Branding is the single most crucial element to a successful company. Branding is not any one thing; rather, it is a theme that permeates everything. If you are no longer in tune with your brand’s message, your clients feel it too.

A branding workshop can help you uncover your core mission and guide you through creating a long-term plan. You’ll fall in love with your business once again.

What Is Branding?

Branding is one of the most difficult terms to define. The American Marketing Association defines branding as:

A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers.

Some of the biggest brands in the world, such as Apple, Nike, Amazon, and Netflix, have built instant recognition into their products and services through branding. Even their names evoke certain feelings in consumers. This combination of both physical and emotional triggers is what ties the name, the logo, visuals, and even messages together to form an effective branding strategy.

It may not be an easy process, but branding requires a clear understanding of what your brand is all about. It’s about defining a strategy to help people quickly associate your products or services with a message. It’s about making them stand out from the crowd.

Your branding also gives people a reason to choose you over your competition and allows you to grow by attracting and retaining loyal customers who love what you do. That’s where a branding workshop comes into play.

If you’ve been questioning future goals and are ready to have a clearer picture of your vision, a branding workshop may be just what your business needs.

What Is a Branding Workshop?

A branding workshop is an experience. It brings together a team of teachers, trainers, and creatives to help with paradigm shifts and behavioral adjustments. If you’ve been doing things the “old way” for a long time, it takes a jolt to the system to wake things up.

Branding workshops are perfect for startups looking to define their business and provide the proper framework for growth. Branding workshops are also ideal for brands looking to revamp their images. In either case, a branding workshop will help you as a company define:

• Who you are as a brand
• What your customer truly needs and desires

Branding workshops bring together employees who will align the brand with their core values. It gives your team the strength to move forward in a positive way. It aids in creating the right design to attract new customers while retaining the core customer base that is already loyal to the cause.

What to Expect From a Branding Workshop

Branding workshops pair an experienced team with a solid marketing background with the leaders from your company. You bring in-depth knowledge of your products and services, while the marketing experts bring their knowledge of diving deep into strategy and design.

While every branding workshop is unique, there are core components necessary to define. They include:

Core vision and values

Before you move into branding, it’s necessary to fully define your company’s core vision and values. An authentic and genuine brand comes from knowing what the company stands for, and it can easily share this with consumers. It’s the foundation for building business strength, leading to higher engagement and customer retention.

Start with these core questions: Why was this brand created? What’s the purpose? Not only will the answers guide your customers to do business with you, but the answers will also help attract better employees who can stay true to your mission.

With your answers in mind, you can start setting long-term business goals and deciding where you want to bring the brand in the future. A core vision allows you to create immediate, 5-year, 10-year, and even longer-term goals. It provides a purpose for what you do today and where you’ll go tomorrow.

Positioning

Once your core vision is defined, you can start to see how it fits in the marketplace. Who is your audience? Remember that who you served in the past may not be a perfect fit today, so look to who your ideal customer is based on your new values and vision. What problems do they face, and how will you provide a solution?

As you see your ideal customer, you can start defining demographics. Start with the basics, such as gender, age, and location. Narrow it down by diving deep into personality traits and characteristics. What motivates them? What are they searching for on the internet? You can create engaging experiences once you have clear definitions.

This is also the time to determine how your competition targets this same audience. What’s their approach? How can you do it differently?

Define your marketing activities and how you’ll reach out to your audience. This can help you further align with your branding, as you can let your personality shine in different ways.

Personality

Thanks to social media and the engagement levels of our current business practices, every business has a personality it shares with the world. It might be sophisticated and serious. Or quirky and fun.

It’s about your business being on target with every message it sends out. You are clearly defining what you choose to project to the world and how you want to sound.

With this in mind, you’ll want to make a tagline or slogan that tells the world who you are. Examples include:

• Apple – “Think Different”
• Nike – “Just Do It”
• Amazon – “From A to Z”
• Netflix – “See What’s Next”

It’s more than a look or feel. It’s about emotion and the way people engage with your business. It’s about color, font, and design. It’s about words, copy, and voice. Get it right, and you’ll find a deeper connection with the image while connecting more deeply with your customer base.

As you finish your branding workshop, your core message will come together. You will feel confident you’re moving in the right direction.

If you’re looking for a team to help with your branding workshop or just need some great marketing mojo, reach out to the experts at InnoVision. We’re a full-service marketing team ready to help you find your core values and build them into a brand.

Most business owners have a hard time taking their eyes off the bottom line. While keeping your business profitable is extremely important, you shouldn’t ignore more qualitative aspects of building a strong business. Many small businesses fail to have staying power because they put all of their energy into growing profits and very little into quality branding, marketing, and management. So, in today’s guide, we are going to look at 5 ways to make your small business stronger!

Improve Your Personal Finances

 

As a small business owner, you probably rely on revenue from your small business to pay your own bills. This is not unusual, as most businesses are designed to make a profit for the owner and any investors. However, if you rely very heavily on your business to support your personal finances, you could end up siphoning too many resources from your business to pay for personal expenses. So, the first step to making your business stronger is to make your own finances stronger. You can do this in a variety of ways, but cutting costs and budgeting are two of the best ways. For example, if you’re planning to move into a new home, you can save time and money by contacting the experts at Black Tie Moving.

Connect With Your Customers

 

Customers don’t like businesses that feel like distant, unapproachable institutions. Instead, they want to feel like they’re interacting with real human beings who understand and care about their needs. Make an effort to connect and communicate with your customers. Even if it is just an occasional email, it is good to keep in touch with your customers and form a connection that will improve the public perception of your business.

Network With Professionals In Your Industry

 

Even businesses that have been around for 50 years could always use advice from others. You should never try to take on everything by yourself, especially when it comes to running a small business. So, don’t see professionals in your industry as competitors or adversaries. Instead, reach out to network and potentially even collaborate with your business peers.

Be Active (& Creative) On Social Media

 

These days, social media can be a business’s best friend or worst enemy. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to use social media platforms to promote your business without angering potential clientele. However, you do need to think of ways to be creative and interesting. Otherwise, people will be less inclined to follow, subscribe, share, or like your content.

Reduce Wasteful Business Spending

 

Finally, you have to remember that a business should be able to make money. If your business is in the red, it could be a short-term hiccup or a long-term problem. Either way, you can find ways to reduce cash flow problems by reducing unnecessary business spending. For example, if you use accounting software to manage your business finances, consider shopping around for cheaper solutions that can offer similar results. This way, you’ll have more cash available to invest in other areas of your business.

Looking for even more great articles like this one? If so, be sure to check out some of our other posts on Business Plus Baby today!

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay