Lessons

Lesson Info

Implement Brand Strategy Quickly & Easily

We've covered a lot of ground and now it's time to pull all of that together and create your strategy because I think I'm gonna take the pulse of the people on our studio audience you guys were feeling like you have a lot of work to do now, right? Yep probably maybe even more than you thought you were gonna have when this started. All right, so I want to start by just kind of taking the temperature of your brand and figuring out what exactly you think you need is it going to be a complete overhaul so you know, new name maybe major changes to your product line up kind of almost starting from the ground up, right? Or is it maybe just going to be a directional shift? Maybe kind of you're headed in the right direction, but we're goingto change the sales a little right? Or is it really just some minor adjustments? Are you kind of just tweaking a few things to really kind of upgrade the brand? So we're gonna start with our studio audience on did love our online audience to share a cz well, s...

o what is your brand need monica, there you are you kind of major overhaul? Well, I don't want to get myself overwhelmed because I would like for the product is our products are so I'm going to say directional shift but really right in a since it isn't over right? And I do think in a way that you can sort of say directional shift because your products themselves aren't changing so you don't have to overhaul that part of your business your overhauling all the supporting elements around it kathy where you uh what's his minor adjustments but I think I need a little bit more than minor but I think focusing on what you said like my ver bage my apple kind of connection between each other just keeping that consistent yeah, you just have to kind of pull you of a lot of disparate elements happening right now and you're just going to kind of pull them all together and then I think what's great about where your brand is is once you get that in place, you actually have an opportunity to really expand and brought in your product line. So once you get those little minor adjustments all in order, you can actually start to then come back in and play and have fun with what you're making the actual core product of your business, which is great. So if you have a person somebody anybody listening might have, you know, be torn between their name and then a brand you haven't exercise or you think that's something you can recommend to kind of decide, you know, like when you're going in between so I think when you're deciding between between two things like that and I know that you're probably deciding sarah's going kind of finalize the name you know everyone's sort of making those decisions the first thing is that you do have to go with your gut if you don't love it just let it go but then I think I would just start talking to people you could certainly post on social media but I think at the end of the day it's better to have some conversations on even like we're having here where people are saying, you know what I heard glimmer of gold I thought jewelry and maybe that's a little bit confusing so start talking to people and see how they feel about it but at the end of the day I think make a gut decision and it seems sort of like to me like maybe your name might be the right way to go and it feels like you're just resisting it a little yeah, I think it might be right I talked to the group everyone thinking the name you need makes a lot of sense so and you've been so forward all those old domains over teo we think that we could put that on your to do list once we build that sara where you with your brand do you are you in the complete overhaul are really just the adjustment um it's it's partial overhaul I've never really consciously branded to begin with this is a this is the first time that I've actually really done this s o that's why I need a new name and I knew that when I came here so that's I mean that's huge to me yeah, I already kind of had it in my mind that all these the colors and the feel and I need to articulate yeah what what I now know my brand is about my product I feel good about and even though it's not all made yet it's I know exactly the idea's air that right state and I've started in the direction so you for you, it's really? Just now it's time to implement like you know you, you've got a lot to dio but it's really just about getting in there and doing it now taking that action. So what we're seeing from our online audience, how how are they feeling about their brand? I think they're feeling very strong run they're saying they know they need to set up their website with logo design and products was a big challenge that's all baby buddhist saying actually we looked at baby but early around way weren't quite sure so maybe that is something that needs to be worked absolutely locks s aries is saying I see that I need to work on my photography and telling a story with my brand adele is also ec annoying that she needs to work on her logo, a tagline and her stories, and she also needs to get interest sussed. So, yeah, people are really recognizing now what they need to do great. So as your kind of moving through an as we're creating these to do list, I want youto hang on to this idea that branding is this emotional connection repeated over time and that's really what I want you to focus on it's really easy to get bogged down and, like I have to make the logo, I have to do the colors I have to change the name, I have to get the new website or the new you're out or whatever it is and it's really easy to go into those details and lose sight of the big picture of your brand. But that big picture of your brand is so important because you, khun, go in and change everything right, you can change every aspect of your website of your packaging, of your logo of your colors. You can change all of those things, but if it's not evoking an emotion in your customers, you just wasted your time, right? So I want you guys to keep holding onto this idea of how you want your customers to feel how you won your customers, to feel monica. I want them to be proud happy that they have it, they want them to feel like like I got this time together and yeah and you know and here's the thing so I know that I've asked you guys this question like twelve times now I'm not looking for a different answer every time I'm looking for the same answer, sir, because remember that's the essence of the brand it's the emotional connection repeated over time so you're going to get bored talking about these things, right? This is my new things since I invented it earlier your board change your hair color don't don't mess with the brand right? If you change your hair, don't mess with the brand keep repeating the same things over and over and over again you're going to feel like a broken record it's not going to feel that way to your customers because they've heard it if they haven't heard it at all or maybe they've heard it once and they've forgotten so it's okay tio when I asked you guys these questions to tell me the same thing you told me an hour ago even though it feels really silly that's really the essence of branding right here it's why I keep asking you guys these same questions and I expect the same answers every single time I ask cappie how do you want your customers feel happy? Awesome brave enough to go through their transformation effect all right, so keep that in mind as you guys are working on this. The other thing to remember is that your brand is a work in progress so some of you do need pretty major overhauls or directional shifts and you're going to have to make some big changes but even when you're done there's always going to be tweaks there's always going to be adjustments and that's okay, you can't let your brand stay static so you know, I mentioned before that as I was prepping for this class, I started thinking about a few things that I can do better with my brand too and that's something that I'm constantly doing and that's something that you see with the best brands is they don't make decisions and stick with them forever they make them little adjustments, those little fine tunings. So once you get the big picture sorted out, you're going to continue to make little fine tunings maybe it's you change the way you word something on the about paige, you make a little adjustment to the way you're photographing something once you get that big picture and you're always going to make those little adjustments, keeping in mind that you're trying to build that stronger emotional connection with your customer, so then the question becomes how do you improve your brand while still running your business right because you have to get money coming in, right? You have bills to pay, you have things to dio. So how do you do that? Should you pause your business to focus on branding and really, that depends a lot on where you are and when I say pause, what I mean is, should you stop focusing on revenue generating activities? I know monica's nodding. So where you guys at right now, you probably have a lot of think product that has to go out right? Right around this time, right? Yeah, and I sort of feel like I don't want to push it more. I don't want to get our product in the hands of people if we're going to be changing the the the name of the company, which would require changing on all the tags. Right? So in your case, you can actually make that shift where you're just changing the tag. It's not like you have a lot of product that's gonna end up sitting around that you can now can't use because of the name changed. So that's, really good. So I think in in your case what you have to figure out is, you know, can I fulfill the things that are existing commitments? But not do any external marketing right? You're not going to go out and email anymore stores right now, right? You're gonna put the paws on that for just a little bit so you get that new stuff sorted out right for someone else you may be able to make the changes without actually having to polish the business it also you know, kathy years air a little bit more minor so you can kind of keep things going you could probably you can keep marketing you keep posting on social media years is going to be I think a little bit easier because it's not such a big shift even if you change the name your name, I think in your case it's not a huge shift because you're already doing some things that implement your name anyway, right? You already signing your name? You already got your actual already got a logo developed using the initials of your name that right there is a pretty good signifier that might be where you need to go, eh? So in your case you're probably not you don't really have to pause you think, sarah, you're still kind of in the early stages of what you're doing right? I have a nen vant ori, but I haven't been promoting it because this I've been doing you're coarse, I actually just applied for a new york now san francisco in a right so I'm starting to you know yeah do do the things where I need were which will help me sell right? So you're still kind of in that building pays of your business anyway so you can really take the time to focus on your branding now for some of the people you may realize that you have to put I actually like the paws on either the branding activities or the business so I don't know that you guys are there because I think you want to you want to just get this brand shift happening but depending on what time of year it is and what your business is doing, you may decide you know what I need to keep carrying forward right now and two months from now we're going to do the branding overhaul and that's okay too if that makes more sense for your business if you're in a really crazy busy time and you're feeling like you know what? I just have to get get product out and I can't worry about this then you can go ahead and schedule it in right? I think it feels like for you monica you guys just wanna coming up in the beginning of the year we have several retail intel shows I mean right spring is like baby shower season, so in your case it almost feels like now or never right yeah yeah and so and someone else might feel the opposite so it's okay to kind of fit that in where it makes sense for you soas faras making time for branding there are two ways that you can kind of look at this and depending on what you need to do this is why we took the temperature of where you were you might either do small tasks to improve your brand on azalea weekly basis so I think kathy this is really gonna apply to you right so you're going to figure out what those what those things are and it may be every day you're going to do one or two today I'm gonna you know get that new domain set up I'm gonna move my father top five blood post over I'm going teo get that logo created an illustrator and pull it right so you probably are gonna make a list of little tasks if you have to do more of a complete overhaul you're gonna probably block out pretty big chunks of time right you're going to say ok next week pretty much all I'm gonna do is work on this brand stuff I've got to get the logo sorted I've got to get the color palette of have I got to do the new website we gotta re design the packaging you might chunk that out and you might also chuck that out for a little bit further in the future so I just redid my website, my mega nama dot com site, about a month ago, and it was one of those where I knew I wanted to do it, but I was also about to leave on a big trip. I was about to head to india, and I had the design, and I have the template, and I wanted to do it, and I stopped myself. I was like, don't go breaking your website before you're out of the country for two weeks, right? So I blocked it in my calendar when I am back to give myself a few days to recover, and then I'm going to do my website and that's exactly what I did, so you might want to look at what you have on the horizon and figure out when you're going to make those big changes right? Don't change the website before you go out of town because something doesn't work, and you can't fix it. Now you've had your website down for two weeks, right? Don't decide you're going to change your website the week before you have to go d'oh, a major trade show or a big craft show? Don't add more stress, figure out when the better times are when the downtime czar and budget in from there and again in your case, monica, you're you've got a big time coming up, so I know you're gonna be stressed for a month and I'm sorry monica mom, I apologized, teo, but you guys already get in there and and really do that so now I want you to actually get in there, pull up your calendars this is a homework assignment, especially for you guys online chunkin sometime for branding so if you're doing those daily tasks that maybe set aside a little bit of time every day, maybe you're going to say, you know what? I'm going to get up and for the first hour that I'm working, I'm gonna work on branding and then whatever I have gotten done in an hour, I'm gonna put aside I'm going to go on with the rest of my day or, you know, maybe it's over the lunch break or I'm always going to do it during the afternoon nap, whatever it is that makes sense chunk that time into your calendar now put a reminder in your phone branding, branding you from beavis branding you every day you're going to do something right and if you're more of that, I need a chunk in time go in your calendar now and mark that off all of next week here's and I'm working on and we're going to make that to do listen a minute so you'll be able to plug that in but here's what I'm working on and you could really decide to kind of go either way, so I mentioned you know, I wanted to read you the website for meghan almond. Most of my changes in terms of branding for my mega nomine brand are really more about evolution, right? It's about making little shifts all the time to help the customer connect more with the brand I'm gonna update my logo and now I'm gonna apply that, but I'm not going to do a huge rebrand. Then I decided I wanted to kind of move my online shop, so I shifted that and then I shifted my other website so it's all these little changes but it's never like, hey, look at the new and improved meghan omine its little shifts that people go hey, that looks better, right? But I've never turned into a big, huge re launch thing for designing an mba and my other website that I made a bigger deal out of it. I shifted from I didn't name shift, crafting an mba to designing an mba, and that was a big deal. We're relaunching, I'm putting out new content, I'm sending emails so you get to decide which one you want to dio if you're just making those shift. It's not gonna be like hey look at my new brand for you guys monica you might be having a relaunch party right make it a big deal invite everyone you know, you know, if you really have to go through that huge change with the brand, make it an event if that makes sense for you if not just make those shifts and keep on doing the work and you could you could still talk about them you know already designed the website and posted on instagram hey, what could redesign the website today, right? So at least people realize it happened but I'm not going to throw a big party every time I make a little shift in my brand that doesn't make sense, but if you do those major changes make it an event for your customers so that it makes sense to them, especially if you're doing a a big name change you want them to know like hey something's happening there not like what happened to sweet cheeks you want him to know something big happened, right? So now we're gonna go ahead and create your branding strategy. If you guys want to follow along in the workbook, we are on page forty seven, so I've really broken the branding strategy into four key areas introspection, research, design and action and we're gonna work through all of these so introspection is what do you need to decide? Because what? I have good news for you guys, you all just did step one that's what we've been working on, right? We've been making the brand decisions, but you might still have a few so you might have to finalize the name yeah, you might have to finalize the name yeah, there are a few decisions left left to go in so that's step one and actually, once we lay out the whole plan, I'm gonna work thru with us in the studio audience. We're actually gonna we're going to name these and we're gonna really highlight them except to his research. What do you need to know? Be careful of step two. Step two is the bottomless pit of I don't actually want to commit to anything, so I'm going to research forever, right? This should be quick, short into the point. What do you need to know? Do you need to know where to buy packaging? She needs no. Who uses your web host? Do you need to choose a web designer? But it shouldn't be. Let me look at five other one hundred other websites and figure something out that's. Now what this is for this is for like I know any new packaging, and now I have to find a resource good news is I made some resource guides for you guys to make this section as short as possible those aaron the bonuses to make the section as short as possible because I don't want you to get stuck and research research can be procrastination really really easily so this is just you know, I know I need to do something I'm not quite sure how I'm going to figure out how to do it and I'm going to move on right? So step three is design what do you need to create it might be a logo it might be designing packaging it might be designing a website you what do you need to actually sit down and design so we've you know talked about in this introspection piece all of the elements what makes a great logo you know we've thought about all those things now you actually have to create some of them and then the last step is action what do you need to dio I need to put my logo on my website right that's the action so that's the very specific concrete steps that were going to take and really branding develops through action your brand doesn't exist until you get to step for so our goal is that we want to move off through those first three steps as quickly as possible we don't want to get stuck in indecision land right, pick something and go with it it's all gonna be okay now, kathy's. Like which which name do I use it's going to be okay, kathy, honestly, whichever name you pick it's gonna be okay. Go with god. Pick one, move forward, that's, that's. Really, you know the best advice there.