For many of us, a new year brings new resolutions. For some it’s to eat healthier, workout more, spend less money, spend more time with friends, or start a new business! In my real day job I get to work with a lot of startups, and I love the energy and excitement that they bring to the table everyday. I find that one of the most important things to a successful venture is having good grounding, most often in the form of a mission, mission and overall brand. Who will people say you are and what will interactions with you feel like? Let’s dive into a discussion on crafting your brand in 2020.

It is all about your strategy

Before we get into what the strategy is going to look like, here are a few brands that have their brand strategy as the lifeblood of everything they do: LUSH, Coca Cola, Apple, and IKEA. When you think of those huge brands, you probably have a clear picture of their logo, their ‘feel,’ and maybe even the last advertisement you saw replaying in your mind. Now, that is the kind of strong strategy that you’re looking for!

Your brand strategy is your plan to build, shape, and grow your brand. It’s all about figuring out what your business will be about and stand for, developing your story, and starting to tell it!

Overall Strategy

When you are building your branding strategy, the first thing to figure out is what you’re all about. Who you are and what you tell the world you are need to align to give you the best outcome. Here are a few things you need to be clear on:

• The type of business you want to be
• How are you planning to grow? Via spend or organically?
• What does the 5-year plan look like?
• How do I define success?

Make sure these line up with the brand strategy and the business. 

Audience

Your target audience plays a vital role in the branding marketing design and advertising of any business. It would be best if you defined your target audience as soon as possible. For this blog, I’m targeting young professionals, and always try to keep them in mind as I make updates to the site and put out new content. The more research you can put into your target audience, the less risk you are going to have when you’re putting together your brand strategy. No sense in telling something to people that don’t want to listen!

Values, Mission, and Story

Anymore people are really buying your story and how it makes them feel. I grab a Coke or Corona because of all their silly commercials – Coke to feel ‘refreshed’ or because I ‘deserve it’ and Coronas because I love the beach feeling. I use Apple products for how they make me feel and I buy (or am gifted) Patagonia because of the outdoors vibe I feel when I wear their clothing. Get started by thinking about the following:

• Brand value is what you and your business holds most closely to you 
• Brandon mission is your goal what is it you’re setting out to do
• And your story is why you are doing it and how you will communicate what you’re doing

Brand message

Your brand marketing message or your branding message is what you put it into the world. This will be what reflects your mission, values, story, and your positioning. For example, a Nike product will always come with that “just do it” somewhere and is synonymous with the “swoosh.” Your core branding message will be consistent across each of your audiences. For YMF, I have a consistent logo and my mission front and center on the website. All tweets, Facebook posts and articles are aligned to that mission.

Brand identity

Your brand identity is typically the next piece of the puzzle. It is often very visual acuity exciting and creative discussions within the new business or businesses who are rebranding. There are lots of elements that make up a strong brand identity, here are a few of them:

• Logo designs symbols vertical and horizontal lock-ups
• The color palette that will be used
• The font selection
• The designer will go on your letterhead, business cards, and all of your stationery. You’ll need to make sure that across-the-board you use a good company like templafy.com for cohesive document usage
• Social networking imagery
• Website design

I know that it could be tempting to do as much of this using free tools but honestly here I think it’s worth shelling out some money to get it done right!

In the end, your brand strategy will be a piece of paper that is ever-evolving. It will feel like a living and breathing part of your business just like your brand guidelines, just like your positioning, just like your values and just like your mission. It would be best if you were looking to track and record the response to your brands at all points and manipulate what you didn’t get right.

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