Your brand is your vehicle to bring your idea to life – your dream, your vision, your business, your legacy. It is the confluence of who you are, what you do, who you do it for and why.

Many entrepreneurs and business people make the mistake of rushing right into building their businesses with only a surface level knowledge of what their brand is.

This makes it difficult to nail things down and make decisions. Decisions like how we position ourselves, how we market, what clients to target and many more.

Having a clear idea of your brand gives you direction and puts you in the best position to succeed. It puts you in the mind of your customers, intimately understanding their needs, hopes and fears. It gives you a framework to keep searching and innovating until you reach Brand Resonance. A clear brand makes for an easy yes, from your team, stakeholders and audience.

But where do you start? How do you begin to find clarity?

There are 4 main problem areas which break down to 8 pillars to understanding your brand. Once you are able to answer and understand them, you will have the building blocks of your brand.

Problem: People have a vague or inadequate understanding of who they are and what they do.

1. The Identity

This is the main core of your brand, the initiating seed, and the two things to understand here, are your Brand Core and your Audience.

Your Brand Core are the questions around who you are, what you do, what problems you solve, how you solve them, and who you do it for. These are foundational blocks of your brand.

You also need to know your Audience intimately – who do you serve, who do you need to communicate with, what problems do they face? How eager are they to solve this problem, where do they hang out, how do they already solve these problems? The better you understand your audience, the better you can position yourself to serve them.

Problem: People have not defined where they want to go and what they want to achieve.

2. The Direction

Now that you have the core of your brand in place, you need to know where you are going. Why did you start this brand? What inspired you? What is your brand ambition, and what are your non-negotiables as you go into business? This will give you the direction to orient your brand in. You need to know your Brand Ambition and your Brand Values.

Your Brand Ambition is what your are trying to achieve. What is your vision, your version of the world, of reality that you are trying to create? What will change in the world as a result of your brand existing? What is your mission, the main objectives you are trying to achieve? What will you be doing in 5, 10, 20 years.

Your Brand Values are the codes of conduct, the ways of doing business, the qualities that are important to you, and resonate with the people you are trying to serve. Your brand has to embody these traits and prove it in delivery.

Problem: People don’t know how to effectively show up in the marketplace.

3. The Market

With your core and direction in place, you now need to cast your gaze unto the marketplace, to understand the Competitive Landscape and decide your Brand Positioning.

Mapping the Competitive Landscape means understanding what other competitors are out there, how do your customers solve their problems, what solutions, direct and indirect are available to them?

Defining your Brand Positioning means looking at the above, the existing service providers and solutions, looking at what makes you different and deciding how to position yourself, how to approach the marketplace and your customers in a way that stands out and sticks in their minds.

Problem: People don’t know what to say.

4. The Communication

So now, you understand your core, you have figured out your direction, you have studied the market and decided on a mode of approach. Now you have to figure out what you have to say to your audience, your customers and your stakeholders. How do you communicate in a way that cuts through the noise and connects with your audience. This is where you need to nail down your Brand Personality and Brand Messaging.

Your Brand Personality is how your brand would behave if it was a person. What vibe would it have? How would it talk and interact? Having an appropriate and compelling personality will cement your brand in the mind of your audience.

Words move the world. Your messaging are the core ideas you want to communicate to your audience – about who you are, what you offer and why they should care and how they can get started with you. With the right messaging in the right places, you can have people beating the path to your door, wanting to sample what you have to offer.

These are the key areas that you have to understand when building a brand. Once you understand them, you will have clarity around your brand, and have insights and ideas on how to move in the market place to achieve success.

Get Clarity around your Brand

If you want to gain clarity around your brand, I have a playlist of videos breaking down each of the pillars I have outlined above.

I also have a workshop you can buy into and get personal guidance in understanding and articulating your brand. You can get into it in one of three ways:

• Buy the one on one workshop where I walk with you each step of the way, or
• you can join the group workshops and work together with other entrepreneurs and brand builders, or
• you can work through it yourself, going through the videos, the workbook and emerging with a stronger sense of your brand.

Happy brand building.