Brand tip: What your brand says - part 1

Your brand should tell people who you are, what you do, how you do it and where you're going. Today I want to talk about the first part of that: Who you are.

Your brand is more than just your name - a simple, one-dimensional description of who you are. It should reflect the personality of your business. To understand what that means it's useful to look at the role of 'personality' for an individual.

As an individual, does our name tell people everything they need to know about us? No. It does give some useful information; it differentiates us from others (to a certain degree), gives a suggestion of nationality and (usually) specifies gender. But it's a fairly one-dimensional description of who we are.

What about our appearance? What does that say? Well, our physical appearance can give a pretty good indication of our age and gender, and sometimes our health (coughing and sneezing, over-weight, a leg in plaster). What happens if we add clothing? That begins to give a clearer indication of who we are. Clothes can often indicate; age (roughly), class, economic circumstances, our tastes and interests (especially for young people).

We are beginning to build a more complete picture, as we add each element. We've added another dimension - but we're probably making a lot of assumptions. What can we learn from looking at someone? Do we know what they like to eat? Or what they like to watch? Do we know what music they enjoy? Or what they like to read? What do they believe? What do they value? What makes them angry? What makes them laugh?

The answers to these questions are what turns a person from a stereotype into an individual. It's what makes someone stand out from the crowd. It's what gives a person their personality.

And that's the role of your brand - to fill in all those gaps. To create a complete picture of 'who' your business is. To turn you from a two-dimensional stereotype, into a three-dimensional 'personality'. So who are you?

If you find that question difficult to answer, you might be interested in our workshop on Tuesday 24 November. If you don't want to wait that long email jonathan@alderandalder.co.uk or call 01392 248107.

You can find more Brand Tips here.