Trying to decide if branding is worth it? Well you’re not alone, building a brand from scratch can be tricky, specially without the right brand knowledge. Plus committing to decisions at the beginning of starting your small business can feel difficult. We all know branding is a powerful tool when created mindfully, but have you heard some misleading and or contradicting information? In todays episode we are going to explore myths about branding. Branding is one of the most talked about topics in business. This means there is a lot of miss information out there. I want to identify what’s true and what’s not. So you can make better branding decisions and well informed choices.
When it comes to a successful brand, every brand strategist and business owner will have their own ideas. This is where it can make be confusing on how to start with building one and makes it impossible to know who to listen to.
Audio Time Stamp | 01:05
“I’m a Small Business I Don’t Need To Brand It”
Let’s start with a popular piece of misleading information, that because I’m a small business means I don’t need to brand it myth. Well it turns out that branding isn’t just powerful for large businesses but for small ones too. Even if your business is a team of one you still need a brand. It’s more of a tool that helps any size business bridge the gap between what they offer and their people. So yes, its true every business will need a brand in place. But, the way your brand looks and feels will vary from business to business. And will evolve and or even pivot within your business lifetime.
Audio Time Stamp | 01:54
“I’ll Decided What My Brand Stands For After It’s Successful”
What about the saying I’ll decide on the nitty-gritty brand stuff like what it stands for – once it’s successful. Well unfortunately this kinda of thinking doesn’t work either. Successful brands need to stand out for something from the word go. So if you’re waiting for success you might be waiting forever.
Brand success is misleading really because what’s more important than the need to have a successful brand. Is for you to simple focus on being ultra clear on what you want your brand to stand for. Choosing your brand values can be fairly easy. But to actually live them out and aligning them across your touchpoints, members of your team can be difficult. Especially upholding them when no one is watching. But by having a brand that stands for something you are likely to become well known for.
Audio Time Stamp | 02:54
“You Can’t Measure Brand Success”
You might be thinking, hold on we can’t measure the success of a brand? the answer to this one is rather tricky. Measuring your brand success is not as simple as looking at the engagement rate on your social media posts. But, we shouldn’t rule out that measuring a brands successes is impossible, because it isn’t.
To become a successful brand it doesn’t come with a checklist. It’s more about growth and identifying a baseline. We can gain a skeletal idea of what your brand state is through data. This data could be things like brand awareness, perception, loyalty, reputation, sales and clients. Each category may ebb and flow as you measure periodically your brand growth over time. Either way what it will do is provide you a clearer image of where you are currently as from you where you first began.
Audio Time Stamp | 03:58
“Brand Development Only Happens Once In Your Business Lifetime”
This next one might really surprise you, some people are misleading and believe that once you’ve completed the whole brand development it will automatically last a lifetime with no expiry date. When in actual fact, your brand is more likely to evolve and grow, to keep up with our environment consistently changing. As time passes, you may find your offering has changed or your audience or more unforeseeable things like the market shifting. Brand refreshes and updates are key to not letting your brand feel stale and old.
Audio Time Stamp | 04:43
How Do I Build A Good Brand?
Ok so you now know that branding is key. But how do you achieve a good one? We are all probably well aware of the that your brand isn’t your logo. How to create a good one is the real question and this depends on a range of factors. How you want to run your business, how you want your people to perceive you and what you value and promise. A brand is like dough it can be moulded into many different forms to be the best shape for that is specific to you and your business needs. So really building a good brand isn’t the objective, building a brand that works for you and your people and your business is key.
Audio Time Stamp | 05:35
Helpful Take Aways Summarised!
I hope you have got some useful takes aways from todays episode, and can stop believing this misleading advice. Including small businesses just like us should be embracing the tool of branding. To realise you have to stand for something to stand out. To know that brand success can be measured with periodical analyses of a range of data, such as awareness, perception, sale etc. It’s unlikely in business you will go through brand development just once. And lastly that we shouldn’t be striving to own a quote on quote good brand. Because every brand is shaped differently, moulded depending on what that business needs and wants to achieve. If you are ready to start building your brand strategy it’s time to check out episode 3.