Episode 1
The ABCs Of Branding: Identity, Audience, & Consistency
On this episode of The Five Minute Brand, host Robyn Sayles focuses on the importance of creating a personal brand that captures the attention of your target audience. It's not just about logos and designs, but about telling your story in a way that resonates with your audience. Robyn emphasizes that creating a clear brand identity, knowing your target audience, and maintaining brand consistency across touchpoints are vital for building brand recognition and trust. This episode will start at the beginning and answer the question: 'What is a brand?'
Highlights:
- The episode's question to be answered: "What is a brand?"
- Anecdote about recognizing brands
- Importance of a strong, recognizable brand for building a community
- Definition of a brand as more than just a logo or product, but a feeling or impression left on the audience
- Importance of creating an identity that resonates with the audience and stands out from the competition
- The three things every brand needs: clear brand identity, target audience, and brand consistency
- Discussion of starting at the beginning when talking about branding and the common movie trope of the mentor advising the protagonist to do so
- Recognition that people often don't start at the beginning when talking about themselves or their brand and instead talk in roundabout ways
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Links Mentioned in the Show:
Transcript
It's time for the five minute brand, quick and dirty tips for
Speaker:creating a killer personal brand.
Speaker:This is not about logos and designs.
Speaker:This is about telling your story in a way that captures the attention of the
Speaker:people who are already looking for you.
Speaker:This is branding from the inside out.
Speaker:Here's your host, Robyn Sayles.
Robyn:One of my favorite movie tropes is the moment when the protagonist is
Robyn:asking the mentor where do I start?
Robyn:And the answer is always start at the beginning.
Robyn:And this is said as if it's some great wisdom that's being passed down.
Robyn:And I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to go, well, duh.
Robyn:But in reality, especially when we're trying to talk about ourselves
Robyn:or talk about our brand we have a tendency to not start at the beginning.
Robyn:We usually start somewhere in the middle, and then we talk in these roundabout ways.
Robyn:My grandmother used to say, going around the block to go next door.
Robyn:We make this stuff more complicated than it needs to be.
Robyn:So we start at the beginning with the question that I get asked most
Robyn:often, which is, what is a brand?
Robyn:imagine you are walking down a street and you see a shape of an
Robyn:apple with a little leaf on top.
Robyn:What's the first thing you think of?
Robyn:Most of you probably thought of Apple, the company, the
Robyn:ubiquitous phone and laptop brand
Robyn:But it's not just the Apple, it's the design of their products.
Robyn:It's the ads that they run.
Robyn:It's the feeling of being part of something.
Robyn:Now the Apple community will tell you that they feel like they're a
Robyn:part of a hip tech savvy community.
Robyn:And the non-Apple community will tell you it's a cult.
Robyn:Whether you're trying to build a community or a cult, a strong, easily recognizable,
Robyn:distinguishable brand is key to gathering your clients or gathering your flock.
Robyn:All jokes aside, That's what a brand is about.
Robyn:It is not just the logo.
Robyn:It's not just the product.
Robyn:It's a feeling.
Robyn:It's the impression that a company or a service leaves on you.
Robyn:It's the way the people or the product that you engage with makes you feel
Robyn:Those brands work as well as they do the Apples, the Coca-Colas of the world
Robyn:become those top recognizable brands because they tap into our emotions
Robyn:Yes, you need all of the verbal and visual elements of a good
Robyn:brand, but at the end of the day, It's the way you make people feel.
Robyn:That really cultivates a strong brand.
Robyn:It's about creating an identity that resonates with your audience,
Robyn:standing out from the competition and leaving a lasting impression.
Robyn:So before we get into some of the more nuanced topics of this season
Robyn:in this episode, I want you to know Three things that every brand needs,
Robyn:whether you're teeny, tiny or top of the world, you need a clear brand identity.
Robyn:That's the visual and verbal representation of your brand.
Robyn:It includes things like the logo, the color palette, the font
Robyn:choices, the brand messaging.
Robyn:A clear and consistent brand identity helps you stand out from
Robyn:your competition and makes it easy for customers to recognize
Robyn:and remember and find your brand.
Robyn:The second thing you need is a target audience.
Robyn:This is a hill I will die on.
Robyn:You need to know who your ideal customer is, what their needs and
Robyn:desires are, and how you or your brand can solve their problems.
Robyn:By understanding your target audience, you can create a brand that speaks directly
Robyn:to them and builds trust and loyalty.
Robyn:The third thing you need is brand consistency.
Robyn:One of the most heartbreaking things you can watch happen is you
Robyn:watch a client spend time and money crafting a truly personalized,
Robyn:customized, remarkable brand.
Robyn:And then the minute, the first.
Robyn:holiday rolls around, they immediately go and break their brand they use a
Robyn:different font or they use a different color, or they use images that don't
Robyn:support their overall brand message and they don't realize how much
Robyn:interference and friction that's causing.
Robyn:With their audience.
Robyn:So consistency really is key when it comes to branding.
Robyn:It needs to have a consistent look, a consistent feel, a consistent voice, and
Robyn:that needs to be across all channels and all touchpoints from your website, to your
Robyn:social media profiles, to your product and packaging and customer service.
Robyn:Consistency helps build brand recognition and trust, and it just
Robyn:makes it easier for your customers to connect with you and your brand.
Robyn:over the next nine episodes we're gonna talk about these elements and more.
Robyn:Until then, take note of the three things I mentioned in this episode,
Robyn:And I want you to rate yourself from one to 10.
Robyn:where would you rate yourself in terms of brand identity, target
Robyn:audience, and brand consistency.
Robyn:The Five Minute Brand is brought to you by Launching Your Success, not your average
Robyn:training because you're not average.
Robyn:Check out our innovative personal branding programs at
Robyn:launchingyoursuccess.com/brand.
Robyn:Notes from this episode and more can be found at 5minutebrand.com.