Branding 101: Everything You Should Know About Building Your Brand

Hey there!

Welcome to Episode #8 of The Athena Arena Podcast – The Content & Digital Marketing Strategy Academy for Aspiring 6, 7, and 8-figure Wonder Woman Brands & Mastering Your Inner Game

And for all you brilliant and talented men out there…don’t let the “Wonder Woman Brands” thing throw you! This is as much for men as it is for women.

Crafting a successful brand is more than just creating a logo or slogan. To stand out from the crowd and effectively communicate your message to potential customers, you must understand your goals, mission, and values and use this knowledge to create a memorable brand.

Define Your Brand’s Core Identity

Make sure that your brand has a core identity. This can be done by asking yourself questions like:

• “What values and vision set my brand apart?”,
• “What brand promises can I confidently make”,
• “What’s my brand “edge that differentiates my business from another”,
• “What brand emotions can I evoke for my ideal clients?”, or
• “What goals and mission do I want to communicate?”

Think of this as the foundation for everything else you build upon.

After you determine your unique identity, create a set of branding guidelines (including brand words, phrases, and taglines as well as colors, fonts, and tone of voice) to ensure brand consistency. Doing this will help customers recognize your brand when they encounter it.

To ensure that your brand remains consistent, create an elevator pitch (or summary) of your company’s identity. This should include details like how you want to be perceived, what benefits customers can expect from engaging with you, and how this message aligns with your core values.

Remember to keep it concise and make sure it accurately communicates the spirit and intentions behind your brand.

Once you have this down pat, use it as a reference when designing materials, crafting social media posts or writing a blog entry.

Understand the Power of Your Brand

Building an effective brand requires a deep understanding of your target audience, their needs, and your product or service. A successful brand communicates its message consistently through various touchpoints, including:

• product design,
• service package offerings,
• offices, retail or warehouse space,
• advertising campaigns,
• how you treat employees,
• your intentions for all stakeholders in your business,
• website content,
• social media channels (of course), and even
• customer service.

Customers need to be able to distinguish your products from competitors for them to make their buying decision quickly.

Developing a solid and recognizable brand increases customer loyalty, which will help to boost sales and keep customers coming back for more.

I did an episode on the fact proven in consciousness research that the likelihood of business success is dramatically improved by business differentiation vs imitation. It’s a quantum leap in positively oriented constructive energy when you genuinely differentiate your business vs imitating another one.

A powerful brand also helps increase your company’s visibility among potential customers by establishing a presence on social media platforms and in public relations campaigns. Brand recognition also helps you stand out from the competition, allowing customers to remember your company name more quickly and effectively. Investing in branding is essential to developing a solid foundation for achieving long-term success.

To develop a successful brand, you first need to understand the needs and wants of your target market. This means researching what they’re looking for regarding products or services and asking questions to check their opinions.

With this data, you can create an effective messaging strategy that clearly identifies your company’s core values and represents how you want customers to view your business.

Utilizing creative content such as logos, packaging, website design, and marketing messages will make your brand stand out from others in the field, attracting more customers and increasing loyalty to your company.

Investing in branding gives you a higher edge when sustaining success through challenging times because positioning yourself as an industry leader will help others remember who you are when the storm passes.

Determine Your Brand’s Mission, Vision, and Values

Your mission, vision, and values should reflect the type of service you provide, inspire your team’s vision, and inform your internal decisions.

Ask yourself questions such as:

• “Why do we/I exist?”,
• “What makes us/me different?”, and
• “How do our/my products benefit customers?”

Your values should be rooted in integrity and teach marketing and product teams how to represent your brand best. Consistent messaging will ensure that customers recognize you and are more likely to convert.

Assessing your mission, vision, and values can provide insight into possible partnerships. Align with businesses that authentically share your beliefs, enabling you to tap into their target audience and find new customers.

Furthermore, brand values inform every aspect of your business’s operations, such as customer service, processes, and internal dynamics. Knowing who you are will help with decision-making by keeping everyone on the same page when working towards a shared goal of success.

What’s the Difference Between a Brand Mission and a Brand Vision?

Per Wikipedia:

A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation.^[1][2] It may include a short statement of such fundamental matters as the organization’s values or philosophies, a business’s main competitive advantages, or a desired future state—the “vision”.

Brand vision refers to the ideas and foundational principles behind a brand that help guide the future and inspire potential customers to join in that vision. When the brand vision resonates with all stakeholders and carries a frequency of higher consciousness, which is measurable, it reflects and supports the business strategy, clearly differentiates it from competitors, resonates with customers, energizes and inspires employees and partners, and creates a gush of powerfully aligned marketing programs and ideas.

When absent or superficial, the brand will drift aimlessly, and marketing programs will likely be inconsistent and ineffective. It takes higher consciousness, higher choices, and higher intent to NOT fall into the trap of weak energy fields and aimless drifting.

Establish a Brand Voice and Story

Every successful brand starts with a distinct voice established through its visual language, logo, and messaging.

When crafting your voice, you must start by thinking about how you want to communicate with customers. Consider which words capture the emotion of your brand story and evoke the feeling you’ve chosen to reflect in your branding.

Speaking consistently in this unforgettable tone will ensure that people understand who you are before they even meet you!

You also want to craft a brand story that creates an emotional response from people and leaves them with an unforgettable image of your company.

It should explain why your organization exists, inform customers of its purpose, and attract those who share your beliefs.

By developing an engaging story, you give customers insight into your mission, provide them context and meaning, engage their emotions, and create a lasting impression. This will help them trust your brand and give them a sense of security that their decision to choose you is the right one.

Develop a Tagline or Slogan that Communicates What You Stand For

A slogan or tagline communicates what you stand for and can help customers remember your brand.

Brainstorming potential taglines is a great way to think about the defining qualities of your brand and what makes it unique. Make sure that the slogan you choose conveys your mission in an interesting and creative way and will resonate with your target audience.

Your slogan should be direct, clear, and concise. It also needs to be memorable for it to truly impact your brand identity. Try not to make it too long or wordy – you want people to recall it easily and associate it with your brand so that it can really stick in their minds.

And consider creating a visual component of the tagline by using a logo or another simple illustration. If done well, this can really heighten the power of your slogan and help customers quickly recognize you.

• Branding Resources including “The Personal Branding Starter Kit” The Basic Blueprint for Developing (what I call) an impactful “Wonder Woman Brand”
• Episode #3 of this podcast is about Archetypes in Branding as it relates to the use of the Goddess Athena and Wonder Woman in my brand.
• Episode #4- Understanding your strong suit as illuminated through the Clifton Strengths Test, as an example.
• Episode #5-  Understanding keyword marketing research is directly related to identifying your target audience
• Episode #6- How to Master Your Inner Game regarding your keyword marketing research
• #Episode #12– Does Differentiating a Product, Business, or Brand from the Competition Increase the Likelihood of Success? You’d Be Surprised!