The Importance of Personality in Your Business

It’s always been seen as important for a business to have some kind of personality. Some kind of distinct character that makes people think of your brand before they think of anyone else’s. But it’s rarely been seen as truly essential. After all, you can probably name a hundred different companies off the top of your head. How many of them could you think of as having a distinct personality?

personality building, tower cranes constructing 3d word
Photo credit: Vic

You’ll often find that it’s not the really big companies that have this sort of character. And when I say really big, I’m talking about the giants. I’m talking about the likes of Microsoft, Google, Coca-Cola, Oracle. These companies often seem like completely faceless machines, devouring every resource in their path. Like they’re on a ruthless pursuit of profit (albeit with high-quality products… usually).

Now, of course, all businesses have to put profit on their list of priorities. I’m not saying you should make your company seem like some altruistic, business version of Barney the Dinosaur. But the fact is that many smaller companies rely on having a distinct image when it comes to selling themselves to the public. And I’m not talking about something as simple as logos or identifying color sets, here. I’m talking about something more specific, something that many companies have a hard time trying to nail.

Taking a look at some examples

There are loads of brands out there that conjure up specific, positive images in the minds of the public. When people think of them, they don’t just think of a profit-driven company. They think about the image that brand projects.

Some of the names that come to my mind include Jack Daniel’s and Old Spice. They’re big names, but they’ve taken care to cultivate personalities. Jack Daniel’s is a fantastic example. Over the years, they’ve given themselves a rugged, grassroots, “rock and roll” kind of image. The eponymous man himself, Mr Jack Daniel, has been elevated to the status of myth.

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Wikimedia

Old Spice has a similar “classic” vibe, and their advertising is consistently humourous. Look at the inventive “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” video campaigns. And what about their embracing of the “elderly” vibe people sometimes associate with the brand? One of their slogans is “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist”.

Why do people care?

The key here seems to be making your company “likable”. People may enjoy your product, but do they have a positive image of you as a company? Can they imagine that smart, funny, inventive people are hard at work behind the closed doors of your offices? It’s hard to imagine even the biggest fan of Coca-Cola drinks being much in love with the company itself. Coca-Cola have the privilege of being able to get by with their name and logo alone. They don’t need to “endear” themselves to help sales. (But that may be changing.)

In today’s world, consumers are much more cynical. They will stick to the products they already know and wave away any newcomers on the scene. If your brand and its marketing doesn’t stick with them, then they’re going to assume you just want to appeal to their wallets. People want brands who are going to appeal to much more. They want character.

brand

The Blue Diamond Gallery

How do I do it?

The first thing you need to do is identify what “personality traits” you want your company to project. Do you want your brand to make people laugh? Being funny, after all, is perhaps the most endearing personality trait of all. Do you want to come across as chummy to consumers? Or do you want to give off a more suave, charming sort of vibe?

Perhaps your company deals in quite gloomy endeavours that don’t seem to suit the above personalities. Let’s say, for example, that your company deals with funerals or serious accident law cases. Don’t make the mistake of believing that “formal” and “serious” means that your brand has to be devoid of personality! If you’re feeling at all stuck, you should look into getting assistance from a branding agency.

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Wikimedia

Methods of showing off your personality

Once you know exactly what type of vibe you want to give off to consumers, then you need to figure out how you’re going to do it. One of the most obvious methods is in your video advertising. This is where companies often find it the easiest to pull off. After all, thirty to sixty seconds of video is quite a lot of time to make someone laugh! That is, if you compare it to something like a billboard advertisement that needs to be taken in in seconds.

You should also look at more modern methods. Consider having a blog on your website. This is a great way to get your website filled with text content that fully reveals your brand personality.

Colour and Branding: How Colour Affects Your Brain (and that of your customers)

Colour theory is an often-overlooked aspect of branding; too many people think of branding as nothing more than a logo and it’s styling, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Typography, styling, spacing and colour all have the potential to create a massive impact when it comes to the perception of your brand, with colour psychology taking the front-seat when it comes to importance.

To put it simply, certain colours typically provoke certain emotions, so the colour of your brand will have an effect on how your customers feel when they interact with your company.

What’s more, colour can also be used to achieve recognition. In fact, in some industries, certain companies literally “own” certain colours (think red and Coca Cola, for example).

Below, we’re going to delve deeper into colour and branding, and explore how it affects your brain, the impact it has on different people, and how you can use it to your advantage when branding a company.

Think of it as a crash-course in colour and branding.

Let’s go!

The Colour Emotion Guide

colour-emotion-guide

There have been a lot of attempts over the years to simplify the subject of colour psychology into handy infographics, guides and resources; the most well known of which is perhaps the one featured above (created by The Logo Company). Continue reading “Colour and Branding: How Colour Affects Your Brain (and that of your customers)”

How to stop being boring

Does this sound familiar? You were tired of being an employee. You wanted the freedom to do things a different way, your way.

So why is your business so…. beige?

Here are the signs…your business is professional yet forgettable. It looks like the average of all your competitors rather than standing out on its own. Your articles are useful but don’t sparkle. Your stuff is lacking in personality.

And that’s a shame, because you do have personality. Bags of it. You just need to let it show. Here’s how: Continue reading “How to stop being boring”

The Secret Weapon to Outpace Your Competition

Today’s guest post is from Kim Timothy, graphic designer and branding expert at Boutique By Design. Kim is the designer of the Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur logo, so I can recommend her personally, too! Over to you, Kim…

You have a business. You’ve worked hard to build your dream and now success is becoming a blissful reality. Problem is, the world is full of insanely talented, passionate and creative people who have sought out the exact same reality. They are your competitors and, quite frankly, they suck. But before you become discouraged and give up hope, I present the ultimate secret weapon in the form of three very powerful little words…Unique Selling Point.

A unique selling point (USP for short) is something that sets your business apart from your competition. It defines a special, memorable and exclusive offering unique only to your business. It also provides a solid reason for customers to continually choose your business over your competitors. USPs are always expressed as a single clear and concise sentence that summarizes the essence of your business and serve as the theme of your marketing.

Lets Define Your Unique Selling Point

Continue reading “The Secret Weapon to Outpace Your Competition”

Build a Little Biz: Happy Birthday!

Way back last summer I was reading a thread on the Launch Coach‘s blog when I stumbled across a comment by Karen Gunton. Karen was working on her blog Build a Little Biz, which has pretty much the same aims as Business Plus Baby, except she’s in Adelaide, Australia and I’m in England.

We exchanged emails, then guest posts and then we became unofficial blogging buddies, supporting each other and bouncing ideas around between us. Since them Build a Little Biz has just got better and better. Karen has got a deep understanding of what it takes to grow and market a mumpreneur business and she’s built a team of experts who help her out on specialist subjects. She’s also developed a valuable knowledge of branding, then poured it into her workbook, Build a Brand.

Today is Build a Little Biz’s first birthday and it’s hard to believe it’s just one year since Karen started her blog. That’s because it feels I’ve known Karen a lot longer and because she’s built such a brilliant resource for mums in business in such a short time. So Happy Birthday Karen and Build a Little Biz! I’m looking forward to seeing what the future brings!

To celebrate Build a Little Biz’s birthday, you can get 30%* off the Build a Brand workbook if you buy it before the end of Sunday 5th June (enter the code happybirthday at the checkout to get your discount).

Karen tells me that she’ll be taking Build a Brand off the shelves soon after, so don’t miss this chance to give your brand a boost.

You can read my review of Build a Brand in my article How to brand your mumpreneur business.

*Full price is $67 (Australian dollars) which is about £44, so with a 30%  discount the Build a Brand workbook will be about £30.

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