susan newman

So, what is “branding,” really?

Branding is the look and feel of your mission and company. It’s the statement you make in a moniker, tagline or mission statement that defines your goals, and the promise to your customers and clients.  It’s your color palette distinction, font distinction (in all usage) and your messaging, as a start.

But beyond that, your brand and YOU should be “one.”

If your company offers “colors” as their brand identity, such as a design house or color trending company, maybe black isn’t the best color to wear when networking, without a dash of bold coloring. Yes it does matter that when someone meets you for the first time in person, that what you look like and what their impression of your business is, should match. Why do you think most jewelry designers or clothing designers wear their own designs? Because it is who they are. The same holds true even if you are a service based business.

Your “brand” is what you are representing, what you stand for, and what your client or customer expects from you.  It’s your promise of “it,” whatever your special “it” is.

Standing out from the crowd to get your brand noticed!

There are a number of ways to be “heard” without shouting from a rooftop.  Remember, you want to be distinctive, unforgettable, not just shout empty messages to potential clients.  They’ll tune you out in a heart-beat.

Picture the brand, Ralph Lauren and you see a polo player, but Lauren actually developed a signature style using models, photography, color palette, clothing, specific to his brand and his company mission of “timeless classic styling.”  Everything the company does is geared towards luxury and his brand image.  Even his stores are decorated using his brand image and company mission.

For those of you who follow (or if you don’t, you should start following) the Queen of Facebook, Mari Smith, when you view any representation of her or her brand, you “see” not only her smiling face, but the color turquoise. That’s her signature color and she’s always wearing it and uses it!  She uses that particular color to “brand” her website, social media and promotions.  Everyone who comes into contact with anything from her will see turquoise and know instantly that it’s Mari, even before they read the content or listen to her videos or webinars.  She made the color tuquoise her brand distinction.  It’s part of her “visual footprint.”  Please understand, for those of you who DON’T know Mari Smith (and you should get to know her), her brand is also about being helpful, generous, informative and a Facebook expert.  She lives and breathes Facebook: THAT is her verbal brand image.

The Branding of Broadcast Louder

For my latestest mission, Broadcast Louder, with friend and colleague Andrea Rosenfeld, the logo had to be bold and somewhat animated so we went with a bright green and black and used the radio type waves to illustrate sound. But to go deeper we needed a soft yet pleasing, artistic graphic that represented our color sensibilities and was distinctive so that people would recognize it everytime they saw it.

The messaging on our website, social media, and the teleclass content we’re writing has that same approach. Explain what artists and creatives will gain, how it will impact their own businesses, not just about our own experiences and what we’ve implemented or how it’s worked for us.

By building a strong creative community we plan to educate creatives (artists, photographers, crafters, writers, jewelers and more…) how to be business savvy and by learning what works and what doesn’t, their businesses will grow, they will gain more fans who turn into advocates, who turn into clients!