How to build a brand in 7 steps

Establishing a brand is essential to beginning a business. If you can’t explain your brilliant product or business idea to the wider public, especially in a way that appeals to your target market, it won’t matter how fantastic it is.

• Research your target market
• Determine your brand’s voice and personality
• Choose your business name
• Write your brand story
• Create a brand style guide
• Design your logo and brand assets
• Apply your branding across your business

Establishing your brand image as a small business owner is essential, particularly if you’re entering a crowded sector. Furthermore, laying a strong basis for your brand identification will aid in the gradual development of brand recognition.

It’s vital that you take into account every detail when you develop your brand identity, even though you may need to go back and review some processes when you change course or build your brand. Save this guide as a helpful tool to refer to at any point in the process of developing your brand.

Research your target market

Understanding the present market is the first step towards creating a successful brand. Who are your competitors and potential customers? This particular question is the foundation of every successful brand strategy and company plan.

Without knowing your audience’s preferences, it is impossible to design a logo for your brand. Additionally, you can only create a distinctive brand identity that makes an impression on the competition after you are aware of it.

Market research can be carried out in a variety of ways prior to beginning the brand-building process.

• Examine your product or service category’s direct and indirect competitors by searching for them on Google.
• Speak with members of your target market and find out which brands they purchase within your sector.
• Examine the pertinent pages or accounts on social media that your target market frequents.
• To gain insight into how your clients might browse and purchase things, try shopping online or in physical locations.
• Examine market trends through reading trade journals, following influencers on social media, and utilizing Google Trends.

Make a note of the leading brands in the industry while you conduct your study. What exactly is it that they are doing well? What distinguishes you from them? Your unique selling proposition (USP) is what we refer to as this.

Determine your brand’s voice and personality

Being all things to all people is not the goal of branding. Having a compelling point of view will resonate with your target audience. This will communicate to them that your brand is relevant to them. You can work through a number of exercises to establish this point of view and a unique brand voice.

Make a statement about your positioning.

One or two sentences that establish your brand’s position in the market make up a positioning statement. It won’t always be a declaration you make in public, but it will influence the development of your brand narrative and other standards.

A positioning statement should include information about what you offer, who you cater to, and what sets you apart. Your competitive advantage lies in your value proposition, which will set you apart in a crowded market.

Using this template, make your own:

We present [PRODUCT/SERVICE] to [VALUE PROPOSITION] for [TARGET MARKET]. We are [KEY DIFFERENTIATOR] in contrast to [THE COMPETITION].

An illustration of a positioning statement could resemble this:

We provide travelers with water-resistant, lightweight daypacks that can be folded up into a wallet-sized pocket when not in use. We offer a lifetime guarantee on our packs, no questions asked, in contrast to other accessory brands.

Utilizing word association, brainstorm

Think of your brand as an individual. How do they compare? Do they possess the kind of charisma that would draw in customers? Explain this individual. How can a person’s description be applied to a brand?

Expert in fashion branding Joey Ng advises distilling your adjective list to no more than three standout terms. “Identify your specialty and sum up in a few succinct words what sets your brand apart,” she advises. “Ditch anything, even if you think it would be good, if it doesn’t suit those three original words. Make sure the main point is clear, then elaborate.

hone the tone and voice of your brand

You may focus on how you want to come across to customers and how you want them to feel about you when they engage with you by using your brand’s voice and tone. Is your tone serious or sarcastic? Is it trying to be a trustworthy guide, a muse, or a dependable friend?

Make a list of things to do and things not to do that will guide the language you use and won’t use in your correspondence. You might even wish to focus on particular channels of communication, such as social media or customer service: What variations in tone do you make based on the circumstance?

Choose your business name

One of the first significant commitments you will likely make as a business owner is choosing the name of your organization. The ideal brand name is one that is appropriate for your business or items, has social media handles that are available, and isn’t already being used by another firm (especially in your field). It need to be simple to recall and challenging to copy.

Several methods for selecting a brand name consist of the following:

• Create a whole new term (Pepsi, for example).
• Rename a term that has nothing to do with your business or product (Apple for computers, Maple for health care, etc.).
• Make use of a metaphor or evocative word (such as buffer).
• Give a literal description of it (e.g., Home Depot or The Shoe Company).
• Modify a term by utilizing Latin endings (e.g., Tumblr or Activia), adding, deleting, or modifying its spelling.
• Make an abbreviation out of a larger name (Home Box Office, HBO, for example).
• Make use of a portmanteau: Snapple (snappy + apple) or Pinterest (pin + interest).
• Make use of your own name, such as DKNY or Donna Karan.

If your brand’s preferred domain name—such as yourbrandname.com—isn’t available, think about additional options to secure a suitable domain name. Wearpepper.com, for instance, is the domain name of the lingerie company Pepper. Playing with the top-level domain is another option. Try a country-specific domain like.ca or.uk.

Write your brand story

Your company’s autobiography, as well as occasionally your own as the founder, is your brand story. It’s a helpful branding technique since it gives your company a human face and helps you build deep relationships with clients. Consumer trends indicate a desire for deep connections with brands. A tale that is honest, transparent, and fascinating is the greatest approach to accomplish this.

Which aspects of your personal narrative will appeal to your intended audience? How can they establish a personal connection with you? In order to convince people that your brand is right for them, how can you include your mission and values into your story?

Making a memorable tagline

You may utilize this work to craft a catchy slogan for your company once you’ve defined your positioning and brand story. A great slogan raises brand awareness by being succinct, memorable, and impactful.

Even if a catchy slogan is unrelated to your company, its recognition among consumers can grow as a result.

The following strategies can help you write your slogan:

• Put up a fight, as demonstrated by Death Wish Coffee’s “The World’s Strongest Coffee” example.
• Like Red Bull did, turn it into a metaphor by saying, “Red Bull gives you wings.”
• Take on the mindset of your clients, e.g., this memorable Nike tagline: “Just do it.”
• Use examples from Cards Against Humanity to communicate with your target demographic, such as “A party game for horrible people.”
• Consider coming up with a clever rhyme, such as the Folgers coffee tagline, “The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.”
• Set a standard for aesthetics or taste, such in this Aritzia example: “Everyday luxury to elevate your world.”

Create a brand style guide

The exciting part is about to begin. Everything you decide on for your brand’s visual identity will be included in your style guide. You’ll find this book useful for creating product packaging, designing social media profile pages, and developing websites.

Choosing your colors

Colors are significant because, in addition to copy, they convey your brand’s attitude to prospective buyers. Although there are disagreements in the field of color psychology, there are some broad correlations between mood and hue. Warm pastels convey a calming tale for infant or wellness brands, while moody, cooler hues go nicely with edgy or sleep-related firms.

Advice on color selection for your visual identity:

• Think about how text in black and white will read against your color scheme.
• Your logo should be recognizable as a single color in black and white, so avoid using too many colors.
• Use focus groups, do market research, and gain an understanding of the particular cultural or demographic variations that may influence a user’s perception of color.
• Keep your color scheme to one or two primary hues, accompanied by a rotating selection of accent colors that change based on how the color is applied.

Choosing a font family

Fonts and colors combine to give your brand a distinctive appearance on social media, your website, packaging, and other marketing materials.

Choose a typeface for headings and a different font for body text (which may not be the same font as your brand’s wordmark). One sans serif font is used by home brand Floof for headers and navigation, and another serif font is used for the remaining content. Observe that its emblem, a straightforward wordmark of its name, is a special typeface that isn’t seen anyplace else:

Determining aesthetic elements and effects

If your company makes extensive use of lifestyle photography, you might want to create guidelines to ensure that the same tone is maintained regardless of the photographer. Perhaps there are rules about tone, colors, effects, and photo filters included in that.

Additionally, you can create a collection of graphic components that you can apply to all of your branded properties. These could be squiggles, textural effects, or characters. Grainy textures and electric stripes are two design aspects that Rotten Candy consistently uses in its branding.

Create your brand’s assets and logo.

Even if creating a logo is among the first things you might consider when creating a brand, it should come last. This is because, once established, it becomes a crucial means of identifying your brand in the public domain and is difficult to alter.

In order for your logo to function at all sizes, it must be distinct, recognizable, and scalable. It should also include all of the previous work you’ve done on your brand. Does it make your customers feel the way you want them to? Does the narrative it tells reflect the principles of your brand? Do the colors of your brand work with it?

Think about every where your brand’s logo will appear:

• Website
• Social media avatar
• Product packaging
• Video ads
• YouTube channel banner
• Browser favicon (the tiny icon that identifies your open browser tabs)
• Email marketing
• Press mentions and partnerships

To get your logo to function in different programs, you might need to make many variations of it. For instance, it will be quite difficult to read your word logo as a favicon or social media avatar. Make a condensed graphic representation of your logo that functions as a circle or square.

Types of logos

For contemporary brands, wordmarks, lettermarks, and other type-based logos are the most popular. However, depending on your aims and aesthetic, different styles can suit you better. A few examples of logo types are as follows:

Abstract logos are made up of color and shape combinations that are difficult to relate to anything in the actual world. These work best when combined with a wordmark as a secondary logo to help establish brand identification.

Mascot logos are made out of the face of a fictional character or actual person that you designate to symbolize your company. They can give your company a more likable personality, which will humanize it. This is most effective for brands catering to children or those with a nostalgic vibe (e.g., Wendy’s, Colonel Sanders for KFC).

Typically round in shape, emblem logos pair text with an emblem to create an opulent brand image. They won’t scale if you make them too fancy (Polo Ralph Lauren, for example).

Icon logos serve as a visual metaphor for your brand. An icon logo, such as the Play button logo on YouTube, conveys information about the product, in contrast to an abstract logo.

Wordmarks, also known as lettermarks, are type-based logos that can be an initial, a collection of letters, or your entire company name.

Designing your own logo

Small budgets are frequently used by emerging brands. Should this apply to you, you might want to think about creating your own logo. You might attempt a logo builder or use a free tool like Canva. These operate by creating prototype logos using basic details about your company.

Consider hiring an expert if you lack design experience or don’t feel comfortable taking on this significant undertaking on your own. You can hold a 99Designs logo contest or outsource the design through gig platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. You can engage a variety of SuperbVA Experts to create your website and brand identity if you operate a business on Shopify.

Apply your branding across your business

A unified brand story is created for your company when you apply your branding throughout it. Customers should be able to recognize and identify your brand no matter where they come across it—in their inbox, in a retail setting, or through a TikTok advertisement.

Refer back to your brand guidelines, mission statement, and values while you develop your website, set up your social media accounts, and plan your marketing to make sure that every choice you make has your target audience in mind.

The greatest control you’ll have over your brand identification is on your website. Take full advantage of this space. Website templates for e-commerce are an excellent place to start. Like the themes in Shopify’s Themes Store, the majority of these allow you to fully customize the layout with your own brand’s colors, fonts, and images.

The development of a brand is an evolution

Creating a logo is just the beginning of developing a brand. Cementing your brand identity in the thoughts of your customers is an ongoing process. Consistency in messaging and thoughtful brand marketing are essential for building a strong brand.

You will keep creating brands for the duration of your company now that you know how to do it from the ground up. If consumer trends or your own ideals change, you might need to adapt your brand. Recall that if you rebrand, devoted clients ought to be able to identify your company and get the same experience. Including their input will enable you to develop your brand with the support of the people who matter most.