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steps for brand clarity +

authenticity

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A u t h e n t i c i t y a n d l o n g - te r m s u s ta i n a b i l i t y i n b u s i n e s s g o h a n d - i n - h a n d t h e s e d a ys .

Us

DRIVEIntrinsic purpose beyond profit

ENERGYConscious leadership

Engaged peopleConsidered product

Collaborative process

Them

DRIVEIntrinsic need

CONTEXTSituation

AbilityMindset

We

PURPOSE-DRIVEN STRATEGIESPurposeful and consideredAdd value to people’s lives

Positive, honest and respectfulServe all stakeholders

Sustainability and growth

In our connected world, people can see right through to the core of your business. They no longer trust companies that have dissonance in what they think, say and do. Which is why the brands that make an impact today start from the inside-out. They align what they believe (purpose + values) with what they say (visual/verbal communications + story) and what they do (promotion/ products/services/initiatives/experiences).

Creating a brand is very intentional, you can’t afford to have an ad-hoc approach. Your content needs to be instantly recognisable, useful and relevant to your audience and reflect your brand’s core values. The first step in creating alignment + authenticity is to gain clarity around your brand. Brand clarity will help you focus your efforts.

Following are steps for uncovering and understanding your authentic brand.

Let’s go!

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Us

1 . T r u l y u n d e r s t a n d y o u r s e l f

Reflect on your business as if it were human and become self-aware. Uncovering your purpose and authentic brand as a business is a process of deep reflection, awareness and examination. Think about the core beliefs and values of your company and its people, and what motivates you to do what you do. And then at a deeper level, why do you have these beliefs and values?

Here, you’re looking to uncover your brand purpose or reason for being. You want to identify what drives you, what you stand for and how your business adds value to people’s lives. You are determining your intrinsic purpose beyond profit.

At this stage you don’t want to even consider your audience, that comes later. This step is one of the most important when it comes to brand authenticity and is often overlooked. To be authentic you need to look within, not externally. In the case of a business, that means your people, your collective values, mindset, natural strengths + behaviour.

Get real with yourself and forget about profit right now – this is about you, your people, your business and the legacy you will leave. This part is about your collective fulfilment and your true potential. What do you actually want? What do you actually believe? What ignites the fire in your belly?

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+ What change would you like to see in the world? Why is that important to you?

+ Is there something about your industry that you feel needs to change or improve? Why?

+ What are you driven by?

+ What would you do with your time if money wasn’t a factor?

+ What do you truly value?

+ How do you want to live each day?

+ How do you actually add value to people’s lives?

+ Visualise your company at its full potential, thriving – what does that look like? What are people doing every day and what are you working on?

+ What do you want people to say when they talk about you?

+ What sort of people do you want to work with?

+ What are you afraid of?

Below are some things you need to discover about yourself as a business. You really need to apply divergent thinking here, there are no wrong answers, you can distil down and find common themes later. Emotions, feelings, intuition, reflection, hope and imagination are required, so dig deep.

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Imagine your brand is a person:

+ Describe your brand personality

+ What does your brand get excited by?

+ What are your strengths?

+ What is your biggest fear?

+ How does your brand make people feel?

+ What type of car do you drive? Why?

+ What brands do you admire and align with? Why?

+ What do you do for leisure? Why?

+ What kind of clothes do you wear? Why?

Next, you need to think about your brand from this future context. We call this your ideal brand state. It can be hard to remove yourself from current reality but for this, you really do need to dream, imagine and keep your thoughts firmly in the future.

With your new awareness, and in the ideal brand state, you ask yourself the below questions in order to get clarity around your brand.

Branding is what you stand for in the hearts and minds of your audience. When people are evaluating brands, they use emotions rather than information. The entire experience of your business will determine how people feel and how they evaluate and categorise you. Since brands are like people, we can explore them in the same way we explore ourselves, and develop unique insights and approaches to brand positioning and strategy.

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Archetypal branding is about anchoring your brand behaviour to the belief patterns that are already embedded within humanity’s perception of people. Archetypes were first developed by Carl Jung and represent 12 universal inborn behaviour patterns all of humanity can be categorised into. The more you can align your brand with the archetype and its related behaviour, the more trustworthy and cohesive your brand will become.

You will start to build up a vivid image of this person (a personification of your ideal brand) and a collection of words and themes, which can then be distilled to start to gain clarity and define your brand archetype. Your archetype will help you articulate your meaning and provide a strong foundation for your brand story.

Just remember that your archetype provides a guide for your brand, its personality, behaviour and experience – you still need to build a unique brand strategy that is derived from your purpose and takes into account your situation, future strategy and industry.

You can read more about brand archetypes and brand strategy on our blog.

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Them

Knowing your customer and actually understanding them are quite different. Many companies come up short when it comes to understanding the emotional needs of their customers. All customers are influenced by their own beliefs, and these (often unconscious) beliefs determine the strength and length of your relationship. Without an emotional bond, customers can be easily swayed away from your brand.

Brand connection, just like human connection, is more psychological than logical, and more unconscious than conscious. A purpose-driven organisation that expresses their beliefs and strives to authentically connect with their customer is more likely to attract loyal advocates.

“If you do not make an emotional connection with customers, then satisfaction is worthless.” – ‘Customer Satisfaction Doesn’t Count’ , Article by the Gallup Organization.

The world’s most loved brands have an overriding emphasis that drives the entire brand’s approach. They sell one emotional connection, not a lot of different things. For example, Harley-Davidson sells liberation, and Nike sells mastery.

2 . T r u l y u n d e r s t a n d y o u r c u s t o m e r

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Notice we said ideal customer. We always recommended that you focus on your ideal customer when positioning your brand – those are the relationships that are positive, fulfilling and profitable. Many customers may bring profit to your business, but are neither positive or fulfilling. In fact they can be downright draining. It’s true you can learn a lot from difficult relationships, and you should definitely reflect and learn from these experiences. However, you don’t want to spend endless hours and money building a brand that attracts more of those type of relationships, its not a sustainable practice for you, your company or your brand over the long term.

During this phase, take all focus away from yourself (your targets, goals, expertise, features and benefits, credentials, and your bottom line etc.) and instead focus completely on your ideal customers (their needs, goals, problems, experience, value, feelings, thoughts, actions, dreams, and their fears etc.)

Hint: If you are attracting lots of those difficult relationships, its just an indicator that you don’t have an authentic brand… yet.

Empathy mapping and customer journey mapping can be used to uncover the aspirational self-concept, desires and fears of your customer, which is what you need to know in order to build a brand that truly connects and inspires your audience. Get below the surface with qualitative research, talk to customers directly. You will not truly understand your customers with surveys and big data alone. Remember you’re trying to discover your authentic brand position, this isn’t about marketing right now, so keep focused on the bigger picture.

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Here are some questions you need to be able to answer:

+ What do they think and feel? (worries, aspirations, preoccupations, expectations etc.)

+ What do they see? (environment, people, brands, information etc.)

+ What do they say and do? (attitude, appearance, behaviours etc.)

+ What do they hear? (influences, media, peers, colleagues etc.)

+ What are their frustrations + fears?

+ What are their wants + dreams?

When you have a true description of the people you’re trying to reach and where and how to reach them, you’re armed with the knowledge you need to address their values and motivations through your brand. By uncovering emotions, you learn the basis of your customers’ motivation, and thus the authentic attributes of your brand to highlight in your branding strategy.

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We

3 . F i n d w h e r e y o u a n d y o u r i d e a l c u s t o m e r a u t h e n t i c a l l y a l i g n

Something we find that’s helpful at this point is to find the ‘we’ statements. These are statements you could make that would motivate both you and your audience, they need to ignite some passion. Again, apply creative thinking and write down anything that comes to mind – lay out all of the words and information you’ve gathered so far and look for insights into commonalities.

You now need to find the bridge between your authentic business + purpose, and the needs and desires of your customer. By now you should have a lot of useful information and insights at your fingertips about your business and your customer. With some thought and reflection (this may take a while), you should be able to find where both your values + aspirations align – that is, how you can position your brand to best serve your customers needs + aspirations. What story can you tell that is both authentic to you, and relevant to the wants + aspirations of your ideal customer?

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Here are a few questions that might help you find alignment:

+ What core needs are your customers trying to fulfill by using your category (generic industry/category archetype)?

+ What are the core emotive drivers for people to choose your brand specifically?

+ How does your archetype fulfill these desires? What needs doesn’t it fulfill?

+ What characteristics are associated with both your archetype and your generic category archetype?

+ What does your customer believe that you also believe?

+ What values do you have in common?

+ What strengths do you have that serve their core human needs?

+ How do your products and services align with your purpose + brand archetype?

+ What future needs will your customers have? How is your purpose aligned to that?

+ What implications does your archetype have for your brand positioning and your brand story?

This part about uncovering your unique emotional benefit – the core element of your brand strategy that will magnetise your ideal audience when expressed and executed consistently over time. The good news is,when you have an authentic brand position and strong purpose, behaving and communicating consistently comes more naturally.

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Hopefully this ebook has provided you with a new way to look at and live out your purpose-driven brand. We hope it’s been helpful.

If you want to build an enduring brand that has a positive impact on people, your business and the world, here are the 6 key areas you need to focus on:

1. Higher Purpose - Connect, unify and mobilise others around a common goal. This is the foundation for creating real change.

2. Purpose-driven Strategy - Refer to your purpose to drive, integrate and evaluate everything your company does in order to ensure you create your desired future.

3. Intrinsically Engaged People – Become the critical bridge between employees and the purpose they seek. A brand that has been built from the inside out must start with its people.

4. Conscious Communication – Be mindful in ensuring that all company and brand communications are aligned with your company’s purpose and focus on positive and intrinsic values.

5. Empathetically Connected Customers - Build a culture of empathy. Understand customers at their core and genuinely want the best for them. Drive to deliver value how and when customers really want it.

6. Agility and Responsiveness – Use your vivid goal and defined purpose as a framework for change and direction. Conscious Brands are able to stay true to their purpose and values while transforming to adapt to changing market demands and customer expectations.

You can Assess and track your brand development over these six key areas on our Conscious Brand Index - consciousbrand.co

61 Parry Street Newcastle NSW 2300

Phone 02 4929 1555 studio@mezzanine.co

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Mezzanine is a Conscious Brand agency, helping purpose-driven business leaders to grow and nurture brands that have a positive impact on people and the world. To find out more about how we can help you visit mezzanine.co

Assess and track your brand using our Conscious Brand Index

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