Breaking Down Brand Basics

Branding can get CONFUSING. There are just so many terms to keep track of! And what do they all even mean?

Look no further, lovely business owner or nonprofit specialist. We are here to help with a little list of key terms, so when you sit down for your own branding process, you’ll know what’s what!

Let’s get started…

BRAND:

Okay, before we do anything… What actually is a brand? For one thing, it’s a lot more than just a logo! Your brand is a combination of a lot of things, including but not limited to your organization’s values, personality, and identity (including your logo). A well-defined brand makes it easy for your target audience to determine who you are, how you present yourself, and what your goals are.

BRAND ARCHETYPE OR PERSONALITY:

Every brand has a unique way of doing things that shapes how it presents its mission.

To help you better visualize your brand’s behavior, we (along with many other marketers) use 12 human-like characters to see where your traits align. Is your business more like The Magician and focused on creating wonder and leaving a lasting impact? Or maybe you’re more like The Caregiver and view the world with a compassionate lens? We help you find the archetypes and accompanying personality traits that best fit your brand.

BRAND IDENTITY: 

Now, how do you represent your brand and its archetype? Through verbal and visual cues, like your logo, fonts, tagline, and tone of voice! Defining these elements at the very beginning clears up confusion for anyone interested in your business.

BRAND STANDARDS:

A brand’s finalized logos, fonts, and colors are called Brand Standards. We believe consistency is key, so after every branding session with a client, we give them a physical Brand Standards document which offers a great point of reference for how and when to use specific fonts and logo variations. (It also doubles as a pretty awesome piece of art for your office!)

MARKETING: 

This is your brand–its personality and identity–on display to the world, specifically promoting your services to the appropriate audience through a sales funnel. Marketing can take many appearances: website updates, email campaigns, social media posts, and soooo much more.

AUDIENCE:

Who does your business or nonprofit target? And let’s go beyond labels like customers, donors, or volunteers. How about age? Gender? Employment status? Cultural background? Lifestyle? If you were to target all your efforts to just one person, your ideal customer, what would they look like? We start at the center of that target and expand from there as we go!

SALES FUNNEL:

With marketing, there’s often a chain of command. The larger, catch-all marketing devices (like social media posts, advertisements, and paper fliers) should lead to a more narrow “learn more” tool (like a website or app) before getting your audience to the final destination (a purchase, a consultation, a signup, etc.) with a call to action.

CALL TO ACTION:

Calls to action work within the sales funnel just like an arrow would. Learn more, sign up, get started, buy now–those are calls to action. They lead your audience to act! The easier it is for someone to find what they’re looking for, the more likely they’ll become a customer, donor, or volunteer. 

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: 

You don’t need to know too much of the nitty-gritty behind search engine optimization or SEO. For your purposes, it just means that your brand’s online footprint (your website, social media, Yelp page, etc) is categorized correctly for search engines like Google. Featuring SEO-friendly content–content your audience will most likely use to search for you–on your digital media means that Google can rank you appropriately. (You want those first-page Google results!)

WHEW. This conversation could get lengthy, but we’re big believers that you should be informed about what some of the biggest branding key terms actually mean. Knowledge is power, and no question is too small.

Still confused about all of this branding and marketing and how it affects your business or nonprofit? Sign up for a free brand consultation with us! You’ll be able to determine your brand’s personality and sit down with us to discuss how that applies to your brand’s values.

That’s a call to action. See how we did that? (;