Behind a Brand

A brand is who you are, what you stand for and what you deliver. There is no denying that coming up with a brand is hard work, just when you think you have a brilliant name it turns out that there is a mismatch when it comes to defining your values, personality and visual identity. This is not uncommon.

I’ve been working on brands for over a decade, and I have been surrounded by many emerging and growing brands. This mismatch is often magnified once they have started on the growth trajectory, and you can see inconsistencies because the brand story and foundations haven’t been put in place from the beginning.

While it is important that your brand is special to you, it is also important that it is relatable, reflective of the company culture and how you conduct all aspects of your business, especially your content and marketing effort.

The easiest way to bring your brand to life is to think about your brand as a person, make it emotive and human, give it values, give it a personality and more importantly focus on your why. Why the hell are you doing what you are doing and why does your brand exist and be genuine about it too. A key piece of advice is don’t compromise on your values but also don’t be afraid to reflect and evolve as your business matures and as time goes by.

To give an example, here is some background on Brand Rebellion (BR). Firstly, our name is meaningful to how we conduct all aspects of our business. It is reflective of our core focus being people, and the quality of our work through creativity. Plus, the interpretation of our name also gives us flexibility to take a ‘rebellious’ approach to problem solving.

Behind the meaning of our name, we have 8 key traits that are the foundation of everything we do, who we work with, how we position ourselves and deliver outcomes. It is important that our values encompass being genuine, showing ambition, being creative in problem solving and bringing energy.

Our personality is how we present ourselves through our relationships, our work, our marketing and as a team which translate to valuing people and our relationships, being bold, experimental, and courageous, finding inspiration, thinking big and being natural initiators.

Setting up genuine frameworks and foundations for your brand help you stay true to yourself and your vision. Don’t get me wrong the visual identity and aspect play an important role in the psychology and positioning of the brand but developing a story behind your brand is an essential part in building a successful business.