“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.
Branding is everything in the business world. Your brand describes what you and your company do, how it helps customers, and why it’s different from your competitors. It all sounds effortless, but branding can be challenging to master. After all, a brand is much more than just a logo or motto — it’s the way the world views you and your company.
High-quality brands don’t just come out of nowhere. It takes patience, time, and hard work to create a long-lasting and impactful brand. It might not happen overnight, but building a strong brand is well worth the effort. Even though it might seem like a lot of work upfront, strong brands pay off in other ways such as improved reputation, loyal customers, and increased income.
So, where does someone start when they want to build a powerful brand? It’s best to begin with the basics.
Logo
First things first, every brand needs a recognizable logo. An effective brand stays in the customer’s mind long after they’ve stopped interacting with the company. Recognizable symbols are essential to ensuring a brand’s popularity and longevity. Just think of all the logos you probably recognize already, even if you’ve never purchased a single item from the company. Some famous logos include Target, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Twitter, Apple, Nike, Shell, and FedEx.
There are four main kinds of logos:
Wordmark or Logotype: A wordmark is the simplest type of logo: the company’s name. Google, Coca-Cola, Nasa, and CNN are among the most recognizable of them. They’re simple, elegant, and sleek.
Monogram: A monogram logo is even simpler than a wordmark logo. Instead of having a company’s name, a monogram simply has a few letters. For example, Hewlett-Packard’s logo simply reads HP but is still easily recognized by consumers worldwide.
Many luxury fashion brands use this kind of logo too. See Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, Givenchy, and Chanel for examples. Even when stripped down to a few letters, these logos are loud and proud, proclaiming their status and influence on the world.
Brandmark: Some logos don’t use words at all and rely on pictures to convey meaning. It might sound like an ineffective strategy at first — after all, your brand has to be recognizable enough that people will associate a name with an image — but this design is trendy among modern companies.
Some examples of compelling brandmark logos include Apple, Shell, Nike, Target, Twitter, Pepsi, and Starbucks. However, this kind of branding works well for non-companies too. Consider the logos for The Rolling Stones, Batman, Ghostbusters, and Jurassic Park — all neat images that fit easily on t-shirts, stickers, and other merchandise.
Combination Logo: Why stick to just pictures or words when you can have both? Combination logos are great because they display the company name and provide an accompanying image to enhance it.
Burger King’s logo is a great example. It tells you all you need to know: the establishment’s name (which obviously sells burgers) sandwiched between two burger buns. Many other food brands such as Doritos, Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza, Taco Bell, and KFC also use combination logos. Some non-food examples include Lacoste, Puma, Mastercard, and Airbnb.
Your logo is essential, but it isn’t everything. It’s best to start with a simple logo and change it later if you need something else. Brand logos are continually evolving with the times.
Tagline
“Just do it.”
“Because you’re worth it.”
“I’m lovin’ it.”
“Have it your way.”
“A diamond is forever.”
A company tagline might only be a few words, but they can give your brand the boost it needs to succeed. A slogan is more than just a random sentence — it encapsulates your brand’s values, mission, and offerings. Your customers know what to expect based on reading the tagline alone.
For example, Apple’s tagline is “Think Different.” This tagline works so well that it appeals to the customer’s aspirations and describes Apple’s strategic positioning. Apple isn’t for just anyone: it’s for thinkers, innovators, creatives, and visionaries.
Any slogan worth its salt must be simple and easy to understand. After all, there’s nothing catchy or memorable about a long winding mouthful of a sentence. The taglines above are all easily quotable and roll off the tongue smoothly. Imagine if Apple’s slogan was something along the lines of, “We’re the best and most innovative company around.” It’s nothing particularly memorable, catchy, or enjoyable.
Your tagline must also align with your brand in some way. It should show off the company’s values, beliefs, or services.
For example, Disney’s famous tagline is “The happiest place on earth.” Walt Disney’s theme parks are indeed some of the world’s top vacation spots, with thousands of people coming from all over the world to spend a day or two in the area. Disney enthusiasts regularly associate the brand with fun, joy, nostalgia, and happy memories — thus, the company lives up to its tagline.
Color Schemes
Color plays a vital role in your brand identity. Choosing the correct colors can help your logo stand out, evoke emotions, and stay in your customer’s mind.
Just how important is color? One study found that up to 93% of consumers consider mostly visual factors when making purchase decisions. Additionally, color can increase brand recognition by up to 80%.
Most people draw unconscious associations between colors and meanings or emotions. For example, white is often associated with purity and cleanliness. Red often conjures impulsive and passionate feelings ranging from anger to love. Green often symbolizes balance and harmony and often relates to nature and money.
While color psychology is a fascinating field, you don’t need to be an expert just to design your brand logo. Just make sure you prioritize colors that work with whichever feeling or association works with your brand. For example, a law firm will probably opt for neutral colors like black, blue, brown, grey, and white instead of bright orange, pink, or yellow. On the other hand, a fast-food company might go for red, yellow, and orange to seem fun and family-friendly.
Mission Statement
Your mission statement explains what you do and why you do it. Every organization has a purpose it is trying to achieve beyond merely making money. For example, take these mission statements of real-world companies:
Patagonia: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
IKEA: To create a better everyday life for many people.
Amazon: To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.
TED: Spread ideas.
Prezi: To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.
LinkedIn: To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.
PayPal: To build the web’s most convenient, secure, cost-effective payment solution.
Luckily, your mission statement doesn’t have to be as catchy and memorable as your tagline. It does, however, need to be straightforward and clear. It should give both your customers and employees a strong vision of what your company is trying to achieve every day.
Based on the previous examples, you can see how each of these companies lives up to their mission statements each day. Patagonia creates environmentally-friendly goods for outdoors people and donates 1% of its profits to environmental groups. IKEA makes easily assemblable furniture for price-conscious customers. Amazon offers competitive pricing and fast shipping for just about anything you could ever need.
Even though these are business mission statements, you can still apply the same philosophy to your personal branding efforts. For example, Oprah’s mission statement is: “To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.” As a philanthropist, entertainer, and activist, Oprah brings joy and learning to millions of people each day.
Photo credit: Rhonda Swan of the Unstoppable Branding Agency by Ryerson Anselmo
Voice and Style
The last thing you’ll need to master is your voice and style. These dictate how you communicate with your audience. It’s something that usually very subtle but noticeable when you compare different people. For example, politicians are generally earnest and speak with a lot of authority and clarity. Comedians often prefer to tell jokes and make people laugh, even when discussing serious topics.
There are four main ways of using your voice:
Passionate: Show strong enthusiasm in whatever you talk about. Use dramatic verbs and adjectives that get people’s attention. Avoid being too lukewarm or mild.
Quirky: Don’t be afraid to be yourself or challenge the status quo. Embrace the uniqueness of your brand identity and reject the usual conventions.
Irreverent: Take the “quirky” approach one step further. Have fun, and don’t take yourself too seriously! Your brand is all about being silly, colorful, and playful.
Authentic: Your brand is 100% yourself. There’s no fakery or duplicity. You’re honest, straightforward, and willing to address any mistakes you make openly.
These basics are just one step in the journey to establishing a long-lasting and powerful personal brand. They will help you stand out from the crowd and attract customers and clients from all over the world once you master them.
Want to learn more about branding? Check out our Personal Branding Strategy Playbook for tips and tricks.
Article written by Patrick W. Dunne