Snap Shot - Brand a person

Brand a person

You are a / an - athlete, life coach, professor, independent financial consultant - you get it.
If what you do = who you are = what your brand is then you can use the following steps

1. Google yourself - do you see books authored by you, your professional profile on your own website and on other professional networks like linkedin, blogs written by you, comments on blogs and forums where your clients express themselves, videos of seminars conducted by you, positive news / word of mouse about you? Work on this. Its essential to talk about yourself.
2. Be yourself - you need a unique identity, you must offer some unique value which your clients cannot get from any other professional. Introspect, create, celebrate and articulate your uniqueness
3. Get noticed - by clients, peers and the market in which you operate
4. Influence - keep widening your circle of influence by participating and putting yourself out there - this could mean attending industry events, actually meeting people with your ideas and your thoughts 
5. Be nice  -  its nice to be important but its more important to be nice / handsome is as handsome does 

Brand a service

What are services - educational institute, hotel, airline, hospital, car cleaning and so on. How to identify a service - cannot be touched but can be felt / experienced, cannot be physically preserved like a pen but has an effect e.g. a hair styling service or say an educational institute

How do you brand something like this?

1. What are your values? oops! big word - what would you rather be caught doing when the head lights are on your brand? When in doubt, go for being  "trustworthy and reliable" . When in an out of the box mood go for "being bold". Fill this up I would like to do my business in a _______ manner / I would rather be known as a _________ brand.
2. Communicate relevantly - do your clients care about your values? If you don't know, find out what's relevant to them and see if you can shape up accordingly. If they do care about the way you do your business, talk to them. 
3. Remind at the right time - when do you think about laundry service? When you're facing a stubborn stain. Invest your efforts in identifying these moments in your client's life and be a part of their life. 
4. Deliver - your clients should be able to answer these :  XYZ inc does its business in a ______ manner / is a ______ company. XYZ is relevant to me because _______ 
5. Celebrate credentials - make your clients talk about you, talk to others about what they're saying about you and your work - do noteworthy work and talk about it. 

Snapshot - Build Product Brand

Build your product's brand in simple steps 

Building a brand for a product

Objective : Hook the audience ( consider to buy  >> buy once >> continue to buy)

Here are some steps for this

1. Identify a unique hook : Latch on to a unique product feature. E.g. your pen (product) uses organic ink unlike other pens available (unique feature). Hooked! Product too generic? Check if you can differentiate on after sales service or any other added purchase benefits. If yes, that's your hook. If no, differentiate on your consumer's emotional experience of using the product.
2. Shape up suitably : Develop brand elements matched to your consumer's life, the hook, competitor ( you have to be different), your market (ice to eskimo case), your product (obviously), your company, your employees ( weird mascot on uniform case) 
3. Communicate : What - Your hook and what does your brand stand for. How - first advertise or reach out to your consumer in anyway you like and then listen/ gather as much feedback as possible through research. Why - Has your consumer noticed you? What does he think about you? 
4. Deliver & continue to do so : You've said it! Now live up to it each time your consumer experiences you he is expecting you to deliver your promise
5. "Check yourself before you wreck yourself" : keep tabs on your competition, on how your brand is evolving over time. Is this time to enter a new market? Are you still relevant? Can you improve? Can you communicate more often? Check !

Who are you?

The path you select while building a brand may vary based on who you are.
Try completing this sentence for your brand
I'm a product / service/ company/ independent professional
Based on the path you've chosen we can share few practical basics on building your brand.
It is important to understand the nature of your pursuit to shape your brand building journey.

Elements of a brand

How do you communicate that your product / service is different from all other similar products / services in the category or market in which you operate?
You name it, sign it, symbolize it, in other words you create unique outwards marks of identity.
Lets take an example
You are selling sports wear T shirts.
What is your brand?  your answer should be something like - my brand promises style to professional sportsmen and sport to non professionals.
You might ask me to buy it off the shelf in a clothing store where there are multiple brands, how do I identify your brand?
Here you explain your brands elements - logo, name, color, symbol, sign, tagline etc
These elements are to be created by either you or you can hire a professional creative agency to create these elements for your brand.
You must be involved in this exercise because this is would need to represent what your brand and your business stands for. It would visually or audibly communicate your unique identity to your target customer and the market at large.