Life Improvement Media
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Agency Services
    • Do It Yourself
    • Done For You
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Snapshot
Select Page

Branding Audited: Part 1–Branding Essentials

by Erik Remmel | Jul 13, 2017 | Branding Strategy, Business Strategy, Marketing Strategy

"brand audit with Life Improvement Media"

It’s officially June and our team chose June as the month for focusing more time on your family. More family time means less work on business. Or, to put it better: more family time means working smarter and implementing business automation tricks. Automation only works if the parts of your business that are being automated are in line. As a media production and marketing company, we are quick to see people struggling because they either don’t understand their true audience or aren’t managing their time properly. These are common problems whether you’re just starting out or transitioning as you scale your business. Even businesses and entrepreneurs who choose to re-brand themselves could benefit from this blog!

So many pieces of marketing can be outsourced, delegated or automated. But first, the foundation must be solid for it to run on its own. We believe automation can be put into place once three big pieces of your branding are completed. The first big piece is the branding itself.

Elements of your brand are what the public sees first. What type of person, company or brand do you want to convey to the world? How do you want to be seen? Remembered? What do you want to be associated with? All these questions play a role in your branding. We believe the BRAND ESSENTIALS—the 8 elements you need to establish your brand—are all connected. Let’s break them down in order:

MISSION STATEMENT

Your mission statement is the core statement between you and your market. Often, it’s a challenge to create a statement that is short, clear, concise and understandable. How would you answer the following: What are you doing today to take you to where you want to go tomorrow?

VISION STATEMENT

The vision statement is similar to the mission statement with one major difference. The vision statement is more geared towards your internal employees or your staff. If you’re an entrepreneur or solopreneur, it focuses on you. How will you inspire, motivate and stimulate creativity within your organization / yourself?

LOGO

This is a big one and it will change over time. Not every big brand’s logo has changed. Compare google’s logo to coca-cola’s logo over the last 20 years. Logos can be too busy and overwhelm people. At the same time, they can be too simple and not convey the proper message. What illustration best visually represents your business?

"marketing color psychology wheel"COLOR SCHEME

Color is just as important to your branding as the logo is. Of course, the logo will take on parts of your color scheme and both are tied together. Have a look below at the color wheel. Every color reflects an emotion and this is just a guide. Compare these to a traffic light. Red means stop. Yellow means caution. Green means go. In selling your product or service, is red (STOP!) the right choice? Red is exciting, red brings out energy, but is red the right choice? Orange is the color of risk as well as confidence. Blue is a calming color, that also stands for strength. Choose your colors wisely!

Photo Credit: Visme

BUSINESS CULTURE

Culture within an organization often overlooked as the most critical element. Although it’s more prominent in large organizations, it’s a very important branding essential. How the total summation of your branding represents you and your company really matters to everyone tied to your company. Culture is something that is obvious–a company either has it or it doesn’t. Its presence is revealed in the personalities, behaviors and attitudes of the employees who spend, on average, 40 hours of their week surrounded by it.

AUDIENCE

Your current clients and future prospects make up your audience. More specifically, the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How behind consumer behavior and expectations plays a role in your audience development. How targeted is your audience demographic? Is it married women between the ages of 30-55, most of whom are stay-at-home moms? Or is it younger millennials between 14 and 24 who favor public transportation and riding bicycles to and from work? Each characteristic further hones in on your perfect customer…nail it!

MARKETING MATERIALS

The 7th brand essential is a combination of the first 6 essentials. It’s one more way your logo, color scheme, culture, inspiration and creativity will be displayed to the world. It’s okay to refine and change as you grow. But for that first reveal, make sure every piece is tight. All print and digital representations of you and your business translate to being your customer’s first impression of you AND your business. Make it count!

PLANNING

The final branding essential is planning–defining and reverse engineering your goals. Plan forwards and plan backwards. We mean plan ahead for the future and backtrack your goals from the future to today. Another term for this is “reverse engineering.” Align your goals and work backwards to create the necessary steps for you to achieve your goals.

REFERENCES:

  • http://blog.visme.co/color-psychology-in-marketing-and-brand-identity-part-2/

 

Thank you for your attention! | Download a copy of our part 1 branding blog in a PDF by clicking below!

Categories

  • Advertising (8)
  • Agency (5)
  • Artificial Intelligence Chatbots (1)
  • Brand Hacking Series (8)
  • Branding Strategy (14)
  • Business Strategy (29)
  • Content Marketing (5)
  • Creative Direction (2)
  • Data Security (2)
  • Design (1)
  • Devices (2)
  • Digital Advertising (1)
  • Email Marketing (3)
  • Graphic Design (2)
  • Lead Generation (7)
  • Main Blog (2)
  • Marketing Strategy (48)
  • Podcasting (2)
  • Reputation Management (2)
  • SEO (8)
  • Social Media (8)
  • SSL (1)
  • Video Marketing (3)
  • Website Marketing (24)
  • Wordpress (3)

Recent Posts

  • 9 Signs You Need To Update Your Website Design January 30, 2023
  • What Is Local SEO and Why Does It Matter? October 4, 2021
  • Lead Generation: 8 Important Trends for 2021 September 13, 2021
  • How Digital Marketing Services Can Help You Reach New Audiences August 9, 2021
  • 7 Things to Look for in a Quality SEO Agency July 26, 2021
  • 8 Reasons Your Web Design Matters So Much July 19, 2021
  • Find the Perfect Customers With Lead Generation July 5, 2021
  • Lead Generation Services: Creating the Right Connections June 21, 2021

Recent Comments

  • James on May Recap Part 2: The Creation of Podcasting

Check Out Our Podcast

Copyright 2024 Life Improvement Media | Privacy Policy | Site Map