You wouldn’t build a house without blueprints. Why would you bring your idea to life or expand your business without a highly detailed guidebook?
Here are just a few reasons why brand development is a critical process for businesses and people at ANY stage of growth.
1. Nobody Can Read Your Mind
A beautiful vision or gut instinct is lovely in business. But if it’s not translated clearly onto paper it will elude even you in the long run.
2. It’s the Inner Work
Brand development is not branding or marketing. It is not a fancy extravagance or a set of fonts and colors. It is the necessary exploration into who, what, why and how so that you have a solid foundation from which to launch or pivot.
In the brand development process we first identify the core ethos and vision of your work and we get it in writing. How are you being called to service, and why?
3. It Hones Your Message and Finds Your Market
Being true to your vision and purpose leads to a set of key messages and differentiators that speaks authentically to the right market. Spend less by ditching desperate and coercive marketing tactics for genuine engagement. You’ll also spend less on the wrong hires.
4. It Takes a Village
It’s pretty challenging for people to market for you if they cannot quickly identify what you’re all about and clearly and concisely communicate it to others. Building an identity platform does just that.
5. It Frees You Up
When others can run with your message and rally around your vision, you no longer need to micromanage the heck out of your workflow. Consciously executed brand development empowers your teams, designers, PR, investors, ambassadors and all your other partners to execute with clarity and confidence on your behalf.
6. It Saves You $$$
Yes. While I know you’d love to defer investing in this work until later – later is where most businesses and careers find themselves back at the drawing board after spending most of their starting capital. For those of you in product development, that feature set for your MVP should be subject to the keen eye of a brand strategist – unless you love hearing a marketer say “we need to fix the product.”
When is a good time to engage in brand development? My answer is as early as possible. Before you start designing your labels or building your product/website or taking photos or hiring or taking on investment.
When is it too late to engage in brand development? Never.
____
Work through the process I’ve used with large corporations, startups and individuals in my upcoming Brand Building Workshop, July 29 in Los Angeles. Develop a sustainable brand platform for your business or big idea.
*Please note that marketing managers, individuals in career transition, thought leaders and those building a practice will benefit from this work, in addition to those with products, ideas or companies on the move.
