11+ Questions To Ask Yourself When Building Your Brand Identity

11+ Questions to Ask Yourself When Building Your Brand Identity 14/05/19 16:13
Building Your Brand Identity: 11+

Big Questions to Ask Yourself
/ Derric Haynie November 9, 2017
So you’ve got a logo…
Maybe even a slogan…
But that doesn’t mean you’ve got a brand.
Too many people in this world think that branding begins with choosing a
brand name and ends with hiring a designer on Fiverr to pop out a generic
logo with a couple of your favorite colors on it.
Credit: Brand Identity Essential by People Design
If you’re one of those people, I demand you keep reading!
https://blog.rebrandly.com/building-your-brand-identity/ Pagina 1 di 25
…And I was once the same. I’ll admit it. I used to think building a brand
was a task strictly left for graphic designers…
But the truth is branding is for marketers and business owners…
Branding takes place at every touch point and every time a customer
interacts or even thinks about your brand…
And, most importantly, branding is ultimately controlled by the customers,

and not by you, the marketer.
Credit: http://www.studio-18.co.uk/brand-values
That’s right, after all the hard work you put into building out your
perception of your brand, it’s the customer that chooses what that brand
means to them, and not your business.
Too many companies think they get to choose their brand… You only get to
influence your customer’s opinion of your brand, not choose it!
3 Experts Reveal The Most Important Part To Building

Out Your Brand Identity
We asked a handful of our favorite branding experts: “What do you think is

the most important aspect of building a brand identity?”
Here are their responses:
Shana Haynie, from the digital agency SplashOPM responded:
“Consistency. And you don’t just build things because they make you
happy, you take an action, get feedback and data to see how the customer
responds, and adjust your brand accordingly.”
Brian Lischer, from the branding firm Ignyte said:
“The back of our firm’s business cards are stamped with a slogan that
reads: ‘There’s one thing every brand should know. Itself.’
Of all the concepts related to branding, authenticity should be one with

teeth. It should mean something to say a brand is authentic. And the fact is
that authentic brands outperform their competitors time and again.
But just what does it mean for a brand to be authentic?
Authentic brands understand themselves at the deepest level and act in

congruence with that understanding. They’re able to foster meaningful and
enduring relationships with their customers. And not only are customers
more likely to trust an authentic brand, they’re more likely to recommend
it.
Brand authenticity is no accident, though. It’s the direct result of a well-

planned and even better-executed strategy.”
We also ran into Jeremiah Gardner from JeremiahGardner.com and

author of “The Lean Brand,” while we were at Startup Week San Diego, and
this is what he said:
Transcripts:
“Brand Identity means a lot of things to a lot of people. I think at the end
of the day in the startup world, it’s what is the baseline that we will be
known for?
The identity that we have is the relationship with our customers.
So confusing brand identity with our logo, our color scheme, and those
sorts of things, actually gets in the way of discovering new value in the
relationship with your customer.
The identity should be based on your relationship with your audience.
What does that look like? That forms the basis of that identity.
And all the artifacts that you create: logos, colors, websites, are a
reflection of that identity. That relationship between your audience and

you.”
Creating A Branding Strategy
A brand, like a product and a website, is never truly “done.”
While these are just their logos (and again that’s only a small piece of the
brand), you can see that, over time, every good brand evolves.
You don’t just create a branding strategy and then you’ve got a brand…
It’s a daily process of bringing multiple aspects of your voice and your
business together, and then adjusting them to what the customer expects
from you.
So while these questions will get you one step closer to building your brand
identity, they will not truly build your brand for you, that requires
execution over the next few months and years.
Think of these questions as a great foundation for building your brand over
the next few months…
Brand Vision – Where do you see your business going?

What are your goals? How is your business going to
have an impact?
We start with the end in mind…
But it’s worth noting that a brand’s essence really doesn’t coalesce without
a great business, standing behind a great product, supporting their
customers viewpoint of themselves.
Our brand vision can be broken down into these key components:
Purpose – What is the fundamental purpose behind your

business that inspires everyone in and outside of the
organization to do what they do — and love doing it?
Credit: http://brandnewpurpose.com/
Without a purpose, it’s really hard to unite people around your cause, or
your brand. Think about the very root problem that you are solving and try
to describe that with as few buzzwords as possible.
Think about Starbucks’ Purpose:
Notice it has very little to do with coffee, but actually to do with “The
Starbucks Experience” (which is also a book worth reading if you’re a big
brand marketer or marketeer).
Starbucks purposefully (that’s a play on the topic, get it?) does not say
“coffee” in their statement of brand purpose. Even though we know
Starbucks as the coffee place, they want to leave the door open for any
beverage at all.
And that was a wise choice, as Starbucks has played around with
expanding into wine and craft beer.
To really understand the value behind crafting your brand purpose, I

highly recommend watching this TED talk by Simon Sinek:
Position – What is the fundamental idea that you own in the

consumer’s mind?
When I think of soda, I think of Coca-Cola… When I think of singing

competitions, I think of American Idol… What’s the one thing that you
want to be known for?
Promise – What is the value that you promise to deliver to

the consumer?
This is the core benefit of using your product(s). I’ll give you a hint, it’s not,
“Saving you time and money,” and it’s not, “connecting you with the people
you love.” It’s more along the lines of “We won’t rest until we end all
suffering from X by providing our customers with Y.”
Think about Kodak for a second. This is a company that created the first
digital camera…
But ultimately filed for bankruptcy after continuously missing the change
to digital.
And why did they fail at this?
Because they thought they were in the business of making cameras and
film, but they really should have been in the business of capturing
and sharing moments.
It all comes back to the value that they decided to provide their customer.
They provided people with cameras and film so that they could take
pictures. But people don’t want pictures. People want memories!!!
Do you see the key difference in positioning your core value here? Make
sure you are providing your customers with the core benefit, not the core
feature – the camera in this case.
Mantra
Your mantra is a short 3-5 word phrase or motto that you live your
business, and hopefully life, by.
Nike’s mantra, “Authentic Athletic Performance,” quickly explains their

core belief, and what you can expect from their products. Having a
company mantra helps increase brand equity.
Reasons to Believe – Why will your target market believe

your promise?
This is the credibility aspect of your core value.
Why should anyone think you’re the best social media agency? Or the best
pizza shop in the neighborhood? Or whatever?
You obviously need to back up your claims with some level of credibility.
This is probably one of the key reasons why most startups fail.
Here’s how it usually goes with a startup:
What happens is two people come up with an idea about solving a problem.
Their developers, or maybe hobbyists or enthusiasts in the subject matter…
They start out building a solution to the problem they’ve identified…
They never talk to any customers, get any feedback or reach out to any
experts in their new field…
Months later their product is ready to launch, they open the doors AND…
Crickets.
No one shows.
They flop. They lose. The business fails and collapses…
They never stopped to ask the question, “Are we the right people to be
building this?” or “Are we credible enough to make this company work?”
When you ask that question, and you find the answer is, “No,” you realize
you need to shift focus to building credibility.
This could be through hiring a subject matter expert, partnering with the
right company, or in Canva’s case, recruiting brand evangelist Guy
Kawasaki.
In any case, if you’re not credible, that’s OK. Accept it. Work to become
credible and people will eventually start to recognize your expertise. It
doesn’t happen overnight, so get started today!
Brand Story – What is your unique hero tale?
This relates back to credibility in a sense.
How did you as a company come to be, and what makes you so passionate
about solving this problem?
The term “storytelling” has been buzzing across the content marketing
world for a while now, but this isn’t just about making up a good story, it’s
about getting people to relate and stand behind your ideals as a company.
Getting them to understand why you gave up your everything to start this
business. Sometimes, such as the case with Tom’s Shoes – the company
that donates a pair of shoes to a needy child every time you buy a pair of
shoes from their store – the story is the brand.
How will you tell a story as compelling as theirs?
Here’s a very detailed breakdown of building a brand story, by content

marketing legend Robert Rose.
And here’s a really goofy infographic on storytelling, just for fun.
Brand Essence
Company Core Values – What principles are going to shape

your company’s culture and support your brand vision?
This is the traditional core values that so many companies claim

differentiate themselves. “We’re transparent…” but you’re not really.
“We have a great culture…” I certainly hope so.
“There’s no company out there like us…” That’s what they all say.
These “unique core values” that so many companies profess have become a
standard for tech startups. Which is good! This means we can all stop
repeating the obvious and find truly fantastic ways to differentiate
ourselves.
Besides, unless you’re as transparent as Buffer, or Pat Flynn, you really

aren’t working hard enough on your transparency.
One of my favorite core values, that I live by as a marketer, a husband, and

a father, is to “To show people, not tell people.” This is why I link to Buffer
and Pat Flynn in the previous sentence. If you don’t know about their acts
of authentic transparency, you might want to find out. So rather than
searching Google, I’ve provided you the exact places to go… How
thoughtful of me.
As someone that has edited 100+ guest blog posts, I can tell you that most
marketers are not showing, they are just telling… telling and selling. And
that is really annoying… annoying and lame.
Think of what truly unique values you have and build those into your daily
routine as a company.
Character – What is your backbone made of? What’s

negotiable and what is not?
This relates back to the brand archetype we talked about in a previous post:
What type of hero or villain are you?
Are you going to make outlandish claims? Or back everything up with

data?
Are you going to be edgy or vanilla?
Personality and Voice – How do you present yourself? Do

you have a sense of humor or are you honest to a fault? Are
you a casual brand or a “suit and tie” mentality?
Are you going to cuss? Or maybe you want to use a ton of corporate jargon
for some reason…
Do you want people to have fun? Learn? Question their beliefs?
How will you act?
And your voice can be slightly different based on the medium you are
interacting on.
For us, we take a slightly more educational approach to the blog, and stay
extremely playful on Twitter, even when pitching potential investors (hit
play for LOLz):
Brand Expressions – How does your brand come to life

across the broad spectrum of media? What type of content
are you going to be known for? How are your customers
going to experience your brand?
Where do you want them to go for “the goods?” Your blog? Your Instagram
account? Or maybe the sign outside your storefront…
Do you want to be known as the “infographic” company, like Kissmetrics?

Or maybe you want to have the best email newsletter on the planet. You
could even be known for sending cutesy packages in the mail, if that’s you…
You need to decide where to concentrate your efforts, because unless you
have an unlimited budget and massive team, you’ve got 2 channels max
(and 1 is advised) to focus in on.
Use this simple Venn diagram to decide what channel works best for you:
Feel free to draw your own and actually put the channels in the circles to
find your answer.
Using this process, you can see that while you may think Snapchat is the
next coolest tool for marketers, the diagram quickly reminds you that if you
aren’t a Snapchat pro already, you probably shouldn’t make it the main
channel for your business.
And don’t think your choice is forever.
This decision could easily change over time. It’s really only a test of a
channel – called a traction test via Traction the book.
Find your sweet spot and run with it until it don’t work no more.
Brand Differentiation
Copying the same strategy as another company is a tactic reserved for the
rare breed of super villains that aren’t creative enough to come up with
their own great ideas.
Don’t be a copycat. Originality is way more fun.
In order to truly be different, you need to have a deep understanding of

everyone else, and a unique take on an old classic… A Content Tilt.
Take The Chicken Whisperer, for example.
Here’s a guy who loves backyard poultry farming, a hobby many people
practice (sadly my condo doesn’t allow chickens).
He found that when he wanted to learn about chicken farming, there

wasn’t much information, and he set out to change that.
He found the intersection of backyard poultry and education, and grew a

massive following from being the only person in the industry.
Another great example is Nutrition Gone Wild.
There are a lot of nutrition sites on the web…
Many talk about weight loss, diet fads, and exercise.
Not this one. This site combines the Venn diagram of “partying” and
“nutrition” to give uniquely powerful information to those who like to have
fun, but are still concerned about their health.
Competitive Analysis
A great brand stands out from the competition. Brian Lischer from Ignyte
Brands tells us to “experience the competition” to get a feel for each of the
players in our space from a customer perspective.
What is it that they think they are? What is it that their customers think
they are? What are they missing that you can capitalize on? And so much
more, including visual and language analysis. You could really spend a full
week analyzing your competitors to position your brand ever so perfectly.
Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
What do you have that the competition does not? How do you position the
brand in such a way that no one can replicate you. This goes back to
understanding the one thing that you are best at, and turning that into a
message.
Brand Audience
We saved the most important section for last. Our overall audience, which
consists of 3 main components: our buyers, our non-buyers, and our
influencers.
Buyer Persona
Nothing new here, we have to know who is buying from us in order to

properly position our brand, our content, our everything…
But in case we haven’t nailed the point home enough for you already, you
absolutely must have a written template of your most ideal customer in
order to succeed in any new or emerging business.
… If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that “everyone” was
their ideal customer… I’d have like 6 nickels…
It’s “most ideal” for a reason. We are looking for the easiest person to
convert, not the hardest.
We want to focus our marketing efforts in order of: the size of their
problem, their willingness to pay, and our ability (or cost) to get a message
in front of them.
Non-Buying Audience Persona
You think that everyone that comes to your site is a buyer, don’t ya?
Well they ain’t! Most of them are there to just steal your thoughts and
move on.
Understanding the “who” of your non-buyers is an often overlooked aspect

to the process of branding your business.
When it comes to scalable things, like blogging, social media, or even

letting window shoppers come into the store, we want to have a massive
following of non-buyers.
Well… We don’t want to… We’d prefer they be buyers… But we’d prefer
them to be aware of us.
Our goal of having non-buyers is two-fold:
Non-buyers are influencers. They may share, tell someone else, or

promote our brand to someone else.
Non-buyers become buyers. Obviously a portion of our non-buying

audience will eventually convert at a later date. Our job is to nurture them
through the “awareness zone” and wait patiently for them to become
interested.
Think about it like this, if the CMO is your ideal buyer, the social media
manager might be someone in the audience. This makes them both an
audience member and an influencer.
Or, in other situations, such as when I wrote “The Top 10 Digital Marketing
Agencies in San Diego,” one of my key audiences was my competitors.
I linked to them and talked about them, and they wanted to read the
article.
So what did I do? I targeted them with Facebook ads, which eventually got
them to read the article and link back to the article. That got that blog post
to the #1 spot for it’s key term.
Influencer Persona
Understanding who the gatekeepers are to your buyers is crucial. While we

can all buy traffic on all the major media platforms, it can be far cheaper to
devise strategies to influence the influencers.
This is what Dennis Yu does with the Golden State Warriors Facebook page
(and more from Dennis in AdWeek here).
Understanding how to group and target influencers, whether with blog

posts, with cold Twitter outreach, or simply running Facebook ads is
crucial to jump-starting a business.
Why get 1 reader of your blog, when you can get 1 reader that has 10,000
followers. Think viral, not direct acquisition.
Customer Value Proposition / Statement of Value – Why

should your customer buy a product, use a service or
consume your content?
“People don’t buy products or services, they buy outcomes…” says

legendary marketer and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com, Ryan Deiss.
How do we get the outcome, and what is the outcome? We need to move
people from before, to after:
Credit: http://www.digitalmarketer.com/customer-value-optimization/
And the further we move them, the more money we make:
Credit: http://www.digitalmarketer.com/customer-value-optimization/
This is distinctly different than our unique selling proposition, because it’s
all about why the customer buys. Not why we sell. Sounds similar, but it’s
really quite important to differentiate the two.
Final Thoughts
If you read this whole post in one sitting, I’d recommend bookmarking
this page and coming back later to follow each section independently.
If you’re starting out on a new endeavor, or rebranding an old business,

you need to take the time to build a written branding strategy to ensure
that you, and anyone that is now or forever on your team, can align their
voice, their goals, their visual elements, and all the other things that
cohesively portray your brand.
At the end of the day, it’s the customer who decides who we are…
So ask them what they think. See if you’re doing a good job building your
brand by frequently polling your customers with surveys.
Your brand is never done being built…
But after you answer the questions above, you will have a solid foundation
to launching a successful brand to back a hopefully successful business.
Good luck!
What do you think? Are you having trouble sorting out your brand? Are
there any questions you would like some help answering? Leave your
thoughts in the comments below.
Further Reading:
What is a branded link?

Brand design 101 for founders – via FuidUI
How to build a brand in 2018: A guide from Rebrandly and Hubspot
How to choose the perfect brand name
This Article is About:
Building your brand identity

How to build a brand
Examples of how experts have built brands
How to find your brand identity
Originally Posted: June 15th, 2016.

Post Updated: November 9th, 2017.

11+ Questions To Ask Yourself When Building Your Brand Identity

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11+ Questions to Ask Yourself When Building Your Brand Identity 14/05/19 16:13

Building Your Brand Identity: 11+

So you’ve got a logo…

Maybe even a slogan…

But that doesn’t mean you’ve got a brand.

Credit: Brand Identity Essential by People Design

If you’re one of those people, I demand you keep reading!

But the truth is branding is for marketers and business owners…

And, most importantly, branding is ultimately controlled by the customers,

influence your customer’s opinion of your brand, not choose it!

3 Experts Reveal The Most Important Part To Building

We asked a handful of our favorite branding experts: “What do you think is

Here are their responses:

Shana Haynie, from the digital agency SplashOPM responded:

Brian Lischer, from the branding firm Ignyte said:

Of all the concepts related to branding, authenticity should be one with

But just what does it mean for a brand to be authentic?

Authentic brands understand themselves at the deepest level and act in

Brand authenticity is no accident, though. It’s the direct result of a well-

We also ran into Jeremiah Gardner from JeremiahGardner.com and

The identity that we have is the relationship with our customers.

The identity should be based on your relationship with your audience.

reflection of that identity. That relationship between your audience and

Creating A Branding Strategy

A brand, like a product and a website, is never truly “done.”

Brand Vision – Where do you see your business going?

We start with the end in mind…

Purpose – What is the fundamental purpose behind your

Think about Starbucks’ Purpose:

To really understand the value behind crafting your brand purpose, I

Position – What is the fundamental idea that you own in the

When I think of soda, I think of Coca-Cola… When I think of singing

want to be known for?

Promise – What is the value that you promise to deliver to

And why did they fail at this?

Nike’s mantra, “Authentic Athletic Performance,” quickly explains their

Reasons to Believe – Why will your target market believe

This is the credibility aspect of your core value.

Here’s how it usually goes with a startup:

They start out building a solution to the problem they’ve identified…

They flop. They lose. The business fails and collapses…

Brand Story – What is your unique hero tale?

This relates back to credibility in a sense.

How will you tell a story as compelling as theirs?

Here’s a very detailed breakdown of building a brand story, by content

And here’s a really goofy infographic on storytelling, just for fun.

Company Core Values – What principles are going to shape

This is the traditional core values that so many companies claim

“We have a great culture…” I certainly hope so.

Besides, unless you’re as transparent as Buffer, or Pat Flynn, you really

One of my favorite core values, that I live by as a marketer, a husband, and

Character – What is your backbone made of? What’s

What type of hero or villain are you?

Are you going to make outlandish claims? Or back everything up with

Are you going to be edgy or vanilla?

Personality and Voice – How do you present yourself? Do

Do you want people to have fun? Learn? Question their beliefs?

How will you act?

Brand Expressions – How does your brand come to life

Do you want to be known as the “infographic” company, like Kissmetrics?

And don’t think your choice is forever.

Don’t be a copycat. Originality is way more fun.

In order to truly be different, you need to have a deep understanding of