How to Create a Cohesive Brand
Have you ever felt like you’re growing your business, but you’re not sure if everything you’re doing connected and cohesive?
Or maybe you’re expanding into new and different product areas - and as a result, your brand feels a little scattered or disconnected?
Yep - you’re not the only one!
As business owners, it’s natural to go through seasons for growth and change. Knowing how to navigate through times of growth is key to building a brand that feels consistently connected to your audience.
Read on for my best tips on how to build a cohesive brand!
Step 1: Identify Your Purpose
The first step to building any brand is to identify your purpose.
What does this mean?
Your purpose is how you affect the lives of your audience. It’s the transformation or change your audience is seeking. It’s the “why” behind your products & services - as in, “why would someone buy this?” and “why does your brand exist?”
Identifying “what” you sell is obvious, but identifying “why” someone buys from you is different. Doing so means understanding your audience on an emotional level, so you can speak to their higher level wants and desires.
My best tip to identifying your purpose is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. After all - you may have started your business to provide a solution that you yourself were seeking. You may be making products that you personally love and want to buy, or offering a service that fills a gap in the market which you yourself experienced. If this is the case - you are your customer. Tap into that!
Even if it’s been years since you first started your business - put yourself back in the shoes of the buyer. Remember what it was like at the beginning, when you were looking for what you’re selling now?
Yeah, that feeling. That’s your “why.”
That’s your purpose.
But what if you run a business where you are not your own customer - then what?
Well, you’re kinda screwed.
JUST KIDDING!
If you are not the same person as who you sell to - then here’s my tip: Lean into what you know about your audience. Think about the people who have bought from you. Why did they buy? What were they seeking? Why did they choose you over someone else?
Or, tap into what inspired you to start your business in the first place!
For example: when I first started my business, I was a wedding invitation designer. I wasn’t married, I wasn’t even engaged - but I chose this space because I felt like Asian American representation here was so lacking, and I felt a deep desire to fill that gap.
So, I centered my purpose around helping people share unique stories - especially stories that don’t fit into “trends” or clichés. This helped me connect with several Asian American and mixed race couples who wanted a wedding that truly celebrated & felt like them, and who wanted to do things a little differently to achieve that.
Your purpose is your “why,” and it’s the key to creating a cohesive brand.
Why? Because your purpose is the “North Star” when it comes to strategy for your business.
Step 2: Connect Your Ideas to Your Purpose
So you have a brand purpose. Now what?
Well, now all you have to do is figure out how your products & services connect back to your purpose. And that’s how you build a cohesive brand.
Um. Say what?
Listen - I know it sounds way too high level and over simplified, but this is the truth. Your brand purpose is the North Star for your business. Using your brand purpose, you can connect all the different products & services you sell (even ones you haven’t started selling yet!) into a cohesive identity.
Remember that your purpose is NOT the same as your products.
Your purpose is the higher level, emotional “why” that drives you to serve, create and innovate. And your “why” usually speaks to your personal beliefs, or desires, and has the power to connect different products & services.
Let me give you an example. Imagine this scenario:
You’re a soap maker known for creating small-batch soaps with seasonal ingredients. Your audience follows you on Instagram, and buys new soap flavors whenever they drop.
After a few years in business, you and your partner have decided to lease a building. But you don’t want to use this as a storefront for selling soaps. You actually want to turn this space into a venue for brunches and intimate parties. You’ve always loved hosting and providing for people in your own home, and you see this as a way to continue doing that - while also making money!
But what exactly does an event venue have to do with soaps? Do you need to create a separate brand for the venue space? What the heck is going on here?!
This is where your brand purpose comes in!
On the surface, selling soaps and renting a venue may seem like they have nothing in common. (Unless you put your soaps in the bathrooms?)
But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that perhaps both ideas are connected by a simple, higher level purpose.
Maybe you make soap because you love the idea of turning everything into an experience. Your soap takes the ordinary, so-so chore of washing hands into an “ooh la la” moment - your soaps transport your customers away from their tiny bathrooms into a fragrant lavender field, or a piney Christmas tree farm, or a salty ocean beachside.
And when it comes to hosting parties and gatherings - well, you just go all out. Anyone can invite friends over for dinner - but what about a Parisian dinner party with quiche and sparkling champagne? Or a Vegas themed casino night with a roulette table and drinks flowing? You are the master of sweeping guests off their feet by creating a total vibe and immersive experience when you host. Which… is actually the same thing that your soaps do (on a smaller scale) for your customers.
You love creating over the top, immersive experiences.
Your brand purpose could be: to transport people into different worlds.
The way you do it is by selling luxury soaps. By renting out an venue space where you can help stage parties & intimate events.
That’s the power of your purpose.
Your purpose is your “why” - and usually that “why” speaks to a deeply rooted passion, belief, or emotion.
Your purpose is so deeply rooted inside you that it connects all of your different products & service ideas - even if, on the surface, it might seem like these ideas have nothing in common.
Your purpose is the common thread that makes your brand cohesive.
And once you have identified your purpose - the only thing left to do is communicate your purpose to your audience.
Step 3: Communicate Your Purpose
To put cohesive brand in front of your audience, it’s important to communicate your purpose.
Since your brand purpose is the common thread between all your ideas, the goal is for your audience to associate your purpose with everything you do.
So instead of being known as a soap brand, you want to be known as a brand that creates immersive experiences.
This is what I call building a brand with purpose, rather than building a brand based on what you sell.
Remember: You don’t always have to come out and literally say your brand purpose.
Actions are louder than words, and you can show people what you stand for rather than saying it.
For example:
When posting about a new product or service, make sure to connect the functional benefits up to a higher level emotion or feeling. (“New soap with organic dried lavender springs will make you feel like you’ve just stepped into a field of lavender.”)
When developing a new idea, consider how to package your service or product to embody the experience you want your customers to have. (When someone tours your venue space, how can you create a tour experience that already transported them into a world where they are a VIP?)
When establishing your prices, ask yourself whether the value makes sense for the higher level emotional transformation you are providing. (You don’t sell soap to people who want clean hands. You sell soap to people who want to feel luxurious and treated. How might that change the way you think about your prices?)
Piece by piece, you’ll be creating a brand that centers around your purpose.
Before you know it - you’ll be well on your way to building a brand that feels cohesive, no matter what new ideas you are pursuing.
That’s it for my best tips around how to create a cohesive brand!
If you’d like to stay connected, you can find me on Instagram, where I regularly go live and share more branding tips & best practices!
If you’d like to discuss a possible branding project or collaboration, please reach out to me here!