Photo by pmv chamara on Unsplash

You had so much energy and joie de vivre when you launched your business. This morning, you surf the classifieds to find a j.o.b.. The wind is gone; your sails are flaccid. You had a good idea. You gave it the college try.

Wait.

As a business coach and content expert, I’m going to ask you the right question: What is your brand identity?

Huh?

You heard me. You know what product or products you’re hawking. Or what services you provide. You set up the website. Got the fancy digital business card. Paid Mark Zuckerberg for social media posts. You did SEO. You did everything right.

And most importantly, you are an expert in your field. Or your product is beautiful, useful, fabulous. You should be a billionaire by now.

Nope. You know why? Because you didn’t work on your brand identity first.

Rush to Failure

I’ve been an entrepreneur for over thirty years, have six successful ventures behind me, and three operating now. I have coached hundreds of entrepreneurs. Almost every new business rushes to the market without knowing the market and how they fit in the market!

This is a simple matter. Basic communication. The meaning of any communication – marketing included – rests with the person listening. Not with you. Not with the business. But with the consumer.

So, you must learn to talk to that person in a way that person expects and wants.

And they have to want to listen to you.

Don’t bother printing business cards or paying for a year of website hosting until you know who you are, who your customers are, and who you need to be to engage those customers in conversation.

Marketing gurus call this step: Branding.

What is Branding?

Branding is the communication choices that you make to represent your brand. Your brand is the personality you choose to connect effectively with your audience’s values, attitudes, and emotions. Branding differentiates you from competitors, nurtures recognition, enhances value and customer relationships, and ensures create cohesion.

Which company would associate with this image: Disney or Harley Davidson?

(Open Source Image from WebstockReview.net)

That’s obvious. Sure. But every company strives – or should strive – for those powerful associations. You know who they are – and you know, as a consumer, if you like it, want to be associated with it, or want to buy from them.

Some of this, you already know – but you were so excited to make money that you jumped and figured you would do all that branding stuff later. Whoops. No worries. Spilt milk and more cliches. We’re human. You can fix this!

In 2016, I started my photography side-hustle. For a while, clients dripped in through referrals… but I wanted the business to be more than a side-hustle. So, I launched a website, created business cards, blah, blah. And nothing. Crickets.

More cliches. Ready? Physician heal thyself.

I know Branding Before Business. I’ve advised every client to do just that. But I rushed to market and failed. No matter the industry, branding is the key to business success.

Every business needs a brand identity: the design elements, word choice, color scheme – even the business name – to attract the target consumer. Branding includes personal branding, corporate branding, product or service branding… Every communication that originates from your business should be cohesive to that brand choice.

Your business has seven seconds to make that first impression. To stand out in the crowd. To capture your target customer or client. Or that consumer will swipe and forget you. You must ensure you are speaking your special person’s language.

Just like you are about to do, I grew my business with solid branding.

What to Do?

Branding takes effort – which is why most budding entrepreneurs skip it. Consider simple communication: You have to craft what you say to help the listener understand you. If you use slang with grandma, she’ll frown. If you use formal language with friends, they’ll laugh at you. It’s not… another cliche… rocket science. But it is vital.

Step 1: Be Authentic

You need to know who you are and what values you hold. I don’t state that lightly. What’s your personal brand? Are you a person of integrity? Are you fun? Are you serious? Are you down-to-earth or posh? What are your priorities? What needs are important to you?

When branding my photography business, I took a weekend and seriously examined who I am as an artist. My photos are not light and bright. I prefer action and capturing candid moments. I detest canned, cute poses. Detest. I’m edgy. Honest. Raw.

Realizing this bothered me. All the other local photographers were light and bright and had these cute, pretty images. They were making money. I was scared. But I forged ahead. I can’t be cute and soft. It’s not me. And selling it would be impossible for me.

List your values. Note your attitudes on social topics. Make a list of brands you admire – and consider why you admire them.

Step 2: Identify Your Customer or Client Persona

Who’s buying your product or choosing your service? This is an important step. Once you have clearly defined your product or service, answer these questions:

1. Who is your customer or client? Jot down demographic information. Age, gender, economic and educational status. What generation are they from? (That’s an important metric.)
2. What does this person care about? What are his or her values?
3. Is this person driven by emotions or logic? How does he or she think? (Or does that person avoid thinking?)
4. How do you talk to this person? Are you friendly and open? Are you serious? Conservative or wild?
5. What does this person buy? Where do they shop?

Here’s my abridged client profile:

My ideal client is a male or female GenX who enjoys being different. They listen to alternative music. They don’t have that 9-5 corporate job. They like adventure and take risks. They are entrepreneurs or have side-hustles. Top middle class. Very authentic. Anti-establishment. They rage against authority and don’t vote the party ticket. They are self-educated or traditionally educated but know a degree is what you do with it (cognitively complex). They are self-sufficient and self-made. They care about personal freedom. They don’t care about social media unless it’s memes or satire. They enjoy life and choose excitement over the popular. They respect authenticity and honesty. They buy lingerie and sex toys, sports equipment, motorcycles, have high tech, enjoy the local pub, and avoid anything where they have to wear a tie. Pretense is the antithesis of their lifestyles.

(I’ll go into depth on this topic in another article.)

Step 3: Research Your Market – Especially Competitors

How are you different from your competitors?

You can’t answer that question until you know all about your competitors. This step should be one of the first you take when you write your business plan. (Didn’t do it, did you?)

Once you have determined your geographic reach (are you selling locally, internationally…?), make a list of all the other businesses who sell what you sell or do what you do. Then, investigate each company’s brand. What’s their story? What customers or clients are they attracting?

The easiest way is to purchase a market report (like IBIS). Or get started by identifying the three top providers in a simple internet search. Once you have a grasp of your market, identify three to five ways you can be different. The key is to continue to appeal to that person in Step 2, but stand out from the crowd.

According to classic marketing theory, you can differentiate in one of four ways: product, price, place (where you sell), and promotion.

My differentiation step resulted in this description:

My competitors, the big five photographers in my area, focus on family portraiture. They sell packages based on holidays – and their images are sweet, light and bright. A few have incorporated boudoir photography and sports photography (posed). Some are doing studio work – where clients dress up as a fairy princess or pose in a sports uniform. All offer senior portraits – all posed. No one locally is doing commercial photography. And no one is doing action photography. Each of the big five offer wedding and event photography – but showcase posed, formal, lighted images. Few candids. Nothing raw or original. It all looks the same. They compete on price and package contents (albums, prints).

Step 4: Choose Your Brand Personality

This is the big step where you analyze and interpret all your research to define your brand. You want to choose a personality with traits that speak to your consumer.

Ask yourself: If your brand attends an event with your consumers, how does your brand act? What does it talk about? What does it wear? What does it eat or drink? What music is playing? How do the consumers react? Do they engage or make an excuse to walk away?

To make your choice easier, market experts divide brand personalty into five general categories:

1. Exciting. Spirited and passionate, the exciting brand is imaginative, bold, and adventurous. It does not follow the rules – it makes the rules. Think: Tesla. Red Bull. It’s customers want excitement and to be outside of the norm.
2. Sincere. These wholesome, trustworthy brands rely on tradition and family values. People are first. They are honest – and kid-friendly. Think: Disney, Hallmark, or Dove. Consumers want comfort, love, and safety.
3. Rugged. Tough and outdoorsy, these brands value adventure. They are earthy, masculine, and athletic – but often traditional. Think: Jeep. Timberland. Consumers want to have fun and get dirty!
4. Competent. These brands ooze intelligence and success. They are conscientious, reliable, conservative, and principle-driven. Think: UPS or Volvo. Or any bank.
5. Sophisticated. Sexy and elegant, these glamourous brands are worldly and confident. Typically luxury brands, think: Chanel or BMW.

Experts, like me, often suggest you choose a primary and a secondary personality. You can also investigate detailed branding archetypes (which I will discuss in another article).

For my photography business, I chose an exciting brand personality – but also included elements of the competent brand personality type. Notice my competitors were almost uniformally sincere.

Let me digress: In some markets, your target consumer will only choose one type of brand – like sincere. Be careful and take time to understand your buyer.

Step 5: Design Your Brand

When executing your brand identity, you must stay consistent. Consider every area of your business:

• Visual elements: logo, color palette, fonts, images, visual style
• Verbal elements: name, tagline, tone of voice, word choice
• Action elements: services or products, processes (contracts, invoices), and customer care

What you are doing is attending to every communication code: the verbal and nonverbal aspects of your message. You can have a really sexy logo with brilliant colors and a fab tag line, which gets your customers believing you are cool and fun. But if your customer service is stuffy and rude, your message fails. If your product is boring and too traditional, your message fails. It must all align.

Consider recent unpleasantness, where a brand who shall remain nameless, attempted to appeal to people who did not consume its beverage. Its message was to outsiders: We love you, too. But its message opposed the values and attitudes of its loyal customers! Big no. Big mistake. Consistency in brand identity is vital. (I’ll probably write an opinion piece on these brand failures… but I’m too disgusted to be fair at this point.)

For now, let’s focus on us.

Meet: Problem Child Photography. No Time Outs ‘Round Here.

I played with the idea that my Gen X customers were often in trouble as children – they were too active, too smart, too clever. And they want freedom. My logo is red, gold and black – and slightly off center. My tone is snarky and humorous – but down-to-earth. I offer the typical products (prints, albums) but add outrageous elements. I focus on raw and candid images – rarely posed. Every image is exciting and in motion (action photography). If I do a studio session, my images are dramatic and often harsh – and incorporate that person’s uniqueness. I refer customers who want cutesy light and bright family portraits. It’s not what I offer. My pricing is average to high. Clients don’t mind paying because I over-deliver on my service, my product, and my customer service. (Continuing to respect their desire to feel unique.) I often create personalized packages and adjust my approach to them (they love customization). My customers are straight-shooters. I’m upfront with pricing and extras. No games. Nothing hidden. No surprises. My customers can smell b-s from a mile away.

And when Problem Child Photography was born, my sales exploded. I designed the right message and reached the right customer. I was what they wanted to hear. I offered what they desired (solved their problem of wanting their life captured authentically to show and memorialize their uniqueness).

When it’s harmonized, the branding song is a classic.