How To Build a Brand that Grows with You
Have you ever felt like you have so many new product ideas whirling around in your brain - all you need is time to sit down and organize them?
Maybe you have ideas that feel exciting in your gut - but when your brain takes over and tries to make sense of them, you realize that these ideas don’t fit with your current business?
If any of those situations describe you, then this post is for you.
And trust me - I have been that person.
I have sat in the seat of knowing I want to take my business in a different direction - and yet been hesitant to make a change, because I didn’t want to knock down the brand I was in the process of building.
I have deeply questioned my brand identity because I wanted to play in more than one niche.
Entrepreneurship is a landmine of difficult decisions, and it can feel impossible to find the balance between creating a brand that feels expansive and cohesive.
If you struggle with this - then know that you’re not alone.
You CAN build a brand that grows with you. A brand that expands with your growing interests and passions. A brand that encompasses everything you want to do today, and everything you want to do tomorrow.
This post will show you how.
step one: pick a Niche (or so the Experts Say)
How many of you have been told that you need to niche down? When I got started in my business, this was the main thing I learned from business coaches and teachers:
Niche down so you can have a specific area of expertise.
Niche down so you’re a specialist, not a generalist.
Niche down so you stand out in the market.
Niching down is a common practice, and doing so helped me establish a brand in the beginning of my journey as well.
So… let’s start from here.
Let’s walk through the best way build a brand from scratch - via niching down - and then how to take that brand and evolve it with you as your business expands.
What is a Niche?
The word “niche” simply refers to a specialization in the market. Most business coaches (and business leaders in general) use the word “niche” to describe your specific category of products & services.
The thinking is that you shouldn’t just be a photographer - you should be a newborn photographer.
Or you shouldn’t just be a painter - you should be a abstract painter who works only with acrylics.
You can see how having a niche does help you become more memorable because people know exactly what you stand for. (After all - if I’m hiring a photographer to take pictures of my baby, I’m probably more likely to hire a newborn photographer than a general photographer who takes pictures of anything.)
The Benefits to Having a Niche:
The more specific your area of specialty, the more people understand exactly what you stand for… and the more memorable you become.
If you specialize in something, people assume you are an expert in that thing. In short, this gives you credibility.
Honing in on an area of specialty can also help YOU gain clarity and direction on where you should be spending your time.
So, there are many reasons to start out with a niche.
But what happens over time?
If you’ve been in business for a while, perhaps you eventually start to feel… restless? Maybe you start thinking about different products and services. Perhaps you’re toying with the idea of expanding beyond your current niche, into different areas.
Now is when the niche becomes confusing. If you expand beyond your niche - will people still understand your business? Will they still recognize your brand? Will your audience be totally confused and alienated?
Let’s unpack why a niche is helpful, but not everything, when it comes to building a brand that lasts.
A Niche can be Limiting:
First of all, just because you have a niche does NOT mean you have a brand. (If you are a newborn photographer with no personality, voice, or stylistic differentiation to set you apart from other photographers… then you may find it challenging to book clients, even if you are niched down.)
For the multi-passionate, picking a single niche can feel uninspiring. If you’re an entrepreneur, then you know - the moment you lose inspiration in your business is the moment you need to switch things up.
But the real kicker is this: If you decide you no longer want to play in a certain niche - does that mean your brand has to be scrapped, and it’s time to start over?
The reason a niche is restrictive is because a niche is referred to by most educators to pick a specific product or service.
But what if there were more ways to think about a “niche”?
Rethinking the Idea of a Niche
Here’s the secret to building a brand that can grow with you over time: don’t only focus on niching down. Instead, focus on building UP.
A “niche” by definition is simply an area of specialty - and most educators will teach you to niche down based on your products/services.
But what if you instead of niching your products or services, you niched the type of person you serve? What if you focused on selling to someone who has a specific hobby, a specific interest, a specific problem, etc.?
Expanding the definition of a “niche” to your ideal customers is one way to pick a specialty without tying yourself forever to a narrow scope of products and services. This can feel more empowering.
Or what if you expanded that definition even more… What if, instead of niching down to one kind of person - you actually expanded your focus to a feeling?
Building an Emotion-Based Brand
The best way to build a lasting, yet flexible brand is to actually very simple: center your brand around the way your customers want to feel.
When you center your brand around a feeling, this enables you to create a brand that is emotionally connected to your audience. Emotion is the most powerful factor in bringing people together. Remember: no matter how great your product or service is, everyone buys based on emotion at the end of the day. (You may think you’re buying based on functional benefits, such as price or value. But really you’re buying into the way something makes you feel, or the way that something fits into your life. More on this here.)
In addition - when you build your brand around a certain feeling, you are effectively “niching down” without tying yourself to a certain product or service, or even a certain type of customer.
Let’s say your brand is based on helping people practice self care. You could operate a multitude of different businesses that all tie up to this higher purpose. You could own a hair or beauty salon. You could own a luxury glamping site where people come to disconnect from work and reconnect with themselves in nature. Heck - you could be a dietician teaching others how to love their bodies by feeding themselves well.
You could be a multi-passionate entrepreneur, and still have one overarching mission - which is to help people practice loving and taking care of themselves.
Connecting your brand with a feeling or emotion is powerful because you can sell to different types of people. You can create different products and services to serve different groups, and become more niched down within each specific group or service.
Do you see how building an emotion based brand enables you to balance specificity with cohesiveness?
This is the key to brand growth as well.
A Brand that Grows With You
Here is the headline: Your ability to create brand growth hinges upon your ability to think about the big picture emotions. Instead branding based on the minutia of functional products and services, focus on the higher level benefit of your brand. Identify the feeling that you want to bring to your customers.
You know that saying: “People won’t remember what you say, but they’ll remember how you made them feel”?
The same goes for a business.
People will remember the way your brand makes them feel. That’s your brand longevity.
And brand growth comes when you allow yourself to explore different ways of delivering that end emotion.
Let’s say you own a brand whose mission it is to help customers enjoy self-care. The self care routine of a college student is probably different from the self-care routine of a new parent. Does this mean you have to pick one person to sell to? No! Actually the opposite - it means that your brand has an opportunity to provide a variety of products & services serving different customers in different ways, all while executing the same emotion-based mission.
Boom. Growth and opportunity for new ideas.
The bottom line is that building an emotion-based brand, rather than a brand focused on a certain product or service, opens you up for brand growth.
Your brand can evolve with you, as you discover new (and better!) ways to take care of your customers over time.
Thank you For Reading!
If you have questions or would like to learn more:
Check out what it’s like to work 1:1 with me here.
You can also stay connected with me on Instagram, where I regularly share branding tips and go Live once a month to talk about brand strategy.
Cheers!