Press Pause on your Public Image

How much time do you spend thinking about the brands you interact with on a daily basis? All of these brands possess a quality or strength that draws you to them (convenience, habit, mission, etc.) Whether those brands have existed for 100 years or 100 days, that strength that draws you to them was cultivated somewhere. So how did these brands grow from an idea to become a part of our daily lives and our consumer subconscious? Did they grow from a catchy name or an eye-popping logo? Maybe an unshakeable tagline or flamboyant color scheme? Perhaps they built the most beautiful website the world has ever seen. And while all of the previously mentioned components are exciting (and admittedly can have a great effect on the growth of a brand), they are only a compliment to a strong brand’s strategic foundation.

Before we can build great brands, we must first be able to articulate what our promise to our consumers will be. B2B consumers will not put their trust in your brand because your website has slick interactive functionality, they will come to you for one reason above all else - to solve problems. This means that before diving head-first into the world of logo creation and web development, you must first be certain of your brand’s strategic foundation, i.e. what your underlying promise is to your consumers.

You should first be able to articulate how your brand will make work more efficient and predictable, this will help ensure your brand’s ability to make consumers “confident and less anxious.” (Fleming, 2018) Your brand’s strategic foundation must articulate your point of differentiation because customers are not coming to you simply “to buy products, but for help solving problems.” (Fleming, 2018) The compliments (logos, web design, etc.) are unlikely to solve any tough problems for your consumers.

Start first by concisely articulating your distinct value proposition. This should speak directly to your client’s needs while also defining the before mentioned point of differentiation. Avoid long prose and excessive comparison to your competition - focus on the concise nature of this exercise. Answer simply - 1.) What does your product or service accomplish? 2.) What is your promise to customers?

The excitement of sharing your brand with the world can make these early steps seem tedious (trust us, we’re excited to help you share your story!), but serious thought and deliberation spent defining your strategic foundation will pay dividends down the line when you are finally ready to develop a clean looking logo or a fresh new website.