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Lesson Info

Branding Your Business

We're gonna talk about branding your business building an identity and how to attract your that ideal customer that we're talking about uh what is branding can anybody answer this what what is brandy bring it although to me branding is when like how your business speaks to the world and identifies you okay so how your I'm just going to write is right now even though that's like not my favorite word just so you guys don't have to sit here and watch me write business of a jillion times okay, so how your business is viewed by the world yes ok I didn't mean to put words in your mouth cued by the world okay isn't it like uh an image synonymous to a product so that you like you think of starbucks or you know you think starbucks and then you know it's coffee or beverages I like your colors so when you think of starbucks think green gold I'm flashing colors okay? Your logo we'll have about your feelings okay or the could be maybe like a connotation to your logo adding to the feelings maybe fee...

lings company lis attack line maybe um years was what the way that maybe the connotation that comes with your logo so but that that might be a little bit further on the feeling company hoops running your recognition I guess how people recognize you there what was the one before that tagline that's what it was like everything that you're doing tio creates the first impression mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm first fresh wow this writing is really awesome if there's any three year olds that want a part time job writing my things on the board come on in um so branding branding is all of those things um but it's not any one of those things and the interesting thing wass out of all the questions I've asked which rolling out day one so it hasn't been that many this was the one that I felt like overall not everyone but overall there was the most like hesitation when we were answering um like, isn't it e I think it's the it's the recognition you know, like we're not asking a question, but we kind of are with a statement so which makes sense because I think branding is one of those things that it's like, oh, your business has to be well branded oh, of course it does yeah let's brand you know, but people don't really talk about what it means. So let's let's talk about some aspects of your business that communicate your brand so some of which we listed there one thing way don't talk about is your actual products so your products are going to communicate your brand your company name which we didn't talk about. So your name your business card, your logo, your tag line so we were right on with that any kind of marketing materials you have pretty marketing marketing materials so you know, postcards, any kind of hang tags, your line sheets if they're printed and your digital marketing materials, anything digital marketing materials, your social media accounts, your online presence, your website, your email signature, your newsletter how it's laid out on top of that, the stores that carry your line, what kind of stories your lying in, you know, who's carrying your products, that kind of store is representative of your brand, the types of craft shows you sell that. So whether you're selling at west coast craft, which rebecca mentioned, which is a very how do you describe that modern showcase? Yeah, it's like it's very it's, very modern it's very like on its very on trend lot of minimalist stuff. It's um, very design e I would say very or if you're selling at a show like patchwork, which is, like kind of more like a mish mosh, you know, like there's some designing stuff there, but then there's also some not designing stuff there, but the thing that everything else in common is that well made products, you know, whatever I it's uh I wouldn't buy everything in patchwork but I'm not our customer I'm not trying to please myself I'm trying to please our customers so uh so the types of craft shows that carry your stuff your actual booth your booth how it's merchandised how is displayed the way you're displaying yur stuff and your design elements font color, composition shapes and your process and your materials so if I'm ico style I'm probably using some bamboo yarn you know if that's part of my branding is being you know kant conscious of the environment uh and then one that I don't think people think about that much is your writing voice so when you're writing your bio when you're writing your product descriptions when you're writing your business description that voice is it very serious? Is it you know funny is it are you telling a story like does that reflect that reflects your brand and it needs teo I like to say branding is the you of your business even though it's not for you because you are, you know, obviously separate from your business but it's the you that you put into your business we were talking about we would all make a difference a different weaving it's that it's our design sense it's our insight it's all of that it's our style in our personality and are aesthetic it's all of those things um this is this is some stuff that I used to make when I made stuff this was probably I don't even know ten years ago or something so that's a bag made out of a record album you can't really see it a shirt and a skirt all different stuff I also meet like makeup bag's in art and all of this stuff and people be like when I would see my friends they would say oh my gosh it's so funny I actually saw somebody wearing your thing especially when I was selling at that flea market so I was selling a lot of stuff every week in the same town that I lived in so my stuff was everywhere people would say, why don't I told somebody where your thing how did you know it was so random? Nicole like I knew it was yours immediately, you know? And without even knowing it I had branding I had branded my business and I have done it without knowing it because everything I made I had such a strong, specific vision to start with and everything just went into that. So I mean, I also paid attention to my customers and you got feedback and all those things along the way I didn't just make whatever the heck I wanted whenever the heck I wanted to make it I took everything very seriously, but uh yeah, so when we talk about branding you have to start somewhere even if you already have your stuff maybe this is something you haven't thought about before and so now you're going to start thinking about it, which is it's kind of awesome if you already have your product is and you have a place to start to find your branding so the first thing I like to do and this is great for creatives is make a mood board so it's kind of like a vision board if you've heard of those but it's not for your like manifesting your life it's for manifesting your phones and colors in your brandy so what do you want to do is relax grab some magazines and start ribbon just rip rip, rip, rip it and whatever it is you need to do to relax you take a walk first you take ten depress you drink a glass of wine or a bottle of wine whatever it is that you need to dio to get into that zone where your inner critic is burke out of there and you're just feeling flowy that's what you need to dio so you rip all your stuff out and then once everything's ripped out then you start editing, you start thinking about shape and pattern and imagery and then you and then you glue it down and then you look you look at this so the example that I'm going to use throughout this branding thing is a fake company that I made up that I made up for the purpose of illustrating how this works. So this was the mood board that I made for this fake company. We're going to see what this has turned into so that you can see the whole process, you can also do it online, so this is, you know, I do logos and stuff like that in illustrations for people, and so I usually set up like, a secret pinterest board, and we, you know, look at that and that's how we do our our version of the mood board so that everybody can be adding stuff to it. Um, one of the things that you're you want to think about with this is color, so let's, just do a couple of real quick what, what? What is like a word that comes to your mind when you look at these colors together here, midcentury modern, great ocean ocean, thes colors, fun, old birthday, very loud, girls, girls, that was the first thing that came to my mind. I was like, girls, color is so important oh, my gosh, it's so important, you know, that they like, I'm sure maybe you don't know this, but they like make fast food they don't do it anymore but before they would like make fast food restaurants like yellow because like yellow you want to get away from it so people wouldn't stay in there long so they could help more customers you know there's a reason why there's that color I call it like I meant mental hospital blue you know it's like relaxing and like it's that color that you always see when you're watching a mental hospital in a movie my living room is that color if I need to be very relaxing uh so you really want to think about think about your your colors and what they're communicating and like you even look at the color color trend reports you know their parent pantone always picks their colors for the year and that doesn't mean those should be your colors for the year but look att the qualities of those colors they're picking bright colors you know people are attracted to that right now what are people into him mom if you're watching I am so sorry right now so these air some fonts that my mom really likes you might be familiar with the first one is called bradley hand and the second one is comic sands and when my mom first asked me to make a business card for her she wanted it in bradley hand or yet bradley hand and I was comic sans no don't use these phones that's it if you want to know what fonts not to use go to your computer and type in what are the most what funds should I not use overused fonts on center out type that in and look um fonts just like color font is going to communicate so much about your business so much so look at these fonts and think about what they convey like this shout something out somebody he's first to I end old I think I think bold when I see that business yeah, serious maybe boring news generic newspaper. Okay, so piers really bad examples oh, shoot. Well, we have one bad example uh somehow the fonts didn't transfer, so just ignore these pretend like they don't exist but particularly for use for an accounting firm, right? I had a really good ones here too. This was like a rock and roll thought for ashley rose floral and this abc modern was old english and there was another one that was a mechanic shop and it was in like, a really romantic flowy one. So pretend like that's that's what just happened? Okay, so when we're thinking about branding, we really want to stay true to ourselves and when I told you guys about you know that I kind of developed my branding without even realizing it but I pay attention to my customers you gotta listen that inner voice so um I had a women's line in his line nordstrom was like we want men's shirts from you to use a men's shirts told they know my rep this and I was strong you know? It was just like this really big deal I was so excited but they want to see him in a trade show that was like three days away so I was just like up all nigh every night I'm like my parents are helping my parents I didn't couldn't get him to my rep in time we had to drive out to las vegas to this trade show and I'm in the car the whole time hand sewing stuff you know clipping name tags doing all this stuff drive out to las vegas drop off my assurance nor someone oh can you change this how can you do this like you do this do this I went through like two more rounds of that and then didn't place an order and I was just like devastated and then I realized like it's okay big stores like that they will ask you to make changes the stuff it's very natural it's very normal but that needs to feel true to you and true to your brand and when that stopped feeling true to me and to my right and I kept going and I should have been like you know what we don't know worth it um, so this is a branding words brainstorm, you know, I was thinking about doing this is an activity, but I think I think that I think you guys can get the picture without it being an activity. So what I did is that same member were junior, a mood board that we did so that same company I did this year and I took what I knew about this company again and made them up on dh you start with something in the middle so scars made from sweaters and then the next word that comes your mind go next word that comes to your mind go next word, next word, next word and you keep doing that, and then when I'm done, I highlight all the words that, you know feel the feel good um, I myself you come up with your branding words, I actually fellow creative live instructor jasmine story saw her speak at a conference and she was talking about having your three branding words and my business partner and I kind of turned and looked at each other we're like, oh yeah, we're we're supposed to have some branding words, you know? And then we're like, hey, let's, come up with our branding words and this was the exercise I do this a lot when I'm trying to like, tap this is a great exercise for anything this brainstorm when you're trying to like tappin get past something tap into something new get get yourself outside so we came up with our three branding word than it's been so helpful everything we do we think ours are fun, creative, inauthentic so everything we do we say is this fun? Is this creative? Is this authentic? Does this postcard looked like this? This event we're thinking about doing is it like this? The next thing you want to do is create your ideal customer profile so coming up with a list of ten to fifteen questions that you would want to ask your customer mom hi these are my mom's shells that she makes she glues rosky crystals on them they're very beautiful my mom is very detail oriented they're absolutely perfect everything is placed millimeter this that whatever there is a customer for her but that customer is not at west coast craft you know that customer sometimes comes a patchwork but that customer is that, eh? You know farmers market that's in san juan capistrano which is a beach town you know that customers is somewhere else so it's about finding that ideal customer if you want to find them you have to know who they are how could you find someone if you don't know who they are? So if you have actual customers ask them and don't just say, give me information, give them something in return for their information, you know, offer them something. Hey, I'm doing a twenty percent off discount code for my shop for anybody that answers this survey, anybody that answers this survey has entered to win a free pair of earrings on her to win a gift certificate for my shop, give back when you ask for something, and then you're going to use that information to create your branding here's some of my customer profile questions so like, where is your customer live? What kind of magazines do they subscribe? Tio? How much money do they make? That's a really important to think about? And then I create this little guy here, please put all my questions there and then thought the answer is there, then this is one of our bonus material, so that the branding worksheet and this is what we use, all that stuff that we've been talking about to fill out. So this is the filled out one for my fake company, which ended up being called re scarves. So it's a company that makes scarves out of vintage sweaters in my head, everything that we talked about is on here we're gonna clean and simple colors, mostly neutral splashes of bright, sunny colors, you know, this is how you find that this is how you find that stuff? This is what re scarves branding fake branding looks like so ego feminine, you know, earthy what whatever it is crafty you know, all of these things that we were thinking about in there, we certainly didn't use that disgusting font that was on bob's a one accounting or whatever that wass yeah, and then once you have your branding, you wantto figure out if that brandy is going to stand the test of time, so you look at it and you think, does this look super like, trendy right now, you know, is this is this going to last my going toe like this logo in a year? Give yourself some time with your love, I'll take a listen from me, who doesn't do that? I'm just like quick, I need I need a logo I got to do it right now with my own stuff with my customers actually take the time and then three months later, I'm like, I really should've re shirts just fought everybody else is using this font right now, so really take your time. This is a big deal and you want to think about if it's unique and distinctive and if it tells that story of your business that you're trying to communicate and you also want to think about if it's uh communicating that personality of your business, you know, all those things that we talked about with branding, it's got to be there. People need to look at your stuff and say that's for me, or that isn't for me, you know, it shouldn't be a question. Do I like this or not? I like this. I need this. I want this it's for me. It was made for me. Give it to me now.