Questions to Answer when Creating a Brand
If you’ve heard me say anything about branding in the time we have known each other, I hope it is that branding is so much more than just a logo and some colors! Your brand comes across in all that you do as a business, everything from customer interactions to the Canva templates you choose. Sometimes it can be difficult to hone in on this brand language, which is why there are several steps in the brand process that happen long before final deliverables are created.
At Rose Color Creative we have a brand process that encompasses all of these things, but step number one is always to fill out a brand brief! The brand brief is a series of questions that walks through the many things that make your brand unique. Although we go through many different aspects of your brand, here are a few things I think are EXTREMELY important to answer while working on new brand or a rebrand…
1. Vision
Your brand vision should be one-sentence stating what your ideal brand looks like. This is the WHAT. This can be difficult to pin down, but think of a vision as just that: what do you envision your business to be. Obviously your business is much more than one sentence’s worth of information, but it’s a great practice to quickly and effectively communicate the most important aspects of what you do. A great place to start is by looking at the Visions of other businesses you admire! You can often find these on company websites or in their brand information.
THE ROSE COLOR CREATIVE BRAND VISION:
Building businesses, motivating entrepreneurs and inspiring audiences with effective, meaningful & beautiful design.
2. Objectives
It’s often good to boil things down to 2-3 overarching objectives of your brand. Are the goals of your brand to sell a product or service, communicate a message, or build community or relationships? Maybe it’s even all three! It’s good to be broad but specific with these objectives. This is also a good place to determine your core “lines of business” or revenue streams. These objectives can be very centering as well, especially when shiny new opportunities or projects present themselves that may not necessarily align with your brand long term.
ROSE COLOR CREATIVE BRAND OBJECTIVES:
To create branding, murals, website and other designs that help business owners own their brands and grow their businesses.
To teach business owners, bloggers, side hustlers and beginners practical design skills and how to apply their brand to effectively communicate with their dream audience.
To inspire and motivate entrepreneurs to own their business and brand and have confidence in what they have to offer.
3. Best Practices
As much as competition is helpful to specify when it comes to your business, I personally feel that Best Practices can be even more useful! Best practice lists are simple lists of brands that you think are doing well at something you would like to do well at. They don’t have to be brands that do anything like what you are doing contextually, but maybe they have a social media presence you would like to emulate, a way of connecting with their audience you appreciate, or a website that you think is great. It’s good to have examples that are aspirational to you and your business even if you sell cookies and they sell financial consulting! Taking inspiration from successful brands around us is both free and priceless.
BEST PRACTICE EXAMPLES FOR ROSE COLOR CREATIVE:
Brightenmade - Social media sharing, use of Pinterest
Jenna Kutcher - Marketing
Cold Hearted Co - Products, Social Media, ✨Vibe✨
4. Target Audience
We truly cannot underestimate the need to specify who your audience is. After all, you aren’t creating all of this for yourself! You are talking to a group of people who want to buy what you are selling! Keep in mind, this may not be your current audience, but an ideal target. It’s a great idea to specify some demographics of these folks (even if it is a broad range). What are facts about them: age range, gender, where do they live, what technology or platforms do they use, etc. To go even deeper, try to list some personality traits, interests, lifestyle aspects or needs they may have as well. These all help us to appropriately and effectively communicate to these people in ways that will really resonate with them.
TARGET AUDIENCE OF ROSE COLOR CREATIVE:
Entrepreneurs & small business owners
Personal brands, blogs & side hustlers
Primarily women, ages 25-50
Not limited to but maybe focusing on these industries: Health & wellness, Coaching, Nature, plants, outsidey things, Kids brands, Fitness & nutrition, Creative brands.
People who are very personally invested, care about relationships (even when it comes to business) and desire to grow in healthy and sustainable ways.
5. Brand Personality
Ok here is the fun (and easy) part! Your brand personality can be boiled down to a list of 5-10 words or phrases that describe how you want the “personality” of your brand to be perceived. i.e. serious, funny, relaxed, confident, knowledgeable, conversational, etc. This is a great time to really personify your business. If your brand were a person, what would they be like? How would they act and communicate? This may sound a lot like you as a person, or maybe very different. This can also be very aspirational. What type of personality traits do you want your brand to reflect?
ROSE COLOR CREATIVE BRAND PERSONALITY:
Fun
Relational
Reliable
Optimistic
Encouraging
Genuine
Collaborative
Warm
Inspiring
Creative
6. Brand Positioning
Your brand position is a one-sentence description you’d want to pop into your audience’s minds when they hear your name or see your logo. “Position” refers to your position in the marketplace, so it’s good to think about the things that make you unique compared to others who may offer similar goods or services. What are the things you offer differently, how do you do things in a way that might be seen as unique? You can also toy around with a few ideas if you happen to offer a few different types of goods or services.
ROSE COLOR CREATIVE BRAND POSITION:
A design studio that really understands and cares about the why behind my business.
7. Goals
When it comes to branding it’s not just ALL about the appearance or outward communication. It’s absolutely good to think about what YOUR internal goals are as well. What are some services you’d like to add to your revenue goals in the next several years? What types of products and how many would you want to be selling as a part of your 5 year plan? These can be growth goals based in many different metrics, but should be quantifiable and have some sort of timeline associated with them (Think SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Timebound). Having these goals in mind can help keep you focused as you develop your brand, and give you something to ground the decisions you make in how you communicate with your audience.
ROSE COLOR CREATIVE GOALS:
2 Years:
Launch a design course
Have 3-5 consistent streams of revenue
Make 10-15k per month
Start a podcast5 Years:
Launch second course
Write a book
Hire a VA
Create an Internship Program
Creating and launching a brand can be intimidating when you consider all the questions that have to be answered, but doing it RIGHT up front saves a ton of time and effort down the road. When you have a clear vision of where you are going, what your goals are and who you are talking to, communicating as a brand on the day-to-day requires little effort and will start to come very naturally!
If any of this sounds like things you could really use some guidance on, please reach out an schedule your FREE brand consult! I will walk you through all of these questions (and more) to help you gain insight and confidence in your brand and communcation!