What can I do if my branding isn't working?
Sometimes as a business we hit a ceiling, whether it’s pricing, our target market, our style, or our location. Either way a business will most likely hit some sort of ceiling as they grow and develop.
What’s important to consider is a brand that will develop and grow with you as your business grows and develops, but a lot of us don’t have the foresight to ask for a brand like that, so we are stuck when we hit the ceiling and don’t know what to do.
We feel like our brand isn’t working.
Now it could absolutely be that your branding doesn’t align with the price you would like to charge, or the people you would like to reach, or maybe you are stuck in a location that is surrounded by penny pinchers and you think a rebrand will solve these issues.
What I would like to encourage anyone who is starting to feel like their branding isn’t working out for them is to go through the following questions about aspects of their business and make sure that it’s not a problem with clarity and alignment rather than branding.
As you go through these questions and answer them for yourself and your business, it’s interesting to think about what your answers were when you had your first logo created and how much has changed since then. A lot of the time, that is the key. That it’s been years since you audited your brand and logo against your goals and target market and the two just aren’t aligning anymore.
Why did you start your business?
What are your core values or beliefs as a business?
How would you describe your overall style as a business? (Use human characteristics like: trustworthy, playful, romantic, feminine, southern, professional, approachable, etc)
What can your clients count on you for?
What do you want your legacy to be?
Who is your ideal client and what do they value most in a business or brand?
What pain points does your ideal client experience with your industry and how do you solve them?
How do you want your customers to feel when interacting with you, your product, and your brand?
Describe a favorite client. What made them your favorite? (Was it their personality, what they valued, how they interacted, etc)
Where do you see your business in the next 5-10 years?
What are some brands/companies that you admire and why?
Now that you’ve answered these questions for your business, what has changed? Was your favorite client who you thought it was going to be? Do you work with clients that are similar to your favorite client, or is it a rare occasion? When you look at your current branding, can you see the characteristics you described of your overall style? Are you truly solving pain points for your clients? Have your core values changed over the years?
It’s so important to do some introspection and reflection over these things.
You are getting a taste of what each and every one of my clients have to go through, because these are a few questions I pulled from my very own brand discovery questionnaire that I send to each client in the first week of our project.
If your answers have changed to these questions or you realize you may not be talking to the right clientele, address those issues first! It’s important to lay the foundation and groundwork for your business and then build the aesthetics on top of it.
After you’ve made those tweaks and changes to the foundation of your business, like addressing your Why, your target market, your core values, etc, it’s time to address your aesthetics. Your logo, color palette, typography, messaging and how it’s reflecting your values, style, and goals and who it’s truly talking to.
You may be surprised how psychological colors and typography can be. We are very visual creatures and each of us have an inner compass when it comes to color and type that is truly amazing. So if you’re to the point where you know for a fact that your branding is no longer reflecting your answers from above, it’s time to start looking for a design partner who can help you create a brand that reflects your answers and takes into consideration all of the design aspects like color, typography, target audiences, etc.
I hope these questions help you get aligned with the reality of your business and aesthetics! If you still have questions, you’re in luck! I’ve created an offering just for business owners who need a little advice or guidance having to do with their branding, website, marketing materials, etc called the Brand Mentorship Sessions.
These are one and a half hour sessions with me where we walk through the aspects that you are struggling with and talk through how they can be solved. We basically do an audit of the aesthetics of your business and you get to pick my brain about design and marketing. My ultimate goal is that you have clarity and love for your branding so that you can share it with others authentically, and that your branding reflects your unique self and speaks to your target audience.
