Building a Brand (part 1): Where to start?

A guide to creating a brilliant brand for your business. Here I talk about the process of creating a brand identity and defining your business’s brand. In part 2, I talk more about the design and showcasing your brand to the world.

What is a brand?

“A brand identity is the face of your business.”

By Snap Marketing

The power of that first impression on your customers and clients is so important. It is influenced largely by the visual identity that you present to your audience.

Brand covers lots of areas, not just the visual – your values, your story, your customer service, the quality of your product, your words (tone of voice), all play a part.

A brand is more than just your logo.

The W9 Branding Process

1. Discovery

An important part of the brand process is the discovery phase. It’s a bit more than a design brief and will require your time to work with me to explore your business in a bit more detail. This will involve a kick-off meeting to deep dive into your business’s values, story, and personality. We will review mood boards to ensure that visually we are on the same path – this work will ensure we are on the right track when we move to the design phase.

2. Design Creation

Work will begin on creating your brand identity by taking inspiration from the discovery phase findings, reviewing competition, and analysing your audience/customers. You will be presented with visuals of your logo and mock-ups showing how your identity will work in your main communications.

3. Refinement

This stage involves us working together with you feeding back on the visuals presented. This will involve up to three edits to ensure the final visuals are perfect for your business.

4. Fulfilment

Now approved, you need the tools to ensure the brand is used consistently going forwards.

Defining your brand

In order to do the discovery phase, it is important to do some work on defining your business. This can be a little daunting, but I try to make this as painless as possible. When working with me I provide a brand discovery questionnaire for you to populate in your own time. We then have a discovery session to go over the questions and work through any difficult areas.

Below are some questions that give you a flavour of what you need to be thinking about. It is also worth asking your audience/clients/customers/staff for their views on how they perceive the business, how they find your product/service. This can often uncover some gems of information!

Why not start by answering these questions?

Branding Packages

You can see more about my branding packages on my services page. These give an idea of the scope of work that can be done. During initial discussions we will look in depth at your needs and I will provide a bespoke proposal for you, because every business is unique.

Or, if you’re ready to chat about your business with me, let’s arrange a chat to talk more about branding. Book a FREE 30 minute discovery call