Building your Brand and Corporate Personality

As a designer and marketing professional I see it all the time, in print, stores, and on websites. The web is one of the number one ways a company can project its brand image and far too many are not taking that outlet seriously. I ran across one today that was for a furniture company that sells high quality bespoke furniture with an average price of $14,000 per-piece. Their site was one page, with poor photography and zero style. You would think a company that sold products for interior design would have spent some time developing a brand personality and persona that reflected the creativity needed to build great furniture. But more importantly, the persona of the customer that is looking for that type of product. It goes to the core of the brand development of the company... A number of companies hire someone like myself to build their brand identity for them, but if that is not in your budget here are some tips to help your company put its best foot forward both on and offline.
Brand Personality: Look at the users of your products and services, or if you are just starting up, the target demographic. Ask what they like, what issues resonate with them, what products they currently use. If your company or product was a person does it look like your customers? Ask your friends, family, and employees, what they think of when they hear your company name, what it reflects. Look at your current products and advertisement; do they look like your target customers? Write out key words that you feel are associated with your business. They could be: Service, Quality, Value, Cool, Hip, etc... Taking all of that in sit down and write out your brand personality and that is where you start building your brand. Name (if you have not chosen one), style, advertising, marketing, web site, and other aspects of the brand. Brand Personas: Personas are the movie script your target customer should be reading from. Instead of thinking of your demographic as generic groups of men 18-35, write a narrative for each demographic, by creating a fictional person that represents that group. Personas are used by all major ad agencies to give the creative team a tangible person to develop materials for. Developing an advertisement for 30-40 year old housewives is a lot harder than developing an ad for "Rebecca" a busy mom on the go, who has three kids, a dog, and her own home based business. If your target is "Rebecca", your ads and company should reflect that. Lets say your company sells a cleaning product that will cut cleaning time in half, is "Rebecca" going to respond to an ad that shows a woman just cleaning a house, or a photo of your product? She may... But she is more likely to respond to an ad that features a busy mom perhaps sitting at a desk in her den/home office, answering a phone while kids are running amok. A mom like her who needs every extra second she can get, so cutting her cleaning time in half is important. Had the ad agency just been handed a product and a age group and sex, they could have produced any number of ads. But if they are handed "Rebecca" and told to create an ad just for her... they will. Developing Personas is easy here is an example: John is a 28 year old college graduate that works in the financial services industry, in California. When he is not working he is enjoying his classic car, watching football, and spending time with friends. He is single, rents a town home in an upscale area, and is a member of the local gym. John has to dress in a suit for work, so when he is off comfortable jeans and a t-shirt is what he is generally found in. Some of his favorite brands are Banana Republic, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Express. He drives a F150, but his classic car is a 1965 Ford Mustang and he has been considering a purchase of a new Motorcycle but is torn between a Triumph and Motoguzzi. His home is well maintained, but his furniture reflects that fact that he single. John does not like to cook and eats most meals out or orders in. You need to visualize what your personas look like physically. You want to know what makes them tick. What do they like? Hate? What do they do in their free time? Create a back story? You will find this will make your branding job so much easier. It will allow you to focus your PR, advertising, web design, and print towards the target audience. Create a fictional bio for each persona that represents your demographic group. Dive in deep and write as much as you can, and use your intuition to fill in the blanks. What are their needs and wants? Where do they want to be in five years? What kind of watch do they wear? Building the Brand: Now that you have your personas, start building your brand from there. What would they like to see in an ad? Take a trip down to the local book store and look at publication your personas would read. Look at publications that are outside of your industry, if you are a clothing company, and "John" is a persona you have developed, pick up a few classic car, motorcycle, and sports publications you think that "John" would read. After pulling a few ads from those publications, and start your internal development. Create your marketing message, designs, and content that will appeal to "John", and be focused on satisfying that demographic. If you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one. Develop the campaign around those specific, yet fictional, people.