The marketing napkin: The branding process
Hello and welcome back to the third episode of „The marketing napkin“. If you want to know why it is called like this head over to this post: I invite you on a marketing date.Â
In the past weeks we defined our ideal customer and looked what influence your ideal customer has on your branding.  Now that we know very clearly who our ideal customer is we will this week take a closer look at our branding.
It is a foggy weather today here in the village. It is so foggy that I cannot even the the church that just stands 100 meters away from my office window. So today we will sit inside in a cosy coffee house on a small old couch and have a hot red wine. Maybe the last one for this year, as spring is just around the corner. I just hope they serve the hot wine with napkins too.
Defining your branding is a whole process and when we looked what influence our ideal client has on our branding we already got a strong idea of how the branding, that will attract our ideal client and make our heart sing will look like.
A year ago IÂ already posted a very comprehensive post about our rebranding process. If you want to get deeper into this topic have a look at 9 steps to your corporate identity.
So here is more a quick sheet to define your branding:
Your Core Values
Your branding does include your products, your services, your company, your communication and your corporate identity. What do you want your company to stand for? What are the core beliefs of your business? What do you want customers to feel and think when they see your website? What do you want clients to feel and think when they work with you? Think about every step of contact that they will have with your company: the first contact, the planning process, the wedding itself, after the wedding and the end product. The more you define this the clearer and stronger your brand will be.
What makes you YOUnique
What are your strengths and what sets you apart from other colleagues in your niche? What makes you, you and what makes your brand special? If you think about your branding as a hot pot or big soup this factor will add the salt, the special flavor to your soup because only your talent can define your brand.Â
Which brands do you love
Think about three to five brands that you love and that inspire you. Think about what you love about that brand and what makes them stand out in your opinion. This is not about comparing this is about finding the branding elements that make you swoon about a brand. It will give you a better understanding of a strong brand to create your own brand.  Take these elements and see what they mean for your business what do you want other people to swoon about your brand.
This is already quite a lot of stuff to think about. Think about those steps carefully and write everything down on your napkin. Make a brand definition plan and next week we will have a closer look at the translation of your core values into a visual guideline for your brand.
Do you have any questions or comments, just post them in the comments below.
I am looking forward to answer them.
