Telling Your Digital Story to the World

Part 1
Check out Part 2

Discover Who You Are

“To thine own self be true.”

A big way to increase brand loyalty is knowing who you are and who you are not. If you know these two things, you’re halfway there.

The second half, of course, is how you show these things. We communicate who we are as a brand through language, colors, imagery and design. In this blog post, we’ll focus on just one of them: language.

Read more on the importance of branding in this blog post, “Does Your Brand Differentiate Your Business?”

Brands communicate their identity through storytelling.

Want to know how to tell your story? First, let’s decide who you are and who you are not.

Gather the key people at your company. This could include the owner, founder, operations manager, and anyone who works closely with your day-to-day operations, especially customer service.

You can have a small meeting with just one of two people and get some deep, personal insight or invite the whole company to participate and get more diverse, overarching feedback.

Begin with this “getting to know you/ branding” Exercise.

Have the owner and/or founder share a little bit about him or herself. Getting personal is fine. You want to ask them:

1. where they grew up (and a bit about their early home life). Then ask them
2. to give you the “highlight reel” of their career until the company’s inception.

Have someone take detailed notes.

Then ask the following questions:

1. What do you like to read?
2. What do you like to watch?
3. Who is iconic to you?

Then move on to:

1. How was the company started?
2. Why was the company started?

Then get more into the details:

1. What is your business? I.e. What does your company do? (the elevator pitch)

Now

1. Describe your business in as few sentences as possible.
2. What is your business focus?
3. Do you have a niche?
4. How would your clients describe your business?
5. Who are your competitors and why?
6. What sets you apart from other companies doing the same thing?

Then ask some nitty-gritty questions about business stats.

1. How many customers/clients do you have?
2. Do you have a tagline?
3. What is your current client’s demo + psychographic (to determine a demo + psychographic for your ideal customer, read our blog post, “Who Are Your Prospective Clients?”)
4. Come up with an exhaustive list of adjectives that describe your brand. Try to get at least 20. Get the Thesaurus out!!
5. Do you have any Awards, Accolades, or Certifications?

Now comes the fun part!

What would you be If you were a/an…. And why?

1) Animal
2) Car
3) Fruit
4) Alcoholic Beverage
5) Instrument
6) Flower or plant
7) Piece of jewelry
8) Color
9) Song / band / music
10) Celebrity
11) Scent / Perfume
12) Season
13) Dessert
14) Entree
15) Appetizer
16) Region in the US
17) City
18) Book
19) Language
20) Candy
21) Fashion brand

This concludes your first branding session. Have the notetaker write up the answers and come up with a final doc that represents all of your answers succinctly.

Use this doc as a launching pad for determining your brand story.

Here is a completed Branding Exercise to use as an example for your own work.

Have fun! And, as always, send us a note if you want us to help you discover your brand identity.