By Trudie Avery
What comes first, the logo or the brand? People often think that their logo is their brand but there is so much more to it than that.
Your brand should connect with your target audience so much that it evokes an emotional response from them. Your brand is the way people think, feel and react about you.
If you are a business owner, your brand should be true to you, your personality and your values to act as a powerful magnet that attracts those with similar values and makes them want to work with you.
In building a brand that focusses on more than just a nice looking logo and a pretty colour scheme, and more around values and personality, it actually helps to build a relationship with clients and attract the right customers; people who value your service and are not buying solely based on price, which ultimately means, you can charge what your services are worth and clients will be happy, yes delighted, to pay it.
But just how can you create a brand that attracts your ideal client?
- Clarity
Take some time to get clear on who you are and what you stand for as a business or individual. Once you are firm on this, you can position yourself in a crowded marketplace with confidence.
Do some market research and look at your competitors. How do you stand out from your competitors? What makes you different? What do you think they do well? What can you do really well? Thinking about what you stand for and how you can stand out all helps in creating a powerful brand identity.
Being different makes you unique and that’s where your brand is at its strongest. Being YOU-nique means that you offer something that no-one else does, whether that’s what you do or how you do it. Once you are sure who you are and what you can offer, you can talk about it in your marketing and communications with absolutely clarity and authenticity.
- Brand personality
Trudie Avery
When people think ‘branding’ they inevitably think ‘logo’. And that’s fine. Your logo is a MASSIVE part of your brand, but that’s just it – a part of it. I like to think of a logo as being the face of a brand; an identifiable symbol. It is an identity badge that represents you.
Your brand, on the other hand, is more around your ethos and your values and the way that people feel about you and how they interpret your personality. Your logo needs to represent the personality behind the company. For example, the world-famous Coca Cola logo uses swishy, handwritten lettering that is lively and fun which is what they’re all about! Whereas a solicitor’s logo might be very corporate and traditional to invoke trust, a seriousness, intelligence and refinement. When you go to a solicitor, you are not looking for fun. You are looking for someone who knows what they are doing and you can trust. Your logo should be the embodiment of all the things people need to feel about your company in order to want to do business with you.
- Psychology of colour
Choosing your brand colours is a massive decision. So much personality, emotion and psychology is associated with colour so it’s something you really have to think about when developing your brand. Again, think about your brand values and personality and then think about the colours you would associate with those feelings or concepts.
For example, red is the colour of passion, excitement and love and it really commands attention. Orange is very vibrant and playful. It is bright and full of vitality and happiness as well as being friendly and invigorating and it evokes great energy. Green says stability and wealth. It’s about growth and all things natural and healthy. Blues tend to be very corporate. They ooze security, professionalism and formality. Black and white are strong colour choices too. Apple uses a lot of white for it’s feeling of cleanliness, simplicity and purity. On the flip side, black is very powerful and sophisticated, as well as being luxurious and modern. All of these colours evoke different emotions so you need to choose a colour palette that really reflects your personality. It can’t be a decision made on an impulse. Make sure your colours reflect your values and how you want to be perceived by the outside world. They should connect with your target market as they need to see something in these colours that will reassure them about you, attract them and make them want to work with you.
- Law of attraction
Once you are clear on who you are and what you stand for as a brand, who you want to attract and your colour palette, font and logo, you need to think about how you can use all of this in your marketing to attract your ideal client. They need to be magnetised towards you because you hold the values that resonate with them as well as the skills or product they need and the personality that makes them want to do business with you over your competitors.
Use your social media, PR and other marketing communications to offer help through tips and establish yourself as an expert at what you do. Get across that you have the skills, knowledge and expertise, or the ideal product, to meet the needs of your target client. Publish blogs, videos and podcasts that get across your brand values, personality and skill set or products. This along with consistent use of your logo, brand colours and fonts will pull your clients towards you rather than you pushing sales messages out to them.
You want your target market to automatically and subconsciously associate your logo and brand colours with your expertise, personality and the way you make them feel.
In summary, your brand should epitomise both your personality and what your clients need to feel about you in order to want to work with you. You need to show that you can solve their problems and be the right person to work with. Your logo is the lynchpin of your brand but it doesn’t represent your brand alone. Your brand comes out in everything you do and, if managed correctly, can bring your ideal clients straight to your door.
My final tip is that you cannot and will not appeal to everyone, and creating a bland brand of the person you think you need to be to attract the masses will only end in an up-hill struggle where you will be unfulfilled and your clients unsatisfied. Your best life will come from being the best and most authentic version of you and showing the world exactly what you’re made of!
