Branding gives you the opportunity to create an identity for your firm, service, or product. When done well, it allows you to:
- Capture the attention of your audience
- Tell a compelling story that connects and engages
- Be consistent, repetitive, and memorable
So what makes a brand? While we each have the power to influence and shape our brand — it’s the way we make people think and feel about our firm that matters.
Your brand is made up of many parts – ideas, strategies, words and visuals
all interacted with at multiple touch-points. Every time you send an e-mail, hand out a business card, discuss your firm with a prospect, place an ad, send a letter, leave a brochure, deliver a speech, write a proposal or give someone your web address you are shaping your brand.
So you’re ready to begin building a brand for your firm or strengthening the one you currently have and are wondering where to begin. I’ve broken this process out into three phases:
Phase 1: Define your brand strategy: this includes conducing research to fully understand how your firm is perceived in the market and where you have the most opportunities.
Phase 2: Build the Brand: this is where your brand begins to take shape with key messages (including positioning statement and tagline) and visuals (like logo, color palette, design, etc.)
Phase 3: Roll out the Brand: this includes introducing your brand both internally and externally and should include training staff on talking points and how to deliver and communicate your brand promise and firm differentiators.
Are you ready to get to work on your brand strategy? Check out my next blog post, Internal Branding – Phase 3: Brand Strategy.