What is Branding?

Often business owners (myself included) have big goals to make more money and grow the business. One of the ways business do that is through a brand update. Now, branding can be a vacuous term, and the most common misconception is that brand = logo. This was the case, centuries ago when different artisans would mark their goods so that you knew the level of quality. The term brand actually comes from the practice of branding cows with a distinctive mark so you know which farmer the cow belongs to. 

However, once you step out of the agricultural sense and into the world of business and marketing, brand is a much larger umbrella term that describes each and every interaction you have with your customers.

So, let’s get started:

1. Your brand should be Simple

Simple designs draw the eye and simple messages are easier for people to connect with. Plus, simplicity makes branding easier on you.

People are inundated with messages and decision making ALL DAY LONG. This is absolutely true in the marketing world, but people are making all kinds of decisions, like “Which route is faster to work today because of the construction on Whyte Avenue?”. The more decisions we make in a day the harder it is for us to make decisions. It’s mental fatigue and it happens to all of us. 

Your customers don’t want to work to figure out your brand. Your employees don’t want to work to figure out your brand. And you are probably busy with other business decisions that you don’t want to figure out a complicated brand!

Think of the largest companies in the world, and what is common about them:

McDonald’s, Apple, Nike, Amazon, Walmart, FexEx, Coca-Cola

1. They use no more than two colours in their branding
2. They feature a flat image (no shadows, no depth, nothing is jumping off of the page)
3. They have a defined message/tagline/vision

Because of these commonalities, everything is easily reproducible and versatile. McDonald’s can stick their logo on a brown take-out bag, a burger wrapper or on a massive street sign and it looks good and easily identifiable. 

2. Your brand should be Unique

There may be a lot of businesses in your industry but none of them are exactly like you. People want to know what makes you different. Let’s show them!

This is one topic we are really passionate about at Paper Lime Creative. Did you know 50% of businesses are confused for their competitors? Having a unique brand can separate you from those competitors and get those confused shoppers off the fence and directed to you.

So what does a unique brand look like? Well, let’s look back to the list above:

McDonald’s, Apple, Nike, Amazon, Walmart, FexEx, Coca-Cola

McDonald’s logo isn’t a burger. Apple’s isn’t a computer. Nike’s isn’t a shoe. Amazon isn’t a package, and neither is FedEx. Coca-Cola’s logo isn’t a bottle of pop. 

By choosing the obvious or clichéd choice for your logo (the example we like to give is a house logo for a REALTOR?) you are lumping yourself in with all the other REALTORS? that had the same not-so-creative idea. You also run the risk of limiting your business as you grow in the future. If Nike had a shoe as their logo what would that have meant for all the other products they subsequently have developed?

You got into your business for a reason, because you offer something different than the next person, figure out what that is and scream it from the roof tops in your branding.

3. Your brand should be Emotional

How does your brand make people feel? Excited? Important? Confident? Your brand is designed to make people feel a certain way from the first time the see you.

People make decisions based on emotion and regardless of what your industry is — even if you think it’s devoid of emotion, if you can tap into an emotional need for your client you will do far better than your competitors. Humans are still programmed for survival, that’s why (and it seems a bit obvious) sex sells. The primal human need is to reproduce and keep your herd (do humans come in herds…?) thriving. And that depends on finding a mate. This is why anything that advertises a more attractive, desirable you works.

There are a lot of emotions you can use, not just sexual desire. If something relieves stress or anxiety, gets people more time or more money, all of this comes down to a better quality of life, or as our ancient brains still think, survival. 

For example, at Paper Lime Creative we want to take the stress out of branding. We actually think we have a pretty fun process that we layout in steps for the client to quickly and easily understand. Branding I can be confusing and there’s a lot of misconceptions. Ease and clarity on our end will alleviate stress on the clients. We also want to make you a bunch of money with a sexy brand that you show off everywhere, too 

4. Your brand should be Authentic

There may be a lot of businesses in your industry but none of them are exactly like you. People want to know what makes you different. Let’s show them!

I love clients that are willing to drop an F-bomb in our initial meeting. I’m definitely a bit of a potty mouth, too! I’m absolutely sure that is a turn off to some potential clients. Here’s the great thing about being authentic though (even with your potty mouth) is that the people that do connect with you will adore you. Stop hiding your weirdness, tell the world what you’re passionate about, even if it’s weird. I met my husband playing Dungeons and Dragons. if I had stifled my nerdiness for Dungeons and Dragons I wouldn’t have met the man of my dreams. The same goes when you’re a business seeking out clients. 

Yes, being authentic will lose you clients but I promise you they wouldn’t have been the right fit anyway. Fuck it! Use your brand to pull in the clients you love working with and use it to deter the clients that you don’t like to work with. This is an incredibly powerful realization and so freeing in your business. 

5. Your brand should be Purposeful

Branding is all about intention. What are you here to do and how do you fulfill your purpose each and every day? People love to join a cause!

This can be one of the harder parts of your brand to tackle. This is your “why”. Why do you get up every single day and do what you do? When your why is clearly defined, then making business and branding decisions becomes so much easier! Do your marketing and branding choices relate back to your why? Does the way you speak to customers come from your why? And maybe even most importantly, does the way you deal with a dissatisfied customer, or even conflict come back to your why.

For examples our why at Paper Lime Creative is to help people fall in love with their businesses. At the end of the branding process we want you to love your new brand and to be excited and ready to show it off to the world! If you’re dissatisfied with something? You bet we’re going to fix it!

Your purpose can also be bigger than your business, or perhaps you have a personal “why” that plays into it as well. My personal why is to create moments of *wow* that remind us that our ride on this rock is awesome. If you’ve ever received baking from me or a heartfelt gift, that’s where it comes from! It’s also a big reason why travel is so important to me. You can see how my personal why ties into our business why. 

6) Your brand should be Focused

If you try to connect to everyone through your brand you’ll wear yourself out. Remember the fisherman’s rule: One salmon is not equal to 200 goldfish.

Being focused ties in a lot with being authentic. I find that this is one that business owners grapple with because no one likes the idea of customer picking a competitor’s business over our own OR they don’t like the idea that if they turn away a customer it means less revenue for them. 

I’ve heard hair stylist say “anyone with hair is my ideal customer” or utility providers say “anyone who pays for utilities is my dream client” or car salesmen say “anyone who wants a new car I’m happy to help”.

There’s a couple problems with this. First, when you try to talk to everyone you talk to no one and second it’s not actually true. I need you to take a step back for a minute and think about your current job or a past job while I tell you an anecdote from my past…

*dream sequence*

I used to work at a clothing store when I was in university, working my way through my graphic design diploma. With the business pitches above, maybe you would say our ideal customer was “anyone who wanted to buy clothes”. I promise you my ideal customer was NOT anyone who wanted to buy clothes. Because we ALL KNOW that person we do not want to walk into our business. For this clothing store… let’s paint a picture of what this person might look like. She’s got the “can I speak to the manager” hair cut and she probably has a 10-13 year old kid in toe and she hates our credit card policy and she’s yelling at a 17 year old that has no control over how head office in Ontario builds their store policies. 

THIS is “anyone who wants clothes” but she wants it at a discount because there is a loose seam and it’s a birthday gift for little Timmy even though there’s one with a perfectly fine seam on the rack she just doesn’t want to pay full price and she’s going to “take her business elsewhere” and you think to yourself “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take your business elsewhere”. 

Clearly I have some repressed emotions from my 3 and a half year stint, but when you ask for “anyone who could use my services” remember that this is who falls under that category. When you can get really specific about the people you want to be your patrons you can talk directly to them. If you’re not quite sure where to start, think of a client that you already LOVE working with, interview them, ask them what attracts them to your business, or any business for that matter and leverage that. You will always get the odd person on the peripheral that will yell at you about your credit card policy. Don’t worry, you will still get to enjoy that thrill in business. But how life and business changing would it be if you get get that client you loved over and over and over again?

7. Your brand should be Consistent

If you’ve ever played a game of telephone, you know how tiny shifts in messages can lead to major miscommunication. Branding keeps your message stable. And people love stability!

Consistency is really important in branding. If you’re feeling confused and overwhelmed with your brand, this is the place to start. We recommend doing an audit of all of your materials and making sure everything match.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

1) How many colours am I using? Are they the same tone/shade?

“Best Practice” is usually 2-3 brand colours, which you will see in all the big brands, and this is a great way to bring consistency and instant recognition. Does Coco-Cola even use colours other than Red?! If you are in the realm of 2-3 colours are they the same across all of your materials, or sometimes does your blue print a bit teal, and other times a bit purple-y? While this may seam nit-picky, even tiny discrepancies can throw of your customers. That’s why Coca-Cola is adamant about their red being correct.

2) Does my messaging sound the same?

Are you always upbeat in friendly? Or sometimes do you get SUPER PROFESSIONAL, or maybe you come off jargon-y and analytical. Keeping a consistent voice and message is huge when communicating with your clients because people remember words and stories more than visuals.

3) Are my fonts the same?

Fonts can be a bit tricky if you don’t spend all day staring at different ones like we do but take a close look and to see if you can find variations. Like colours, you want to stick with 2-3 all the time.

If you can audit and pare down some of your marketing materials it can make a huge difference. Just like when we interact with a person, we build trust with them knowing that they act and behave a certain way. When they act weird or out of character we start to raise questions. The same goes for your business.

8. Your brand should be Expressive

You can talk to your clients in your branding the same way you’d talk to them in person. If you tell them how you honestly feel, you’ll usually get the same honesty back in return.

When you can have real conversations with your customers and they can have real conversations back with you, that’s when you get a devoted brand following! People realize they’re not just a number to you and that their opinions and feedback matter. When you take that feedback and use it constructively they’ll know you truly listened to them. Also if you don’t realize something is broken, how can you fix it?

While there are absolutely industries and businesses that require more formality and a higher level of professionalism, figure out how and where you can be more authentic and casual. If you’re a lawyer or a banker, people are often anxious about being in your office, have a laugh, be casual and let them know they’re dealing with a real person!