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 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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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.