a company that will perpetually struggle to get traction and fulfill its potential.
So how do you know if you’ve done the challenging work of creating not just a pretty face, but a brand with depth and soul? Ask yourself these questions…
1. Is your product collection tightly edited and developed around a singular idea that’s easy to understand and easy for others to repeat?
2. Can you express to others- in a single sentence- who your product is designed for and what makes it different than all the others currently on the market?
3. Does your brand have a distinct personality and a consistent voice?
4. Do you have clarity about the nature of the content you’re developing for your blog, email newsletter, and social media?
5. Have you created visual brand standards so that consistent colors, fonts, icons, and logo marks are used across all iterations of the brand?
6. Do you highlight your customers as the hero of your brand?
7. Is your brand developed to the degree that you can delegate some responsibilities that revolve around the communication and support of that brand as the company grows, in confidence that those souls can support the brand, carry the banner, and stay on-message?
8. Have you enriched the customer experience in a way that creates loyalty among your target audience and spawns an energizing effect that encourages the sharing of your brand?
9. Do you have confidence that your customers will stick with you even if a new brand launches with similar products at a lower price point?
10. Do you have a deep level of awareness about the brands you’d like to sit on the shelf beside, as well as the brands that you’re engaged in direct hand-to-hand combat?
Here’s the brutal truth that’s becoming increasingly challenging for me to deny: we often set a low threshold for ourselves when it comes to brand development, and that painfully low threshold isn’t serving us well.
Most of my clients stumbled backward into their businesses, and their passion is the fuel in the engine that’s driving the company. And that’s both a deliciously beautiful and crazy dangerous thing. Because a business without strategy, systems, and direction is almost certainly doomed to fail. Passion alone is demanding, exhausting, and blinding. The good news? Blending that passion with strategy is a potent recipe for success. And I trust that you’re one hell of a chef when you have access to the right ingredients and a solid recipe to follow.
Brand development isn’t simply about pretty logos.
Brand development isn’t simply for new companies who are just now coming into the marketplace.
Brand development is the very core of everything your business will do. It’s the north star of your company, the roadmap to success, the guiding compass that sees you through the hills and the valleys while keeping you true to yourself and your audience.
Look again at those ten questions. If your gut is churning as you read them, if doubt and uncertainty are creeping into your mind as you move down that list to take a mental inventory of your own business, then I encourage you to double-back, double-down, and raise the bar on your brand development. I happen to teach one hell of a branding class, but I’m far from the only brand strategist out there helping creative entrepreneurs find the way forward. Whether you enlist my help or the help of someone else, I hope you’ll spend some time reflecting on whether further brand development work is necessary to move your ball forward.
