The Most Important Aspects Of Branding

1. The Brand’s Purpose

The greatest of all human necessities is the need for a deep, profound sense of purpose. People want to feel like their lives are important to a greater goal, to have some meaning beyond themselves. Everyone wants to feel that they’re doing something they were born to do, something that resonates with them. Since we spend the vast majority of our time working, it only makes sense that we want to work for a purpose that we care about, something that’s aligned with our worldview.

For this reason, it’s very important that you build your brand around a great purpose, one which will inspire employees and make work rewarding to them. You must come up with a clear, well-defined purpose for your brand and help put that purpose into words as precisely and succinctly as possible. Once that purpose is understood, it’ll become the driving force for your behaviours and actions.

2. The Brand’s Vision

Your organisation’s vision statement is simply the future it pictures for the people it’ll impact. It’s not the future of the company or its employees, but the future of the people you serve, a future that’ll become real through your services or products. Your design must be bold, ambitious with a vision that helps to articulate it in a simple, memorable and powerful way.

3. The Brand’s Motto

Mottos can be much better than a mission statement, for a number of reasons. However, we’ll often ask a company about their motto and find that they don’t have one. Mottos are very powerful. They can inspire employees to take action and overcome obstacles, to keep working towards their goals even when it becomes hard to do so. Look at some of the greatest companies’ mottos, such as Facebooks’ “Move fast and break things” and Harley Davidson’s “Live To Ride, Ride To Live”. Even New York State’s “Ever Upward” is a great example.

Your brand’s motto should be the core of the branding strategy, as well as its decisions, messaging and behaviours. You should come up with a unique motto which reflects your brand’s culture and intentions, making it all clear for customers and employees alike. This should be printed everywhere from promotional notebooks in the office to huge signboards around the city.

4. The Brand’s Core Values

Your Brand’s values are basically a set of guidelines and directions which should guide you and your employees’ choices, attitudes and actions in general. They’re like a code by which you all work, representing what is important for the company in a clear, unambiguous manner and helping employees understand what sort of behaviour and performance are expected of them. You must choose the main guiding principles of your company, which should support the brand’s vision, shape its culture and reflect what it truly stands for.

5. The Brand’s Archetype

Is your brand a rebel? A hero? A lover? Based on Carl Jung and Dr. Carol Pearson’s work, it is important to determine what archetypal storyline represents your brand best. It’s important to keep in mind that brands that take a more human approach and incorporate human-like traits do a better job at connecting with the audience. Doing so will help make the sort of character your brand should live out clear for your team.

6. What Sets The Brand Apart

Regardless of how niche your company is, you probably have competitors doing similar work – so what makes your brand stand out and become particularly interesting? It’s important that you create some differentiation if you want to do better than the competition. People don’t want the ordinary, and you shouldn’t want it either.