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  • Sharing My Fave Projects From This Year in My Brand Identity Design Portfolio (and Some Bonus Design Sneak Peeks)

    I don't know about you but there is something about graphic design projects in general that just put me in my happy place. Each one is uniquely different and always gives me everything I needed during that project. Design has always been an emotional escape for me, and I truly love what I do. It's more than just the design work though. I also love getting to know each and every client I work with and growing those relationships. It brings me a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment knowing I helped another woman-owned small business launch her dreams which in turn, is giving her everything she needs and more at the same time. I'm leaving 2024 with so many new skills that I've learned as well. I definitely am my own worst critique because once I'm finished with a design (branding, marketing collateral, or a website) I always feel like it's not good enough even though I gave it 100% and the client loved the work and style. I tend to put too much pressure on myself which I'll be working on in 2025. How My Brand Identity Design Portfolio and Projects Will Come Together in 2025 With each project, I do step it up a notch and try to add something that I haven't learned before or enhance a skill that I can work on — like hand drawing illustrations and logo designs, improving my color theory techniques, or even just simply reworking designs into a new design style that's out of my comfort zone — I am always going the extra mile to create a hand-crafted design that my clients will resonate and vibe with. I'm stepping into 2025 with more concepts to learn from growing my business, elevating my design skills, working on my client experience, and creating services that will align more cohesively with each client. I'm so excited for 2025, and I can't wait to see what's in store for this new year. With that said, I know you came by this post to see some design work so without further ado.. here are my fave projects from my brand identity design portfolio . Empower Growth Consulting I think this was my most favorite project of this year because I stepped up my illustration design and can I just add that the brand color palette is just chef's kiss. The palette is filled with the perfect balance of color harmony with lavender, maroon tones, yellow, and navy blue. The entire branding project took about a month and half to complete due to the project deliverables. It consisted of working with the client 1:1 to create a full branding suite with brand strategy, visual brand identity, social media graphics, and website design. What I loved most about this project was creating the illustrations and the primary logo mark. With the company name being Empower Growth, I chose to hand draw an illustration that would combine the meaning behind both words which was a sunflower and butterfly. The sunflower is always seen as magnificent, empowering, positivity among other traits. It also symbolizes good fortune, or a lucky charm for someone starting a new career or job path. I paired it with half of a butterfly wing because of course butterflies symbolize change, personal growth, and trust. Combining these two illustrations together further reinforces the brand message and voice, allowing the brand to stand out in it's own way. I went with a whimsy, light and airy sans serif font combined with a script cursive style font that gives it the perfect feminine look and feel. I believe both font choices further strengthen the brands visual style and balances out the illustration of the brand mark. Here is a behind the scenes look at how I put the whole brand suite together: The Little Brush The Little Brush provides exciting children's art classes where kids explore, create, and make memories. From colorful canvas paintings to playful crafts, TLB fosters an environment where imagination knows no bounds. Their experienced instructors guide little hands through the artistic process, encouraging experimentation and celebrating each unique creation. The vivid and bright colors in this brand are everything. I totally enjoyed bringing this brand project to life. This project in particular took 4 weeks to complete and only consisted of a visual branding suite which was creating the brand's logo suite, brand strategy, brand voice, messaging and style. For the marketing materials, I created a full suite of social media templates with business cards, and a little fun extras. For the design on the primary logo mark, I strictly went with a typographical logo design for this brand that included incorporating a fun, hand drawn paintbrush illustration into the typography. To create this, I chose a playful, chunky font that was friendly and inviting, the design of the paintbrush gave a huge child-like lift that it needed. I created a cute set of illustrations that went into a brand pattern design as can be used in social media templates, pins, on the website, stickers, bags, and more. As I worked with the brand and got deeper into their story and vision, I wanted to intertwine their style withe the professionalism they provide to their community although it is a brand centered around children, it still has the playful, inviting vibe. Here is a behind the scenes look at how I brought this brand to life: Green Glass Sip and Plant Lounge Located in New Orleans, Green Glass offers a distinctive plant and sip experience designed exclusively for couples seeking shared moments. In each carefully curated 2-hour session, each half of the couple engages in the art of planting and pot decorating while indulging in thoughtfully selected alcoholic beverage flights. Green Glass creates an intimate atmosphere where couples can unwind, connect, and cultivate both their love for greenery and each other. This branding project was one of my first projects of 2024 and it was a new brand industry that I hadn't touched on before but I was of course ready for the challenge. The style of this brand and the type of offerings it brings to it's landscape is very unique in it's own way. There aren't too many brands out there that offer this kind of lux experience. I was excited for everything about this brand, as I'm a plant lover and collector myself, I knew I wanted to give this brand the refresh it needed. The entire project was completed in about 4 weeks as we had to dive deep into strategy and the design approach as their was much to consider due to the business' location and vast list of competitors. The color palette makes the brand come together in a bold way that is still warm, and comforting. I chose to go with a bight green, navy blue, and orange for the main brand colors. It was important for the color in this brand suite to really shine through and tie it all together. As seen in the primary logo mark, I used a vintage style modern sans style font. The font choice here captured the brands Louisiana vintage vibe but being just modern enough that it doesn't blend in with the typical businesses in the area. To give the brand an even more appealing look, I added in some hand drawn illustrations of a monstera leaf and a wine glass. I loved playing into the white space of the letter R in typography which I nestled the leaf right into that space. I added the wine glass on the end of the word mark. The illustrations gave it a more appealing and memorable look as well. The typographical logo then went into a secondary logo, and a few brand marks as well as some marketing materials. You can follow this link to view more of this project design. The Bonus Brand Design Sneak Peeks You've Been Waiting For At the end of this year, I've been working on two very different branding projects that I absolutely can't wait to share. I've been giving these projects 100% so that they fully capture the strategy, research, and vision from the clients. They are in two opposite industries, an apiary beeswax brand, offering products like lotion, chap sticks, skincare, candles, and more. The other project is a pet care brand offering services and products for a variety of pets and their daily lifestyle needs. Pawfect Pals Logo Suite Sneak Peek I don't show off a logo suite so soon due to protecting the quality of the project and the clients brand, but this project is a passion project of mine that I am so ready to wrap up in the next couple of weeks. The logo suite is coming together, and you can see the fun illustrations I've put together as well. Like I said, I'm beyond excited for this brand to come to life. It has been so fun and a new learning experience all on it's own. Wax and Wane Apiary I'm just sharing the mood board of this brand for now not only because I love the aesthetic but because the visual suite of this brand may be the most illustrated yet and the style of it is giving earthy, western, desert vibes but of course with a modern style. Usually apiary brands choose the traditional bee illustrations and the color yellow. I am staying away from both of those concepts and am going with bold colors, hand drawn illustrations, and a full brand suite that will enhance and elevate the brands style and products. Plus, this brand is in my home state of New Mexico which makes it all the more amazing to be able to work on this! If you're interested in giving your brand a refresh for 2025, or if you're a new business looking to getting started with your branding, let's connect to talk about how we can work together to bring your brand to life. I offer packaged services in brand identity (logo design), brand strategy, Wix website design, graphic design in a variety of marketing materials (business cards, packaging, flyers, brochures, digital and print ads, social media templates, brochures, and so much more). Don't hesitate to send an inquiry on my website to get started.

  • Before you design your next social media template, check for these tips.

    In the mix of managing a business among a million other things we have on our plate as small business owners, it can be overwhelming to consider consistency and cohesiveness when it comes to designing marketing materials for your business. Trust me, I know the feeling - having been there myself. But, it is SO so important to not skip on ensuring that all your marketing materials are on brand. What does "on brand" actually mean, you ask? It's easy, I'll share my quick tips so can stay consistent in your design process within your business. One of the biggest design mistakes I see among small business owners is that their social media post templates are not consistent from one post to the next. It's seen in carousels, reels, static image posts as well as stories! I just have to say that social media is one of the first impressions people have of your business. Often times, they visit your Instagram or Facebook before they visit your website. If your visual identity isn't cohesive and on brand, it will show and people won't even make it beyond your social media. Inconsistency in your own designs (and I say this with so much love) shows that you are messy, unprofessional, unorganized, lack expertise in your industry, and most of all you could be lacking sales or clients. With that said, here are some tips to get you back on track in your small business branding. Do your social media templates use a consistent color palette? I've seen so many business owners use the wrong colors in their social media templates. Not to shame them or you - but you should always stick to the same 3-6 colors in your designs. If you're using a pre-made template, change the colors to your branded color palette or use colors you have chosen for your business and logo. Make sure you don't use the same colors from the template, make the template your own and use your colors. As mentioned before, a typical brand color palette should have 3-6 colors which consist of 1-2 primary colors, 2-3 accent colors, and a neutral tone to balance them all out. Correct font usage matters in design In any design, you want your headings, body copy, and CTA's to all be easily distinguishable, readable, balanced, and most of all consistent. Every time you create a new design, you shouldn't be using different fonts because they are cute, makes it look nicer than the last design, or because you're tired of the current fonts you have. If you keep changing your fonts, your CTA's will get lost, and you don't want your audience to miss out on what action they need to take next. Always pick 1-2 fonts to use to remain cohesive in your designs. 1 decorative font can also be used, but remember, less is more so you won't need to use the decorative font everywhere. Always check for accessible design format You should always check to see if your designs are accessible not only with font sizes, but also with colors. This will help anyone with disabilities or visual/hearing impairments easily read or hear what your design is. In Canva, if you click settings, then navigate to "Check Accessibility". It will show you and pin point which pieces of your design need to be fixed, and will provide suggestions on how to edit it to fix it. See examples in Canva below. Make the design on a pre-made template unique When choosing a new design it's always awesome to start from scratch, but if you're in a pinch or have no design experience, you can choose a pre-made template. Just make sure that when you choose a pre-made template that edit it to match the style you have in place with the same colors and fonts. You don't want to use the template as is because it is another designer's work, and millions of people are already using the same template without editing it to match their own business or branding. To make your products or services stand out and become sellable, you have to create a unique visual style around it. Don't overcrowd your elements In a design, you don't need to put a ton of elements, text, and stickers, or colors to get your point across. Less is always more, always! As in the graphic example below, this is what I mean when things are more than overcrowded. This graphic has way too much going on, and it's just not necessary to have this much text or elements. Don't design your graphics with this much content. If you need help with how to align and space out your elements, get inspiration from Google, Pinterest or even resort to the pre-made Canva templates for some additional inspo. Less design is more, always! As always, I hope that you found these tips helpful as well as actionable so you can begin to use them in your own designs for your business. If you need additional help with your designs, share your questions in the comments section of this post. If you happen to be interested in outsourcing any of your design work, I would love to help you get back on track with creative stability. Trust me, it is the key to running your business smoothly and efficiently. I have multiple packages available for design services in small business branding. Just follow this link to view my services.

  • How to Create a Brand From Start to Finish (Part 1: All Things Designing Brand Identity)

    Calling all the small business owners who are starting their brand from the ground up, I've got a special surprise for you! Heading into 2024 has me so pumped to begin helping small business owners with creating stunning, scroll-stopping, cohesive and unique brand experiences - everything from brand identity, website design, to graphic design templates. I'm starting a new mini series that will help all small business owners create their brand from scratch and do it in the right way - for free. Yes, you read that right. I've already seen so much posting in Facebook groups and on social media. Posts consisting of new entrepreneurs saying they've created their logo, but they just can't get their vision to align with what they are creating and they need help to finish their concept and bring it to life. Ladies.... it's time to put Canva away. Don't get me wrong, I love Canva for a ton of different reasons, but choosing a color palette and a pre-made logo is not the way. Close out of that pre-made logo template you found and stop the revolving door of paying someone on Fiverr or Upwork. Because, let's face it. You most definitely get what you pay for. If you're ready to tackle your business branding from scratch, then please continue reading. Everything you need to know about designing branding identity for small business Trust me, understanding this from the very beginning is just as important as creating the logo. Can you name a brand that you love? Just write down the first one that comes to mind. Maybe your fave brand is a clothing store, cosmetics line, a local coffee shop, or perhaps a grocery store. Now think of the reasons you keep coming back to that business. Consumers continue repeat purchases with a business when its values and mission align to you or the products or services resonate with you in a more deeper sense. Take Coca-Cola for example. Coca-Cola has created a memorable brand experience for consumers as they associate the drink with the good ol' days, tying in past memories to create an emotional connection. As consumers, we don't always plainly see how we are tied to a brand and the psychology behind why we love it. We just buy the product or service, because the brand is knowledgeable, credible, maybe popular, and we love what it stands for. We don't know what it takes to make a business' brand versatile, unique, and strong. Branding: the foundation of awareness of your business This brings us to the art and skill of branding a business. Which is the visual and psychological components of what makes a brand physically unique and fills it with personality. This is what ultimately drives awareness and reputation around the business, and it's products or services. There are so many moving parts into creating a brand and it takes years to create a successful and sustainable brand. However, I'm sure you're wondering how branding works and what about brand identity - aren't they the same thing. No... they're not. Your brand identity is all the components of your brand - all the elements that come together to express your brand to the world. The more refined, specific, and clear these elements are, the higher the chance your brand identity will be easily recognizable and admired among your audience. To recap, let's look at that again. A brand is how the world perceives and resonates with a business. Branding is the process of hiring a brand identity designer to create the mold, voice, and style of how the world perceives and resonates with the business. A brand identity is a collection of all the visual elements, assets, fonts, colors, messaging, voice, mission, etc. that a business uses to portray itself to consumers. You should think of your business as a person. Consumers crave an emotional connection, and there is no better way than to think of your business as a human. You can even give it a fun name, for a more humanized/avatar approach. Majority, if not all people, want to be viewed in a certain way and be known for something they've achieved or worked hard on, this in turn follows their habits, actions, and morals in their lives. As an example, maybe in high school you were passionate about art, creativity, and music. Maybe you always carried a sketchbook or a camera, listened to music and loved yearbook class. Or you could have been athletic, wore the latest Jordan's or Nikes, and joined all of your sports teams because you loved competing and striving for more. These finer personality traits and accessories are the exact elements of how a business creates a brand identity. A brand identity is the most actionable, and crucial part of what makes a business into a brand. You will need to strategize the right elements to execute a clear message, mission, vision, and values. Brand identity elements do vary among different businesses, but some of the most common are: Business Name: Your business name will hopefully exist for the duration of the time you're conducting business. It's important to ask key questions when creating your business name. Does it need to mean something? Is it versatile and memorable? Is it hard to understand? Does it make sense to use this name in my industry or niche? Has it been overused? You can even try out some business name generators to help get some additional ideas flowing. Always research your business name and tagline on the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) to ensure it's not already trademarked and to ensure no one has pending trademark registration. Tagline: Sometimes a business name may not be enough to express the business. A well developed tagline can help can expand on the meaning of the business. Like Nike, "Just Do It", or Disney "The Happiest Place on Earth". What actionable statement should your business have if it should need one? Logo: This is the primary image of your business and the most important. You see a swoosh on a shoe, or the golden arches from the interstate and you instantly have brand recognition. Creating a mood board is great during this phase, because it can help you understand the direction of your vision and find inspiration from successful brands in your industry. Typography: A consistent group of fonts is imperative for cohesive branding across all touchpoints aka your marketing channels. It's definitely key to choose fonts that will refine the message and personality of your brand. Think of how Coca-Cola uses their logo and fonts across all their packaging. Or search any reputable, successful brand, and check out their branding on their social media, products/services, and on their website. Colors: Choosing colors are highly important and cannot be overlooked. Understand the basics of color theory and color meaning are highly recommended. Will your business be conducting service or selling products all over the world? Different colors have different meanings in certain cultures and countries. Plus, colors themselves symbolize feelings and beliefs. Blue is known for loyalty, honesty, and reliability. Purple is royalty and luxury. Red, often is perceived of danger, power or romance. Personality: Defining your brand voice and personality are also crucial to the overall look and feel of your brand. It's also key in defining the tone and style of your messaging across touchpoints. What kind of personality traits will your business have? How will you address your audience? Is the tone serious and formal, or is it quirky, bold, and friendly? I recommend using a tone that will match your target audience. Throughout this mini brand series, I'll help you as a small business owner understand all the elements we just covered above and teach you how to apply them to your own business' brand identity. I'll also guide you in what you already know about your business (target audience, mission, vision, values, and personality ) and turn that into a honed in strategy that will result in creating your visual brand identity (the logo, brand elements and brand style guide). Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, Building Your Brand Strategy.

  • Your Guide to Small Business Branding

    The goal of every small business owner, or sole proprietor is to grow a successful, authentic business. But with finding the time to develop and create a personal brand, it can be hard to have that big dream come to life so your passion can benefit others and ultimately sell more products or services. Oftentimes, it just comes down to misguided strategies or not knowing where exactly to start. With all your time focused on being the face of your business, you will never have the time to completely navigate a solid foundation of your brand. Maybe you’ve been browsing Fiverr or Upwork, perhaps you’ve already had a logo created but you’re still wondering if it’s good enough or the design itself isn’t exactly what you wanted. In this industry, you absolutely receive what you pay for. I would never recommend going for people who say they can create a logo for you for $50 that are in Facebook groups, or even Fiverr, Upwork, -you name it. The results often lead to a massive and costly rebrand, a design that is subpar what it could have been, with absolutely NO strategy behind it. These people are trying to make a quick buck, and are really a disservice to the graphic design world. Small business branding is more effective when it is backed by extensive strategy and a unique, memorable design. It can make you feel frustrated, overworked, and overwhelmed. Today, you’re in luck! I’m going to share a brand strategy guide that will help you build your personal brand, navigate how to start a visual brand identity (your logo) and define your target audience without feeling overwhelmed, or spending more money than necessary. I'll cover the entire brand strategy, how it works and how you can get started -For FREE. Keep reading for more details. What Is the Brand Strategy Guide? It aims to help you strategize and build your brand as if you are working with a graphic designer 1:1, define your audience for a more targeted and unique brand message, and create an inspiration board that will be ready for you to move into the next steps of creating your logo or outsource it to a graphic designer if you wish. This brand strategy guide can work across different platforms, but I have created it in Canva to keep it user friendly. It comes complete with tips, tricks, and research to help you dive deep into your brand personality, values, and mission. Basically, the WHY of your business. Plus, you’ll receive two worksheets to fill in all the information you gather about your brand, and a mood board. This brand strategy guide is perfect for anyone who has a small business. If you’re a fresh startup, or looking for a rebrand, this guide is for you too! Why is Small Business Branding Important? Statistics show that 55% of consumers are more likely to buy a product [or service] if they love a brand's story. I love this statistic because it not only shows how much consumers enjoy a product or service based on their brand story, but it also reinforces the fact that a brand story is strengthened with a solid brand strand and visual identity. When all of those pieces come together, they create a cohesive, authentic atmosphere for a brand. Let’s be honest here. Majority of business owners, let’s say about 80% of them, don’t have time to sit down and develop a brand strategy. Most have no idea what it means or the process it takes to create a successful brand, and that's okay. By implementing my brand strategy guide, you’ll be able to save time and the headache of figuring out who your target audience is, your market-fit, and how you want your logo to look. Take it section by section, or step by step. Don't get discouraged, most brands take weeks, some months to strategize and map out. This way, you will be able to stay focused on building relationships and your day-to-day biz activities. Also, this brand strategy gives you the ability to refine your target audience (find out who your ideal customers or clients are) and reach them in a way that cultivates an authentic, human-centered connection. That means you won’t have to spend hours and hours looking for clients through Facebook groups (because that is fierce competition), or constantly trying so hard to sell, sell, sell. Brand Strategy Examples If creating a brand strategy sounds hard and overwhelming, I totally get it. It can sound really simple and most small businesses start it with, “I just need a logo”. And that’s it, they are done. But there is so much more to it than just a pretty logo. It can get confusing to a business owner when they think they’ve been trying all the things to promote or market their business, and they come up empty with no sales and a huge list of expenses. It all comes down to starting with a brand strategy. You think you can tackle it, until you actually try to do it. Like trying to research how your business fits into an ever changing market that is more digital by the day. Or figuring out a customer persona, and taking the time to research their demographic and psychographic traits. With that said, I put together some examples below to break it down for you so you can easily get started with building your own personal brand strategy. Brand Mission Simply put, a brand mission is how a business communicates their purpose, objectives, and how the business will serve their customers. Although this may seem like something you may not need in your business, it’s actually more recommended that you create a brand mission as this statement creates the interest and curiosity of your brand story. Plus, it further shapes the mold of what your business is about and what it stands for. The “Why” of your business. Why did you start your business? What made you passionate about it? How does it benefit customers or clients? I always love referring to Nike, because they have had solid branding and stand behind it. See the example of their brand mission statement below. Brand Voice & Brand Personality The more you can define your brand mission, the easier it will be to create the next step of your brand strategy. As you can tell, each one piggybacks off the other. Which is why it is important to not skip steps. That’s where brand voice and brand personality come in. Although they overlap, each one can help define your brand further. A brand voice is a unique message, tone, and persona that is perceived from the audience. A brand personality is a set of human characteristics and traits that create a persona in which customers can relate or resonate with. The best way to implement this is to think about your brand as a person. What would this person be like? How would it think, feel, and behave? What would be its main personality traits or brand adjectives? I have provided a slew of examples of these in my brand strategy guide to help you brainstorm what these traits would be. Remember, these traits and personality should appeal to and match your ideal customers. Competitor Analysis A competitor analysis is gathering data on major competitors in your same market. This data will provide in-depth insights into their products, sales, marketing tactics, and how they represent themselves online as well as offline. Don’t feel defeated with this step. This one can often lead to comparing your brand to another and seeing how successful they are when you’re not there yet. It’s okay to feel this way, but don’t let it consume you. They once started where you are now, and it took this entire process to get them where they are now. A good competitive analysis brings a wealth of benefits to you and your business. It can help you identify your value proposition Help you understand what your competitor is doing right, and what they are doing wrong Take in all the customer reviews and feedback that you can Can give you a starting point to help you measure your own business growth This is a very thorough analysis, and will require you to record all the data in one place. I'll be creating another freebie just for this - so keep an eye out for that! Some things to document are: Social media presence and most used platforms How they promote their content Their content strategy, how often they publish new content How often they update their website What kind of engagement they receive and the content they share Research what technology they are using How they market their products Before you begin, make sure that you analyze your own business under the same guidelines so you can understand how your business is performing. Learn how to strategize and build your small business branding today I hope this post and guide on creating your own brand strategy has been helpful. If you take anything away from this post or guide, remember that it takes many steps to build a brand to entirety but ultimately you will finish with a strong, unique, and memorable brand that is ready for a visual brand identity! The best way to start is to follow all the steps in the guide. It is important though, to keep an open mind about the direction of your brand i.e. where you are now vs. where it needs to go but ensure that it aligns with your overall business goals. That way you can set yourself up to be a versatile brand but remain recognizable no matter what direction or market you approach. So, what do you say? Are you ready to give it a go? Now that you know the basics of creating a personal brand, it's time to grab your own copy of Flourish Your Brand: Brand Strategy Guide and see how easy it is to understand the process of bringing your brand to life. Click the image or the link below to grab your guide now. I promise, you won't regret it! Click here to download your guide! If you have questions at all, feel free to reach out to Molly through the chat box on this page, the contact page, or DM Molly on social media.

  • How to Create a Brand Identity From Start to Finish (Part 2: Developing a Killer Brand Strategy)

    Hey! We're back for part 2 of this mini series on How to Create a Brand From Start to Finish. In part 1, we covered just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything revolving a brand and branding with a closer look at what they mean. Part 2 will go a little more in depth about strategy and how you should begin. Much like laying out a plot and acquiring all the supplies you need to start a garden, you need to create a brand strategy for your business. Strategic branding is so important in the startup process of a business and so often it is skipped over without even realizing it before it's too late. Let's quickly look at why this happens. AI (Artificial Intelligence), Canva, PicMonkey, Fiverr, Upwork - and probably a hundred more platforms have made graphic design become accessible in the wrong areas of design. Don't get me wrong, they are amazing tools for graphic design. However, so many entrepreneurs jump the gun and dive deep into creating their logo for their business because of the excitement and eagerness to get started making sales. One minute you're deep into your logo design, then you realize you've chosen a ton of color palettes, 5 font types, too many elements and clip art, and the logo design matches what you love more than it defines your business, plus you've not done any target market research or competitor analysis in your industry. Does this sound familiar? Brand strategy is part of a business plan that outlines how the business itself will fit into and outlast it's competitive market. The overall goal of brand strategy is to build a strong foundation for your business so that it's memorable, creates brand awareness, remains cohesive in messaging and style, and it timeless in the eyes of your target audience so you rise above competing brands. And I just want to add that your brand is much bigger than just a logo, product, website, social media, or even your name. What makes your brand strong is what makes you stand out in a crowded room when everyone in that room has the same product as you. Let's take a closer look three crucial starting points of branding, shall we. Brand Mission: is the "why" of the business. This is the reason it exists and why you do what you do - this is what makes a mission statement. Brand Vision: This is a futuristic look at how your business will perform in years to come. Much like creating long-term goals. Brand Values: a guide that drives business operations and everything the business does towards its mission and vision. Defining Your Brand Voice in your Brand Identity and Strategy I always explain to my clients that it is crucial to begin with creating a mission statement. Even if you don't post it on your website, social media, etc., it is still an important step because it literally defines the entire voice of your business and brand. A mission statement should speak to the foundation of your business. A mission statement is basically an actionable phrase or paragraph explaining the why of your business, why it does what it does and how it does it. An easier way to think about it would be to outline it to at least a paragraph in length (it can be longer if you want). Then add your brand purpose, values, and goals. Why is your product or service special to customers? What does your business stand for? For example, do you care about giving back to your community? Is your business eco-friendly? Next, consider goals for your business - adding this will reinforce why customers should buy from you. Here is an example of Disney's mission statement to help you brainstorm some ideas. Another iconic brand, Starbucks, who has an awesome mission statement. Now that you've seen some examples of brand mission statements in action, you should have good ideas flowing about how your own statement will reflect your business. This is an imperative step in the branding process because crafting a mission statement shows your customers that you're listening, you understand them, and you can connect with them emotionally in more unique ways than your competitors. Your Brand Vision is a look into your business' future Essentially your brand vision captures the long-term goals of your brand and briefly explains how you'll get there. This is what you will want your business/brand to achieve 5 or even 10 years from now. Creating a vision for your brand also solidifies the overall approach to new products or services. This will also help strengthen work ethic and morale within the business and employees. Moreover, nailing down your brand vision will also help to create a fine-tuned brand identity as well. Let's look at some examples of a few brand vision statements. I love sharing Gap, Inc's mission statement (the parent company of Old Navy) because it serves as both their mission and vision statement. Another great vision statement is from Amazon. In this example, you can also see how the mission, vision, and problem statements come together to create one cohesive identity and message to their audience. You can also research and analyze your competitors to see how they serve the target market in your industry and understand how your vision can differentiate from theirs to ensure your business can fill in missed gaps or market opportunities. Creating Brand Values Help in the Long Run Brand values greatly overlap our own personality traits when it comes to how we think about business and how we interact within it. It sets the tone to everything you and employees (if you have them) do in your day to day operations. Keep in mind that these values should be actionable, memorable, and unique. Any brand can choose the same words and phrases when crafting a list of values, but what makes it timeless is adding your own personality and how your brand should behave. Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. - Jeff Bezos In other words, this is the reputation of how your business will be perceived by the marketplace and the world around you. Think about how your customers, audience, and stakeholders to feel when they interact with your business. Brand values should be precise and created into unique complete sentences to use over again as a guide. To create your own values, grab your journal, a piece of paper, or digital document and brainstorm 5-10 ideas that come to mind when you think about how your business should be perceived and what it should stand for. There are ten phrases below to help you get the ideas flowing, but remember, make these unique and stylized to fit your own personality, and business. You can make them as robust or casual as you see fit. Innovation: Continuously pushing boundaries to deliver solutions that anticipate and exceed customer needs. Empowerment: Inspiring and equipping individuals to unlock their full potential through our products and resources. Sustainability: Committing to environmentally conscious practices at every stage of our operations, minimizing our ecological footprint. Quality Craftsmanship: Fostering meticulous attention to detail and craftsmanship, ensuring excellence in every product we deliver. Customer Centricity: Placing our customers at the heart of everything we do, striving to create exceptional experiences and meaningful connections. Community Engagement: Actively engaging with and contributing to the communities we serve, fostering mutual growth and prosperity. Transparency: Upholding honesty and transparency in all our interactions, building trust and credibility with our stakeholders. Diversity and Inclusion: Celebrating diversity and fostering an inclusive environment where every voice is valued and heard. Adaptability: Embracing change and agility in a rapidly evolving world, staying ahead of the curve to meet emerging needs. Social Responsibility: Taking responsibility for the impact of our actions on society, advocating for positive change and ethical business practices. After you've taken some time to craft your brand values, mission and vision statement, you'll be well on your way to moving on to part 3 of this mini series. And one last thing to keep in mind is that inspiration from other brands can really help to get ideas flowing, but don't ever copy what they have done in their strategy. It won't be unique to you and your business! If you need some extra help knocking out these major pieces of your brand, I have the perfect brand strategy guide that will help you nail this down. Just click here to snag your copy. This brand strategy guide will provide the foundation you need to get started on creating a solid brand from start to finish, plus some extra bonus templates to help you stay on track and become a reference you can use later.

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