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How to define and build brand DNA in 9 practical steps

Have you clearly defined your brand DNA? If not, now’s the time to start. After all, a strong brand is crucial in today’s competitive world. Your brand is how you connect with your target audience, attract loyalty, and differentiate yourself from endless similar companies.  Now, more than ever, your brand determines the success of your organization. Consumers have access to countless different companies, all selling similar products and solutions. They only way to convince your audience to choose you over […]

Have you clearly defined your brand DNA? If not, now’s the time to start. After all, a strong brand is crucial in today’s competitive world. Your brand is how you connect with your target audience, attract loyalty, and differentiate yourself from endless similar companies. 

Now, more than ever, your brand determines the success of your organization. Consumers have access to countless different companies, all selling similar products and solutions. They only way to convince your audience to choose you over the competition, is to connect with them on a deeper level.

A brand allows you to do this. It helps you craft a narrative that tells your customer everything they need to know about your mission, and purpose. Most importantly, it builds connections by showing your customers that you share their values and interests. 

Around 77% of customers now say they specifically buy from brands who share their values. 

But a brand is more than just a name and logo. Your identity is made up of various different building blocks, just like the DNA in a human being shapes their image, behaviors, and other factors.

To build a truly effective brand , you need to get every strand of your brand DNA aligned. Here’s your step-by-step guide to defining and building brand DNA. 

What is the definition of DNA for brands?

To fully understand brand DNA, we first need to take a closer look at DNA on a broader level. So, what does DNA stand for? On a scientific level, DNA stands for “deoxyribonucleic acid”. It’s basically the substance that carries genetic information in the cells of a body. 

DNA makes people, animals, and even plants what they are. Real DNA carries the genetic information for how you look, behave, and function in the world – it’s the essence of you . 

Similarly, brand DNA is the stuff that shapes your brand. It’s made up of all the little components that make your business unique, from your brand purpose to your promise, and positioning. 

Strong brand DNA guides the growth and development of your company, defining who you are as a company, what you do, and how you’ll evolve in the years to come. 

If you can define your brand DNA effectively, and share it with your customers, you can build an emotional connection with them that lasts a lifetime. 

Think of defining and building brand DNA as establishing the genetic code that shapes the way your company presents itself to the world. 

The benefits of strong brand DNA

Brand DNA is something that develops in any company, whether you like it or not. Every company has a brand identity , even if it hasn’t invested in choosing a target market, or developing a clear messaging strategy. 

When you launch a business with no brand DNA strategy, you have no control over what your customers think about you, and how you’re perceived. On the other hand, if you invest in developing the right DNA for your brand, you shape the “entity” your business becomes. 

Unlike actual DNA, brand DNA is something you can control to a certain extent. You can shape your personality and image to reach the right potential customers. 

Building a strong brand DNA strategy means your company benefits from:

• Consistency: When you define your brand DNA, or the core components of your brand’s identity, you can align your team and marketing strategies around a specific vision. This ensures you can deliver consistent experiences and messages to your audience. 
• Brand loyalty: Components of your brand DNA, such as your tone of voice, messaging strategy, and behaviors influence how customers feel about your brand. You can build an emotional connection that drives greater brand equity , and ensures successful growth.
• Differentiation: Strong brand DNA helps you to showcase and define what sets you apart from your competition. It’s a way to make yourself more memorable in the eyes of your customers, and earn a larger market share. 

How to define and build brand DNA in 9 steps

Now you know what brand DNA is, and the benefits of developing a successful brand code, it’s time to define and develop your own brand’s DNA. There are quite a few steps involved in this process. After all, there are different strands of your DNA to consider. 

You need more than just a compelling logo and a great set of brand colors. You also need to think about your marketing strategy, tone of voice, brand personality, and more. 

Here’s your step-by-step guide to defining and building brand DNA. 

Step 1: Find your mission, values, and purpose

Various internal positioning documents form the foundation of your brand DNA. Before you start working on logos or marketing strategies, you need to get to know your brand on a fundamental level. In other words, define what you stand for, what you do, and what you want to accomplish. 

For most companies, it makes sense to start with the “why” behind your brand, or your brand purpose . What do you want to accomplish with your business aside from making money?

Nike doesn’t just want to make money selling activewear . They want to inspire everyone to become an athlete and improve their physical health. 

Once you understand the reason that drives your existence, create your:

• Mission statement: Highlight what you want to achieve in clear terms, and outline how you’re going to accomplish your goals. Your mission statement should outline what your company does, how it does it, and why it does it. 
• Core values: Your brand core values dive a little deeper into “how” you’re going to achieve your purpose. For instance, if your technology company values innovation, then you’ll invest heavily in research and development strategies . 
• Positioning statement: How will you position your company in your chosen industry? Are you building a luxury brand? Do you want to be seen as a friendly, accessible, and affordable brand for a specific market?

Step 2: Define your target audience and customer personas

Although we’re calling this step 2, you’ll usually define your target audience and user personas when you’re building your initial mission and positioning statements. After all, your brand should be built to specifically appeal to a certain group of consumers. 

Knowing your target audience , their needs, pain points, and expectations, ensures you can build a brand DNA that resonates with the people you want to reach. 

There are a few ways to start gathering information about your target audience. You can start with market research, looking at the different groups, segments, and potential buyers in your industry. It’s also worth taking a closer look at your competitors. 

Think about the types of customers they target, and how they position themselves to align with those groups. If you’ve already launched your business, collect insights into your customers and their preferences, goals, and pain points through surveys and interviews. 

Using all the information you collect, create “ideal customer” profiles, that outline all of the behavioral, psychographic, and demographic components of your perfect customer . 

Step 3: Clearly outline your value proposition

Now you have a clear view of your customers, and the core building blocks of your brand DNA (mission, values, and purpose), it’s time to differentiate yourself. 

The best way to do this is to start with a competitor analysis . Find the companies who share a similar audience to you, or offer similar products, and ask yourself what they do best. What do they offer that your business doesn’t, and what can you offer that they can’t?

Which specific brand characteristics are going to make you more appealing to the customers you want to reach. For instance, other companies might offer similar products at cheaper prices, but you might differentiate yourself with an excellent approach to customer service. 

Maybe your products or services feature different benefits, or unique aspects that set you apart from other vendors in your market. 

Your value proposition should also contribute to your positioning statement, helping you to define where you exist in the context of your wider chosen market. 

Step 4: Clarify your brand personality

Your brand DNA essentially gives you a way to humanize your brand. It turns a corporation into an entity people can resonate with. This means, just like a person, your brand needs a personality. 

Defining a brand personality can be a little complex, but if you already have a clear view of your purpose, and your target audience, you should already have the building blocks you need. A good personality will convey the essence of your brand to your customers. 

It should also resonate with the people you want to reach, sharing aspects of the “personalities” of your customers. Just like you built a persona for your customers, build a persona for your brand.

If your company was a person, how would it think, act, and behave? Would your company be a rebel, like BrewDog, or an innovator like Tesla ?

What’s the story behind your company? How has it evolved over the years, and what is it striving towards in the decades to come? 

Once you answer these questions, think about your tone of voice. How will your company speak to your target audience? Will you use slang and simple terms in your content, or are you going to be more formal and authoritative? 

Step 5: Build your visual identity

A lot of business owners make the mistake of trying to create a “visual identity” before they really have a strong brand strategy in place. However, you can only really decide how you’re going to present your brand to customers visually once you’ve built the foundations of your brand DNA. 

Your brand image, such as your logo and color palette, isn’t just there to attract eyes. It should contribute to the story you’re telling your customers about who you are and what you stand for. 

It needs to highlight the essence of the brand you’re building, resonating with customers through the use of evocative colors , and shapes. 

Using what you already know about your brand story, promise, and personality, your target audience, and your unique selling proposition, create your:

• Color palette: Which colors will define your brand? Colors have an emotional impact on any audience. Different shades convey different ideas and feelings. Blue is calming while red is bold and energetic. Choosing a signature color palette increases brand recognition by 80% . 
• Typography: Just like colors, the typography you use on your website and other marketing materials can convey your brand’s style and personality. Sans-serif fonts are more modern, while serif fonts appear authoritative and professional. 
• Imagery: What kind of images will you use in your marketing campaigns? Will you rely heavily on photos, or animations and illustrations? What kind of colors and filters will you use to help convey your brand identity?
• Logo: How will you combine all of the elements of your brand DNA into a single image that reflects exactly what you stand for? What shapes will you use? How will you ensure your logo is easily identifiable and recognizable?

Make sure you have a clear set of brand guidelines that provide insights into all of these visual elements for your team. This will help to ensure consistency in your brand story . 

Step 6: Review your brand DNA

Before you start sharing your brand DNA with your team, and your wider audience, it’s worth getting together with the executives in your business and conducting a quick review. 

Check to see whether your brand DNA is:

• Sustainable: A brand DNA should be enduring and durable. Your entire identity can’t be built around a trend. You need to ensure your brand’s values, mission, purpose, and personality can all grow with your organization.
• Authentic: Honesty and authenticity are crucial to the success of any brand. Make sure you can live up to your brand promise. Don’t just tell your customers that your brand is all about innovation, then avoid ever making any changes to your product line. 
• Unique: Is your brand uniquely yours? You can take inspiration from other companies in your industry, but there should always be core elements of your company that make you exceptional or different. 

Step 7: Master internal communications

Your brand DNA doesn’t just influence what customers think and feel about you. It also acts as a guiding compass for your employees, stakeholders, investors, and other internal contacts. For your DNA to be strong, you need to share your brand codes with your team effectively. 

Start by making sure your employees and other stakeholders have a clear view of your brand strategy, mission statement, purpose, and values. You can create documents and training resources that cover everything from your brand story to your future business plan. 

Create documents that show your team members how to convey the unique aspects of your brand in marketing materials. These could include visual brand guidelines , with insights into color palettes and hex codes, and editorial guidelines that outline your tone of voice. 

Encourage feedback from your team too. Ask them to share their insights and ideas about how you can elevate your brand and business strategy. Allow new team members to ask questions about your brand DNA, and make sure you constantly monitor internal alignment.

Remember, more than two thirds of businesses say a consistent brand has helped them grow their revenue by at least 10%. Team alignment is crucial to preserving a consistent identity. 

Step 8: Develop your marketing collateral

Now you have all the basic elements of your brand DNA in place, and your team members are on the same page, you can begin to highlight your brand assets through your marketing collateral. 

You might start with offline assets, such as business cards, signage for your stores, and employee uniforms. Or you could focus initially on the online world, developing your business website, your social media profiles, and your content marketing strategy. 

Ensure your marketing department is clear in your brand positioning, and the tone of voice they should be implementing into each campaign. 

All of your marketing materials shouldn’t just boost brand awareness, they should also consistently draw attention to your value proposition and personality. Make it easy for your customers to identify your brand values, unique selling propositions, and your vision. 

Step 9: Monitor and measure brand success

Unfortunately, developing your brand DNA isn’t something you can just do once and forget about. There are various factors that can cause your brand DNA to mutate over time if you’re not careful. Changing economic environments and perceptions can influence your brand identity. 

With that in mind, ensure you have a strategy in place for constantly tracking your reputation, your connection with customers, and the perception of your brand. 

Pay attention to brand awareness metrics, like website traffic, social media reach, and search engine visibility. Examine your evolving brand equity by looking at customer loyalty metrics like referrals, customer retention, and repeat purchases. 

Additionally, keep your finger on the pulse of brand perception . You can use social monitoring tools to track brand mentions and discover how consumers are talking about your brand. Or you might read reviews, send out surveys, and connect with customers on social media for more insights. 

If your brand DNA starts to become disjointed or problematic, make sure you have a plan for how you can bring everything back into alignment. 

Brand DNA examples: Insights into brand DNA

Developing strong brand DNA can be a complex process. The DNA of your brand is a dynamic thing, made up of multiple factors that can change and evolve over time. If you’re struggling to develop your own brand DNA, taking inspiration from other companies can be helpful. 

Here are some great examples of companies with clearly defined brand DNA.

Apple isn’t just one of the most successful companies in the world, it’s also one of the most recognizable. The company’s brand DNA is rooted in a mission and purpose to create cutting-edge technology that enhances the lives of its users. 

Apple showcases its brand DNA through a clean, minimalistic, and modern visual identity, from its iconic logo to its streamlined color palette. Apple’s brand positioning strategy focuses on luxury and innovation, setting the company apart from its competitors. 

Even the brand voice of Apple is instantly recognizable. The company uses simple language, and speaks in an authoritative, confident tone. 

2. Starbucks

Another of the best brand DNA examples comes from Starbucks, one of the world’s leading coffee companies. Starbucks positions itself not just as a coffee maker, but as an experience company. Starbucks stores are designed to deliver a distinct, community-driven atmosphere. 

The Starbucks logo , featuring the iconic siren, reminds us of how compelling and seductive the company’s products are. Plus, the company’s strong brand identity is enhanced by its approach to interacting with its community and customers. 

Starbucks invests heavily in community involvement, promoting social responsibility through initiatives like environmental stewardship and ethical sourcing strategies. All of these factors allow Starbucks to dominate the coffee industry, with a loyal customer base. 

3. Patagonia

Outdoor clothing and gear company, Patagonia, built its unique identity around a powerful mission to not only produce clothing, but protect the environment. Patagonia’s brand DNA drives its strategy of developing high-quality, durable products, without harming the environment. 

The company’s purpose, and concept of sustainability is deeply ingrained into everything Patagonia does. The brand transparently shares insights into its business practices, supply chains, and environmental initiatives, to earn the trust of its consumers. 

Plus, the company stands out in a competitive landscape by focusing less on “selling products” and more on activating a community of followers that care about the environment. 

Defining your brand DNA

Your brand DNA is the culmination of all the things that makes your company unique, impactful, and powerful. Just like real DNA, your brand’s DNA shapes the essence of your company, defining your image, actions, and behaviors. 

With a strong insight into your brand DNA, you can ensure you’re building an entity that resonates with your target audience on a deeper level, strengthening your market position. 

Throughout the life of your brand, your DNA will influence everything you do, from your content strategy to the new products you create. It’s one of the most important elements of building a successful business. 

Of course, identifying and refining your brand DNA isn’t without its challenges. If you’re struggling to find the genetic code of your brand, reach out to Fabrik , to find out how we can help you with the creation of brand DNA that will help your business thrive for years to come.

Fabrik: A branding agency for our times.

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Brand DNA Framework

Looking to win the hearts and minds of customers and teammates alike? Build your brand's DNA with this robust framework and start delivering a high impact brand experience across all channels and touchpoints.

What It's Best For

• Building a New Brand
• Refreshing an Existing Brand
• Developing a Content Strategy
• Exploring a New Visual Identity
• Building Culture

Time Required

Required materials.

• Brand DNA Workbook
• Sharpie or Pen
• Remote or In-person

Ideal Group Size

How to use or facilitate:.

• Download the workbook by clicking “Get Template” above.
• Start by looking at what aspects of your brand are the most clear, non-negotiable, or unchanging. Fill them in first.
• Go through each point along the DNA strands, answering each piece as clearly as you can. Aim to run the activity with as many unique points of view as possible, at all levels of the organization.
• Once complete, discuss each point, compare what patterns show up. Negotiate and/or vote on what the group decides is most true about the future brand.
• Bring the DNA to life! Look for practical, tactical ways to test out it out in your internal or external marketing/communication strategies.

The Takeaway:

Branding is more than just a logo, or a website, or an app. It’s actually one of the most powerful constructs in society – one that can be the deal maker or deal breaker for people who engage with your business. At its core, branding is the belief system that we share with others. It’s those beliefs, principles, and language patterns that ultimately enable businesses to build full-fledged communities of advocates or attract and retain the best talent. This particular all-encompassing, inclusive approach to brand design allows teams to have much greater dialogue around each aspect of the brand, whether it’s building a new brand from the ground up or looking to revisit one who may have lost its way over time.

Each aspect of the framework can and should build on itself. Read through your full DNA to make sure your answers are consistent or congruent with your foundation. Exploring a new concept or idea? Use your brand DNA as a gut check. At the end of the day, your brand’s mission, purpose, and creation story are always key for understanding your true north!

Stuck on a particular point? That may be a great opportunity to look at inspiration from others or hold a brainstorm! We recommend trying to fill out a blank DNA sheet for a brand you already know and love to get inspired. Brands like Apple, Starbucks, and Nike are always great examples to start with.

Although it’s great to identify the full strand, you don’t need every part solidified to begin actioning it. Sometimes, pieces like rituals emerge as a response to how people naturally engage with your brand.

Need help facilitating your Brand DNA?

Book a 1:1 coaching session or group workshop with our team of innovation catalysts.

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Defining Your Brand DNA: Practical Tips for Crafting a Strong Brand Strategy

Understanding brand dna, brand dna definition, importance of brand dna, examples of strong brand dna, discovering your brand dna, core values and mission, unique selling propositions, target audience, crafting your brand strategy, visual identity, brand voice, content strategy, implementing your brand strategy, internal communication, marketing collateral, social media, measuring brand success, brand awareness, brand loyalty, customer feedback, brand dna case studies.

Building a strong brand can be the difference between success and failure in today's competitive marketplace. One key factor that helps companies stand out and create lasting connections with their customers is their brand DNA. In this blog, we'll explore the concept of brand DNA, its importance, and how you can discover and define it for your business.

Before we delve into crafting a strong brand strategy, it's important to understand what brand DNA is and why it matters for your business.

Brand DNA refers to the unique characteristics that define a brand and set it apart from competitors. It captures the essence of a brand's values, mission, and personality, serving as the foundation for all branding and marketing efforts. Think of brand DNA as the "genetic code" that shapes the way your company presents itself to the world.

Having a clearly defined brand DNA provides numerous benefits:

• Consistency: By conveying a cohesive message across all channels, your brand becomes instantly recognizable to your target audience.
• Authenticity: When your brand identity aligns with your company's values and mission, it builds trust and credibility with customers.
• Emotional Connection: A well-defined brand DNA helps create an emotional bond with your audience, fostering loyalty and long-term relationships.
• Competitive Advantage: A strong brand DNA sets you apart from competitors and makes your brand memorable in the minds of consumers.

Let's look at a few examples of brands with distinct brand DNA:

• Nike: Known for its "Just Do It" slogan and commitment to empowering athletes, Nike's brand DNA emphasizes performance, innovation, and inspiration.
• Coca-Cola: With its signature red color and classic logo, Coca-Cola's brand DNA centers around happiness, refreshment, and creating memorable moments.
• LEGO: As a beloved toy brand, LEGO's brand DNA highlights creativity, imagination, and the joy of learning through play.

These examples showcase the power of a well-defined brand DNA in creating strong, memorable brands that resonate with consumers.

Now that we've explored what brand DNA is and why it's important, let's discuss how you can discover and define your brand's unique characteristics. This process involves examining your company's core values, mission, unique selling propositions, and target audience.

Begin by identifying your company's core values and mission. These elements shape the foundation of your brand DNA and inform all aspects of your branding efforts. Consider:

• What are your company's guiding principles?
• Why does your company exist, and what purpose does it serve?
• What impact do you want to make on your customers and the world?

By clearly defining your core values and mission, you'll have a solid starting point for building your brand DNA.

Next, identify the unique selling propositions (USPs) that set your brand apart from competitors. USPs are the features, benefits, or attributes that make your products or services stand out in the market. Consider:

• What makes your products or services different from others in the market?
• Why should customers choose your brand over competitors?
• What specific advantages do you offer?

Understanding your USPs will help you craft a compelling brand DNA that highlights your brand's strengths and differentiators.

Finally, consider your target audience when defining your brand DNA. Your brand should resonate with your ideal customers and speak to their needs, preferences, and values. To do this, you need to understand:

• Who your ideal customers are, including their demographics, psychographics, and behaviors
• What problems your customers face and how your products or services can solve them
• How your brand can connect with your audience on an emotional level

By incorporating your target audience's needs and desires into your brand DNA, you'll create a brand that truly resonates with your customers.

With a clear understanding of your brand DNA, it's time to craft a brand strategy that brings your brand to life. This involves developing your visual identity, brand voice, and content strategy to ensure a cohesive and consistent brand experience for your customers.

Your visual identity is a critical component of your brand strategy, as it creates an immediate impression and helps customers recognize and remember your brand. To develop a strong visual identity, consider the following elements:

• Logo: Design a unique and memorable logo that reflects your brand DNA and is easily identifiable
• Color palette: Choose a color scheme that aligns with your brand's personality and evokes the desired emotions in your audience
• Typography: Select fonts that convey your brand's style and are easy to read across various platforms
• Imagery: Use consistent and high-quality images that showcase your products or services and visually communicate your brand's values

A strong visual identity will help you create a lasting impression and build brand recognition among your target audience.

Your brand voice is the tone and style of your written and spoken communications. It should reflect your brand DNA and resonate with your target audience. To establish a consistent brand voice, consider these aspects:

• Personality: Define the personality traits that best represent your brand, such as friendly, professional, authoritative, or humorous
• Tone: Determine the tone of your communications, whether it's formal, casual, or somewhere in between
• Language: Choose words and phrases that align with your brand's personality and resonate with your target audience

By maintaining a consistent brand voice, you'll create a strong connection with your customers and reinforce your brand DNA in all your communications.

A well-defined content strategy is essential for communicating your brand DNA and engaging your target audience. It involves creating and sharing valuable content that supports your brand's mission, showcases your expertise, and addresses your audience's needs. Consider these steps when developing your content strategy:

• Content types: Identify the types of content that best support your brand DNA, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, or podcasts
• Content topics: Choose topics that showcase your expertise, align with your brand's mission, and address your audience's needs and interests
• Distribution channels: Select the most effective platforms for sharing your content and reaching your target audience, such as your website, social media, or email marketing

By creating a strategic content plan, you'll effectively communicate your brand DNA, engage your audience, and strengthen your brand's presence in the market.

Once you've crafted your brand strategy, it's time to put it into action. Implementing your brand strategy involves communicating your brand DNA internally, creating marketing collateral that reflects your brand, and effectively utilizing social media to reach and engage your target audience.

For a strong brand presence, it's essential to ensure that your team members understand and embrace your brand DNA. Effective internal communication can help achieve this by:

• Sharing your brand strategy: Provide clear information about your brand DNA, values, mission, and goals to all team members
• Training: Offer training sessions on brand voice, visual identity, and content strategy to ensure consistency across all departments
• Encouraging feedback: Foster a culture of open communication where team members can share their ideas and insights on how to further strengthen the brand

By actively involving your team in your brand strategy, you'll create a more cohesive brand experience for your customers and strengthen your brand's overall impact.

Effective marketing collateral is essential for communicating your brand DNA and showcasing your products or services. To create marketing materials that align with your brand strategy, consider the following:

• Consistency: Ensure that all marketing materials, such as brochures, business cards, and advertisements, adhere to your visual identity and brand voice guidelines
• Value proposition: Highlight your unique selling propositions and emphasize how your brand addresses your target audience's needs
• Call-to-action: Include clear and compelling calls-to-action that encourage potential customers to engage with your brand and learn more about your offerings

By creating consistent and impactful marketing collateral, you'll effectively communicate your brand DNA and drive customer engagement.

Social media is a powerful tool for reaching and engaging with your target audience, as well as showcasing your brand DNA. To make the most of social media, consider these tips:

• Platform selection: Choose social media platforms that are popular among your target audience and align with your brand's content strategy
• Consistent branding: Ensure that your social media profiles and posts reflect your visual identity and brand voice
• Engagement: Post regularly, respond to comments and messages, and actively engage with your audience to build a strong brand-community relationship

By effectively leveraging social media, you'll amplify your brand's reach, strengthen your brand's online presence, and create lasting connections with your audience.

After implementing your brand strategy, it's important to measure the success of your efforts and make adjustments as needed. Evaluating brand success involves tracking brand awareness, brand loyalty, and customer feedback. By monitoring these key performance indicators, you can determine the effectiveness of your brand strategy and make informed decisions to further enhance your brand's impact.

Brand awareness measures how familiar your target audience is with your brand. To gauge brand awareness, consider tracking the following metrics:

• Website traffic: Monitor the number of visitors to your website and their behavior, such as time spent on site, pages visited, and bounce rate
• Social media reach: Track the number of followers, likes, shares, and comments on your social media platforms
• Search engine visibility: Assess your brand's search engine rankings for relevant keywords, including variations of "brand dna"

By monitoring these metrics, you'll gain insight into your brand's visibility and discover areas for improvement.

Brand loyalty reflects the extent to which customers are devoted to your brand and choose it over competitors. To assess brand loyalty, consider these key indicators:

• Repeat purchases: Track the number of customers who make multiple purchases or sign up for ongoing services
• Referrals: Monitor the number of referral leads and the effectiveness of your referral programs
• Customer retention: Calculate your customer retention rate, which shows the percentage of customers who continue to choose your brand over time

Evaluating brand loyalty helps you understand the strength of your brand's relationship with its customers and identify opportunities to further enhance customer satisfaction.

Collecting and analyzing customer feedback is crucial for understanding how well your brand strategy resonates with your target audience. To gather valuable customer insights, consider these methods:

• Surveys: Conduct surveys to gauge customer satisfaction, perceptions of your brand, and areas for improvement
• Reviews: Monitor online reviews and ratings to identify trends, strengths, and weaknesses in your brand's performance
• Social media: Engage with your audience on social media platforms and pay attention to their comments, questions, and concerns

By actively seeking and analyzing customer feedback, you'll gain a deeper understanding of your brand's strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to improve your brand strategy.

Examining successful brands can provide valuable insights into how strong brand DNA can lead to extraordinary brand success. Let's take a look at three well-known brands—Apple, Starbucks, and Patagonia—and explore how their unique brand DNA has contributed to their global recognition and loyal customer base.

Apple is renowned for its sleek design, innovation, and premium quality products. The company's brand DNA is rooted in its mission to create user-friendly, cutting-edge technology that enhances people's lives. Here's how Apple's brand DNA shines through:

• Visual Identity: Apple's minimalist design, clean lines, and iconic logo are instantly recognizable and convey a sense of sophistication.
• Brand Voice: Apple communicates with its audience in a simple, clear, and aspirational tone, evoking a sense of innovation and excitement.
• Product Experience: Apple's products are known for their seamless integration, intuitive user interfaces, and outstanding performance, reinforcing the brand's commitment to quality and innovation.

Apple's strong brand DNA has enabled the company to become a global leader in consumer technology and maintain a loyal fan base that eagerly anticipates each new product release.

Starbucks has transformed the coffee industry with its unique brand DNA centered around providing a personalized, high-quality coffee experience. The key elements of Starbucks' brand DNA include:

• Atmosphere: Starbucks creates a cozy, inviting atmosphere in its stores, encouraging customers to relax and enjoy their coffee breaks.
• Customization: Starbucks offers a wide variety of drink options and encourages customers to personalize their orders, enhancing the overall experience.
• Community: Starbucks actively participates in local communities and promotes social responsibility through initiatives such as ethical sourcing and environmental stewardship.

Starbucks' strong brand DNA has allowed the company to dominate the coffee industry and cultivate a loyal customer base that appreciates the brand's commitment to quality and community.

Patagonia, an outdoor clothing and gear company, has built a loyal following due to its commitment to environmental and social responsibility. Patagonia's brand DNA is focused on creating high-quality, durable products while minimizing its impact on the environment. The key components of Patagonia's brand DNA are:

• Sustainability: Patagonia uses eco-friendly materials and manufacturing processes, promoting a strong commitment to environmental stewardship.
• Transparency: Patagonia is open about its business practices, supply chain, and environmental initiatives, fostering trust and credibility with customers.
• Activism: Patagonia actively supports environmental causes and encourages customers to join in their mission to protect the planet.

Patagonia's distinctive brand DNA has helped the company stand out in the competitive outdoor gear market, attracting customers who share the brand's values and commitment to environmental and social responsibility.

If you found this blog post helpful and want to dive deeper into branding, we highly recommend Karen Oldhoven's workshop, ' Create Your Brand Inside & Out '. In this workshop, you'll gain valuable insights and strategies to help you build a cohesive and authentic brand from the ground up.

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Brand designs, brand dna—what is it and why does it matter.

September 26, 2022

Just like sequences of genetic code determine whether a person has green eyes or curly hair, how a brand is viewed and expressed is also determined by a DNA type structure. While our genes are made of 4 base pairs, a brand's DNA is built through multiple parts, including the Brand's Story , Personality , Values, and Essence . These components are the building blocks that form the rationale behind your DNA.

Building Blocks of a Brand

• Brand Story: A cohesive narrative that encompasses the facts and feelings created by your brand.
• Brand Personality: A framework that helps a brand shape the way people feel about its product, service, or mission.
• Brand Values: The foundational beliefs a brand stands for. These are ideals that guide the brand's actions.
• Brand Essence: A single thought, summarized in 3-5 words that captures the soul of the brand; its fundamental nature. (Not to be confused with a tagline!)

Why Brand DNA Matters

Every brand inherently has a purpose for being. Your brand's purpose is a direct way to show your audience who you are, who you aren't, and what exactly you stand for. It helps you determine your audience and how best to establish trust and sincerity through expression & communication.

Archetypes of BRAND DNA

But wait, there's more! If Brand DNA is the genetic code, then archetypes are like a Myers-Briggs test, but for brands! First established by a psychoanalyst Carl Jung , a brand can fall under one of 12 established archetypes. These 12 Jungian Archetypes represent the core elements of the human experience. Brand archetypes build a brand's character, making them accessible and relatable to audiences who share those same values. By aligning your brand with an archetype shows relatability and gives your brand a framework to build a meaningful personality, correct tone of voice, and a powerful sense of storytelling. Who doesn't love a good story?

   “Archetypes are the heartbeat of a brand because they convey a meaning that makes customers relate to a product as if it actually were alive in some way, they have a relationship with it and care about it.”           The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes

Everything to Everyone

A well-defined DNA should serve as a point of differentiation for your brand, helping you carve out a unique space in the marketplace. If you try to be everything to everyone, you risk being perceived as disingenuous or, even worse, alienating your intended target. Knowing the audience you're speaking to and how to appeal to them is crucial—you wouldn't want to present a cancer drug in a humorous light, or for a luxury brand to come across as an "Everyman" archetype. Knowing and understanding your brand DNA & values can help you answer questions like, should my brand post about a specific current event on social media? You may feel a personal connection to an event, but it may not align with your brand's DNA. So pause and think, what would my brand do? (WWMBD), sort of like "WWJD" for your brand.In a nutshell, while a snazzy logo alone may initially catch a viewer's eye, if you're looking to build a faithful audience that sticks around, you'll need a little more substance. Whether you are looking to launch a new brand or thinking of revising an established one, partnering with a knowledgable tribe that speaks the language of Brand DNA is a good place to start. If you're interested in a Brand Audit, DNA session or simply have questions about the process, ‍

reach out — building brands is our passion and pleasure!

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What is a Brand DNA?

A brand dna is a document which thoroughly outlines the essence and identity of a business. brand dna documentation clearly defines what makes your business unique and own-able within its market with actionable strategic application..

The brand DNA is part of the overarching Brand Intelligence and the culmination of all brand research and discovery presented as an action plan of how to apply the findings. Use the document internally to communicate your values and differentiators. Use the document to guide your external communications and to position your brand uniquely within the market.

Commonly referred to as a Brand Strategy, the brand DNA gives your business a 'Why' to operate from and is broken into 3 primary sections:

• DNA and Internal Positioning
• Customer Personas
• Brand Personality, Voice and Tone

Schedule a Consultation 

Interested in learning how a Brand DNA can help your business elevate to the next level? Schedule a FREE 30 minute consultation here .

Internal Positioning in Brand Strategy

The internal positioning documentation first establishes a core belief system. This system is built on feedback provided by internal stakeholders, external customers, and own-able viability within the market. 

A comprehensive internal positioning presentation will cover the following topics in-depth:

• Organizational Core Purpose
• A 'Why' statement which clearly articulates why the business does what it does
• A 'How' statement defining how we accomplish what we do
• A 'What' statement illustrating as concisely as possibly what the business exists to do
• A Mission Statement which clearly communicates the Why, How and What
• A Core Value system which differentiates the business in the market 
• A Brand Attributes system which leads behavioral direction within the organization
• Positioning Statement

Customer Personas within Brand Strategy

Customer personas are developed as part of the brand DNA in order to group segments of your target audience into actionable archetypes. 

Buyer personas are created through industry research and discovery and can act as a guide to brand messaging as well as a way to make larger audience groups more relatable to internal staff. While buyer personas are fictional people, they should be comprised of data points collected through the brand research in order to be most actionable.

Brand Personality, Tone and Voice within the Brand DNA

The personality of a brand can be tough to articulate. The Brand DNA should do this in a manner which is unmistakable for anyone in your business.

The Brand Persona 

If we imagine our brand as a person, this is how we would envision ourselves. The Brand Persona is a filter for how we think, act and perceive ourselves. It helps to determine our tone of voice, messaging and creative approach as we begin to develop anything we create for ourselves and share with the world. Perception is reality - we need to be cohesive in all things.

The Brand Tone of Voice

A brand’s tone of voice is revealed throughout a customer’s journey. As a person moves from touchpoint to touchpoint, your voice should help to guide their next behavior, and deepen their relationship with your brand.

The brand tone of voice documentation should be actionable... not be just a fluffy, ethereal description. Comprehensive tone of voice documentation will outline specifically how the brand communicates in different real-business scenarios with examples of how the brand persona would navigate specific situations. 

Additionally, the brand tone of voice will list specific filters to help guide all external communications with copywriting samples. 

Defining the Brand Narrative

The brand narrative conveys what the business stands for and solidifies its positioning. When the brand DNA is presented, the brand narrative is the final storyline which ties all elements of the brand together. 

When the brand narrative is presented you should see lots of heads shaking in confirmation.

What happens after a Brand DNA?

After the Brand DNA is completed, the visual and communication work can commence intelligently. 

Visual Brand Language

With the brand DNA complete, the visual brand, creative application, and brand asset creation can begin. Until this point, any visual creative output should be considered artwork.

Communication Strategy

The communication strategy for a brand is a roadmap for all sales, marketing, and service tactics which will serve to build a comprehensive customer experience. With the brand DNA in place, the communication strategy will morph from guesswork into precision.

Brand DNA FAQs

What is the difference between Brand Personality and Brand DNA?

A Brand Personality is part of the Brand DNA, but does not encompass all values and characteristics of the DNA. The Brand DNA also includes positioning, market insights, audience insights, and is comprised of many layers of research and development.

PowerPoint Brand Strategy Brand DNA Template

The Brand DNA slide is an editable presentation slide for PowerPoint and Google Slides with a Venn diagram including three outer circles and one central circle, each with editable text fields. On the side there is a yellow box and gradient arrow graphic with a paragraph field.

Return to Brand Strategy PowerPoint Template .

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Brand DNA: what is it and how to build it?

To begin with this blog and explain Brand DNA, it would be good to draw a parallel with the natural world. Marketing and advertising are social disciplines that act as positioning and promotion tools and generators of strategies to persuade, dialogue, or convince. Likewise, they are social actors with a life of their own, like the brands they create, capable of adapting and modifying their environment.

DNA is a compendium of genetic information of living beings, and in the same way, brands are born, grow, reproduce and die. That means that in the brand’s DNA, we can find different key aspects: emotional, numerical, philosophical, and behavioral. That is why the brand’s DNA, its essence, is crucial when determining its growth and evolution. Therefore, it makes it the backbone of a brand’s identity; what is and what is not a brand. At the same time, it defines their personality, behavior, virtues, needs, past, present, and future.

The ten factors that makeup brand DNA

To build a brand’s genetic map, we can use several factors to help us understand how an organization works. These factors define the organization’s relationship with its brands and determine its DNA.

1. Identity:

It refers to the origin of its meaning, the reason for being. It is a key concept for constructing and developing a brand and its subsequent positioning.

2. Philosophy:

Firstly, this is the most human brand factor and responds to specific basic questions, such as the objective facts that define a brand or company. Secondly, how we present the brand to others, the tone in which it speaks, how it communicates, its codes, and what it thinks of itself. Thirdly, the emotional dimension of the brand from the customer’s point of view, what it represents, and what the client feels when working or consuming that brand. Finally, the thoughts the client projects when using a brand and the image others decode.

3. Culture:

It includes a set of factors shared by the members of an organization linked to their way of being and performing. These factors become singular facts perceived both inside and outside an organization. They are what mark its differentiation, positioning, and its internal cohesion.

It refers to those attributes that are capable of transmitting the brand’s very essence. They do not change over time and serve as means of connecting with customers.

5. Personality:

Personality is the combination of features that determines the key elements with which the brand is expressed. It is acquired through its most representative values ​​and benefits.

6. Purpose:

It helps to understand the why and what of a brand, both inside and outside the organization. It goes beyond the brand’s functional benefits and has an emotional and social reach.

The way of relating to stakeholders , the levels of communication, and the language used, make up an amalgamation of characteristics that a brand’s DNA includes.

“What we cannot communicate does not exist.” So this transcendental factor must have an impact on the brand’s message. Also, in its tone, content, the stories it tells, and the emotional impact that results in connection with the target audience.

8. Positioning:

Positioning is crucial to understand the role of the brand in the market and the needs, emotions, and desires it satisfies. It is a solid, credible, relevant, differential, and lasting definition that describes the essence of the brand and its reason for being. At the same time, it gives it meaning, making it understandable for internal and external audiences. You can learn more about positioning here .

9. Differentiation:

This factor is closely linked to the concept of positioning. It is not easy for today’s brands to stand out in a globalized and oversaturated market. Differential values ​​are the factors that make the brand unique, distinguishing it from the competition. They can be both rational and emotional.

10. Territoriality:

This factor is often not taken into account but is decisive when building a brand. It is about the tangible and intangible space a brand occupies, defined by its nature and rational and emotional aspirations before its stakeholders. This territoriality is closely related to positioning and creates the context in which it will develop.

Know thyself, impact later

There is no doubt that brands are part of the daily life of human beings. In a certain sense, they are also living elements that grow, develop, mutate, transform, evolve, and sometimes die. Therefore, for successful brand management, it is necessary to investigate its structure, history, and DNA to obtain the most significant possible knowledge regarding its essence and its reason for being.

In short, the brand’s DNA will help us better understand its place in the world. Likewise, we will be able to have a detailed overview of the health of a brand and the ills that may afflict it and be prepared for the threats that may arise. Therefore, building a brand means making its DNA, those fundamental pillars on which it is based.

Today, with the incredible development in new communication channels, new technologies, generations Y, Z, millennials, transmedia , virtual reality, and sharing economy , among others, brands are much more than a story, a unique selling proposition, or a simple icon. They are a complex amalgamation of ideas, values, proposals, and attributes that impact customers in countless ways in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world.

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• Brands we’ve built

Believe in your Brand DNA

So far on our journey, we’ve explained the value of a brand plan and what a brand actually is . Then we explored how to discover your purpose , manage perceptions with positioning , keep a compelling promise and craft a winning personality .

Now we arrive at a central brand element – the Brand DNA .

Our purpose, promise, reasons to believe, positioning and personality are distilled into the Brand DNA – defined as the core idea a brand seeks to be associated with in the mind of an observer. It’s the essence of your offering.

Identifying an effective Brand DNA is one of the most difficult challenges of brand building.

Brand building blocks

Real DNA carries your genetic information for how you look, behave and what makes you different. It’s the essence of you.

Brand DNA is similar. Your brand’s components (purpose, promise, positioning, etc) are the vital building blocks forming the logic of your DNA. However, the result must be relevant, expressive and effective to resonate well with your audience.

Script an effective DNA

A call to action, a challenge, an unyielding commitment, a battle cry… We evaluate the potential of a Brand DNA against our STEP checklist:

✓ Sustainable

Will it last? A Brand DNA must be deep and enduring, and aligned with audience needs and long-term business strategy. Don’t treat the Brand DNA like a marketing campaign tagline, whose objectives are shallower and transitory. DNA is a long-term investment.

Is it real? If your DNA doesn’t honestly represent your business and brand, your audience won’t believe in it. The Brand DNA must be based in fact, or at least reflect what your organisation wants to achieve. Fake, inaccurate DNAs weaken trust and disappoint audiences. Have the nerve to tell your own truth.

✓ Exceptional

Can we own it? Your Brand DNA should be uniquely yours. And uniquely compelling in your sector. It must never be mistaken for your competitor’s, or generic, messaging. The right DNA becomes synonymous with your offering. It cuts through clutter and gets remembered. It is an essential part of your identity.

Will it work for ongoing creative campaigns? A DNA needs impact. It’s got to attract, persuade, influence, inspire. We’ve understood from years of developing Brand DNAs that you shouldn’t dismiss a potential DNA if it doesn’t immediately grab you. Often its effect comes with a little time, and in context with other messages. It’s less about whether you like it personally, but whether it fulfils the goal of creating positive change.

...the Brand DNA is the strategic message and core idea that guides your brand’s expression. It’s the essence of your offering.

Inward versus outward

Sometimes Brand DNA is only a guiding concept for internal use. Other times, your audience will explicitly see your DNA, usually expressed as a positioning phrase .

The global conglomerate Swire uses esse quam videri (Latin for be rather than seem to be ) as its motto. The phrase aligns the team behind the leader to galvanise and guide its actions. But these words aren’t an explicit, client-facing part of its brand identity. Whereas Nike’s phrase Just do it simply is Nike, used inside and out.

At Stepworks, our Brand DNA is one word — Wholehearted . You’ll see its meaning expressed in our approach to our work. When we help clients solve problems. How we come together as a team. In our logo, stationery and seasonal gifts. We even named our methodology Wholehearted Brand Building — it describes our unique holistic approach that aims to balance and align the needs of multiple stakeholders.

Wholehearted guides our decision-making and recruitment. We aim to be wholehearted in everything we say, do and make.

Don’t treat the Brand DNA like a marketing campaign tagline, whose objectives are shallower and transitory. DNA is a long-term investment.

Your brand’s destiny

Brand DNA has other similarities to real DNA. Both are designed to survive and spread as efficiently as possible. Both capture where you’ve come from and equip you for the future. Real DNA is unique and found in every living cell of your being, like Brand DNA, which differentiates your organisation and manifests at every touchpoint.

The endgame of your strategic brand plan is distilling everything into a compelling DNA. It establishes the north star that guides you to go far, to stand out from competition and attract valuable audiences. DNA is your brand’s destiny.

Identifying an effective Brand DNA is one of the most difficult challenges of brand building. Working with an external agency often makes sense for this. The objectivity and artistry of an experienced outsider gives the brand owner a fresh perspective that can unlock real value. If you do choose to work with outsiders to develop a Brand DNA, they will need a creative brief. You can easily develop a creative brief here ...

Key takeaway: Your brand destiny is defined in your DNA

A simple, engaging core message strongly influences how people think of your brand. Ask us about our proven Brand DNA development process.

The power of a winning personality

What you need for a brand model, get unique expert branding advice to grow your business.

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The Ultimate Brand Identity Presentation Guide [FREE PPT Template]

If you’re in the process of building the right image for your company, it’s essential that you and your team manage clear guidelines on how to present your brand to the world .

These guidelines will help you maintain consistency (a KEY aspect of branding), and that’s why today, I’ll show you how to create a brand identity presentation that helps you inject your corporate identity into every single material.

We’ll go over the following topics:

• Starting with the basics: What is a brand identity presentation?

How to present a brand identity?

What to include in a brand identity presentation.

• Your Brand Identity
• Your Brand Visual Elements (+ Expert Tips!)
• What to expect? Brand identity presentation examples
• Check out our FREE Brand identity presentation template!
• Final Step: Brand Your Guidelines! Check out how we can help you out

Download your brand identity presentation PDF

What is a brand identity presentation.

A brand identity presentation is a practical and efficient way to present your brand’s guidelines. What are brand guidelines? They are a set of rules on how your brand should be used across any type of media.

These guidelines include all of your brand’s elements, such as your typography, color palette, tone of voice, etc . They provide all the instructions you need to maintain consistency every time you create new marketing materials, from brochures to flyers, packaging, and even your branded presentations .

The best way to present your brand identity is through a PowerPoint presentation. Why? For several reasons:

• Adaptability: Having all your brand's elements in a PowerPoint presentation not only provides the convenience of having everything accessible but also offers the flexibility to adapt it to various formats, such as social media and websites.
• Familiarity: PowerPoint is already a tool you likely use regularly. This familiarity makes using it for brand identity design presentation the easiest choice.
• Rich content: PowerPoint presentations have ample space for including visual examples, videos, and essential links. They encompass a wide array of content types, including text, charts, infographics, and videos.

Let's take a look at all the elements you should include in your brand identity presentation:

Your brand identity

1. Mission and Vision

Including your mission and vision in your brand identity design presentation is vital because it defines your brand’s purpose and long-term goals . You should structure these slides with a brief introduction followed by concise mission and vision statements:

2. Brand Purpose

Your brand’s purpose allows your audience to emotionally connect with your content, so it is crucial to include it to ensure everyone in the company creates content aligned with it. Present a brief statement with any explanation you’d like to have:

Including your brand’s values in your presentation is crucial as it helps match your team's actions and decisions with the core principles your brand stands for . You can present them simply or provide explanations for each one:

4. Tone of voice

Explaining your brand's preferred tone of voice is essential because it sets the style for all your content. Be sure to provide a description of how your brand should communicate and share examples about what to do and what not to do in order to clarify expectations:

5. Intended audience

By presenting your buyer persona, you ensure that everyone involved understands who the brand is speaking to . This way, you help them create content that resonates with the target audience:

Your Brand Visual Elements

Now, let’s check out the visual elements you should definitely include :

6. Logo design

Your logo is a cornerstone of your brand identity. Including it, along with variations and do’s and don'ts , ensures that everyone has access to and uses it correctly, which helps maintain a professional and consistent brand image:

7. Typography

Presenting your chosen typography is essential for maintaining a uniform visual identity in your text-based content. Include font styles for different types of text and usage guidelines to ensure that all written materials adhere to your brand’s style:

8. Brand Colors

Displaying your primary brand colors and their codes is essential for consistent visual branding. By providing the color palette and codes , you ensure that all design elements align with your brand's color scheme:

9. Photography

Explaining the style and types of photography that align with your brand is crucial. Make sure to include examples of preferred photography styles that help your team understand the visual aesthetic your brand aims to achieve :

10. Illustrations

If illustrations are part of your brand, presenting their style and usage guidelines is vital . You should include examples that illustrate the desired style and do’s and don’ts, making it easier for designers and content creators to maintain consistency in visuals:

Additionally, make sure you include these supplementary recommendations to elevate the quality even further, as suggested by our design managers Ramaditya Ananda and Indah Yuniarti .

As Ramaditya says:

“Make sure to include a link to access existing assets so it’s easier and faster for designers to use them.”

Including links to ALL the assets is a great way to facilitate the process for everyone designing or creating content. Attach these links for your logos, illustrations, shapes, etc.

Additionally, remember that you should include as many examples as possibl e. Try to be as specific as you can to ensure that all your content is illustrated exactly as you have in mind. As Indah adds:

"Be specific about how you would like to visualize your brand. Provide context regarding how the elements should be used and include the DO's and DON'Ts. Offer examples of both correct and incorrect applications of brand guidelines to help minimize errors in their implementation."

Check out the final product: Brand identity presentation examples

Ready to see the final product? Check out some amazing brand identity presentation examples.

Skype provides a great example of everything you must include in your presentation, especially how to present it. Skype’s guide offers a visually appealing yet playful presentation that cleverly introduces all of the brand’s elements in carefully crafted storytelling.

See the full brand guide here .

Heineken’s brand identity presentation provides every detail you should be including in your own presentation. They consider every single element, from all the logo variations, to all the visual elements the content creators or designers could need.

Check out the full brand guide here .

FREE Brand identity presentation template!

Now you’re ready to create your own brand style guide!

And to help you in the process, the 24Slides designers created a PowerPoint template that follows the structure we’ve seen above. Take this as your starting point in the making of your company’s brand identity presentation .

This hands-on brand identity presentation template comes with 20 slides for you to insert each one of your brand elements. If you feel ready to start, click on the image. You’ll be sent to our Templates Hub where you can download these slides for free.

However, as you might already notice, this is a generic template . It helps tremendously to get everything structured and in place as your first draft, but it’s not quite the finished document you want to present.

There’s one last step you shouldn’t skip if you really want to create a brand style guide that you and your team feel proud of.

Final Step: Brand Your Guidelines!

How are you going to encourage people to use your brand properly if you don’t do it yourself? Branding your guidelines, or any of your presentations , is key!

Your brand style guide or brand identity presentation is an excellent opportunity to practice what you preach and show how a document can breathe and live your brand to the fullest.

Ideally, your brand manual will be a consultation document for internal and external teams (graphic designers, copywriters, web developers, marketers, consultants, etc.), so it makes sense to have it aligned with your brand as well.

If you envision your brand style guide with a professional aspect but don’t know exactly how to get it there, you might be interested in outsourcing your presentation design .

At 24Slides , our PowerPoint designers are experts at making presentations that truly reflect your brand and values. Just check some of our before-and-after examples :

If you’ve already got all your elements and text in your brand identity PowerPoint template, all you need to do is send it our way ! Our designers have provided top-notch presentations to thousands of professionals and companies around the world, so rest assured your slides are in good hands.

But if you’d like to test the service first, that’s totally okay! We’re all about transparency and 100% customer satisfaction, so here’s a try-out offer for you : Send us one slide (maybe the cover of your brand style guide!), and we’ll redesign it for just one dollar. This is a cool way to experience what our presentation design service can do for you and your team.

As I mentioned before, no two brand style guides are the same. These 10 points we’ve covered are the essential parts any brand style guide should have, but you can add others according to what your brand needs.

Just remember to keep your brand style guide short, easy to read for everyone, and shareable!

Ready to create your own brand identity presentation? Look no further - this template is your ultimate tool to make it happen! Download it for free:

Want to learn more?

• Get superb on-brand presentations with 24Slides!
• Corporate Identity: Why is Branding Important in a Presentation?
• How to Write a Design Brief for Your Next Project?
• Rebranding Checklist: 5 Aspects You Should Consider

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• Programs & Tools

Define Your Brand DNA With Strategy Tools (W Peter Wilken)

Mr. Peter Wilken, is a  brand strategy  veteran with serious chops and the author of  Dim Sum Strategy: Bite-Size Tools to Build Stronger Brands .

He is the real deal when it comes to branding, and he’s been in the branding game at the very, very top.

He’s led global agency giants such as  BBDO ,  Leo Burnett , and  Ogilvy  to name just a few. 

He’s also worked with the biggest brands in the world, including  Koch ,  McDonald’s ,  Disney ,  Pepsi , and  BMW  as well, and he’s the winner of the coveted  Cannes Golden Lion Award , also known as the Oscars of advertising. 

Peter shares his wisdom on

What Brand DNA Is

Top Methods To Help Clients Find Their DNA

Favourite Brand Strategy Tools

So if you want to learn applicable techniques and tools used by an industry veteran for the world’s biggest, then stick around for this article.

One-click subscribe for video updates

What Is Brand Strategy In Brand DNA?

Stephen Houraghan

The thing that stuck out the most to me was, the idea of this superficial level branding versus substance level branding and that’s, a concept that just immediately speaks to me because that’s also something that is super important to me.

I came across many years ago when I was looking at how I could do different things differently, what real branding was and the way you’ve articulated it there, although there they were different words in terms of superficial branding versus substance branding.

It is the same thing to me which is the  visual brand  versus the strategy.

So many people get sucked into the visuals of the brand because of the things that we’re so familiar with within our lives.

The Nike logo, the Apple logo, and the  visual identities  these visual cues and assets that we see in the contour bottle of Coke.

These are visual cues are all the surface level and beneath that, you have the strategy.

So why don’t you talk to us about what strategy or that substance that you call it means to you?

Peter Wilken

I would just want to before all your incredibly talented graphic designers and people who were doing these logos and ideas turn off and say,  “Who is this guy?”

I don’t mean supervision in a derogatory way at all. Rather mean it was being back to front, so clients would say,

We need to  rebrand  and we do what they would kind of mean was that we think we need the tangible side of a new logo. 

They don’t know where their money is going, but they can touch a logo in a redesign and it’s hugely important we feel to bring creative ideas to life and express and drive them but it should come at the end of the process, not at the beginning. 

Understanding who you are and what you stand for and why, and really being able to identify the insight and the opportunity for your brand should come way before the clothes that you wear and what you know. 

I could walk into a room with my brand new kind of suit that my wife would’ve picked from me and say, Look at me, I’m Peter, I’m stylish. and people were saying, No, we know you Peter you’re British and you’re not stylish, you’re not, get away with it.

So you play to who you are. 

I love that, and that’s something that I talk about often, which is the human  brand philosophy , that we’re building an entity to connect with other humans. 

In doing that you need to make your brand as relatable as possible and I like the analogy that you’ve just used there.

If you wanna address the part, then you have to know the context of the room that you’re walking into because if you walk into a beautiful suit on, then you’re going to only going to be received based on the people that are in there. 

If you walk into a room full of bikes with tattoos, then you’re not part of their tribe and you’re not going to appeal to them.

So that superficial stuff is only based on the substance of the meaning that you want to represent to your audience. 

I was gonna illustrate, you mentioned a couple of thing, Nike Swoosh and the Coke contour bottle.

When a good design comes in becomes an integral part of your brand as well you may not have know, or people may know the story that Phil Knight famously rejected the swoosh when it first came out. 

It was, he hated it.

He thought it was too simplistic and didn’t like it kinda cause he was penny-pinching and of course now it’s absolutely symbolic of the positive attitude and spirit, what Nike stands for. 

It’s an integral part of it. I’m old enough to have gone right back to the days when Coke was still primarily distributed in beautiful glass recycled bottles. 

When they were faced with this dilemma because, they wanted to get out of it, but they had this iconic contour shape, which everybody knew and the bean counters had done all their numbers and said, 

Look, no, no, we just wanna do the plain-sided bottles and things like this. It’s much, much cheaper, it’s more efficient, and surface area to volume ratio, packing rates, and distribution costs will save millions of dollars. 

Doing that, we were actually integral and saying, No, don’t do that.

Pay the extra money do the contour shape in PT and retain it because that is absolutely an integral asset part of your brand.

What Does Brand DNA Mean & Where Does It Fit Into Strategy?

It really is getting to the bottom of what brand strategy is to you and then how that leads to the brand’s DNA in terms of knowing who you are first and foremost before going out and  communicating it to the world .

Brand strategy and these terms are so broadly used now. 

So I just tell you what it means to me  brand strategy is brand plus strategy. 

So a brand to me is a territory in the mind, that’s all it is. It’s a perception. It’s what you stand for in the mind of your customers or your stakeholders.

It’s the most powerful thing of all because it drives action and behavior and that perception. So if you can articulate that and shape that.

You’ve got to believe that as marketers and brand builders then you can have an enormous impact on your business and, and the relationship that your customers have in your brand.

The second part is strategy and strategy for me is very simple, the strategy is choices. 

So brand strategy together is what is the territory in the mind that you’re planning to build? 

What choices you’re making in order to build those that means what you decide not to do and not to own, and what you decide to clearly own.

 The more focused you can be and what you own, the better. It goes a little bit more beyond that.

I had an interesting conversation with a young aspiring brand strategy, a super bright, bright guy just starting out, 26, 27, 28, something like that and he said, 

Peter, you know, I love what you’re talking about the brand DNA and things, but I don’t feel I’ve got permission to kind of challenge my clients on their business strategy that’s theirs.

I said, Why is that? 

Because I do not draw a distinction between brand and business.

The best businesses, the CEOs are actually CBOs, they’re chief brand offices, and there’s a whole new breed of that, particularly in the west coast.

When we’re looking at the Facebooks, the Googles, the Teslas and they are very much believers in driving from their business, from their brand.

So brand strategy and business strategy and  communication strategy  are absolutely integral and they’re integrated. 

I find them very difficult to stand apart from, and this is where the DNA comes in and, and I’ll film that in a minute. 

Third part of the brand strategy for me is that people kind of still think of it as a document.

Here’s a paper plan I don’t think of it that way.

I think of brand strategy as a journey and as a relationship and on a journey, you need both a compass and a map. 

So the map is the plan you’ve got something written a destination but for me, a compass is far more valuable, especially in a storm and turbulent water is an unpredictable world of change. 

A compass will always point you to true and like, it’d be a guiding beacon or a star and, and that’s what a DNA is to me.

A brand DNA is that it’s a guiding beacon or a star, like it’s genetic counterpart, It’s a template for replicating consistent desired future experiences.

We spent a lot of time, and this was way before  Simon Sinek  did a brilliant job of owning why we identified four components of what DNA was.

Those were the role that you play, you raise on Detra. Why do you exist? What is it that you believe in the, your overarching commitment or your promise.

The overarching commitment to your stakeholders that you will deliver against, the benefit that they derive from you, successfully delivering against that promise and how you go about doing it, your culture.

You manage and those kind of four elements, 

There’s a kind of a fifth bit, which is the icons and attributes that you champion and use to trigger associations with it.

But all of those elements together, we kind of imagine, in this blue velvet bag with a gold string around it, becomes cemented as your DNA and enable you to have a simple enough tool to be able to remember, but has the richness to really define unique character for every brand.

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Benefits Of Brand DNA

I really love the analogy. 

I’m a huge fan of analogies, just to really give you context and meaning and yes,

The brand strategy is a map, but. directions change and markets change, and what is on point for us today might not be on point for us in 10 years time.

There might be a different market segment that we want to go after, or the market might evolve in a certain type of way. 

I love that the brand DNA for you is that compass that even if the map is not as clear today as it was five years ago, we still have our compass to realign with who we are and where we’re going.

So I absolutely love that DNA side of things and I feel with, with these aspects of brand you can really get buy-in from your clients because if they believe in the brand DNA, then everything becomes much clearer. 

The map becomes much clearer, the destination becomes much clearer.

Is that what you also found as well, working with clients that the clearer they wear on the DNA, the more invested they wear in the rest of the brand strategy?

The process involved collaboration closely with the clients so that we would do DNA development sessions, like the intense pressure of a Coldron.

One of the tips for aspiring  brand strategists  out there is there’s no shortcut for doing your homework and the discovery report to get to that point of having that meeting but when they take ownership you end up, you don’t even have to sell it.

I know a DNA is cemented when you start to try and change something and say, No, hands off it Peter, you know, this is ours now and we’ll run with it. 

I mean, maybe I should give you a couple of examples of what we mean by DNAs and how absolutely can actually impact.

I mean, I’ve given this example before but I’ll give you another what couple as well.

Shangla came to us when we were in Hong Kong and, and  I think they kind of came to us by mistake because they knew we were a Guo brand consultancy which meant foreigner, and they were looking to expand their network out into North America. 

Funnily enough, Vancouver was, was the place they were looking at.

So they thought they needed to compete with the likes of the Hiltons and the Ritz Carltons and, thinking we need to emulate this heavy blue marble and brass masculine kind of American kind of experience and maybe you can help us integrate our brand into this.

We need to freshen our brand up anyway, so we went through the  process discovery process  of identifying, asking all the right questions about where they fit, what their role was,  how they were different,. 

The standard things that come back to actually answering the DNA questions.

What is your promise?

How do you address

How do you present yourself? 

What is your opportunity? 

How do you differentiate yourselves 

What opportunities are there for you to change. 

And it was very clear to us that they were far, far away from any kind of North American, you know, masculine kind of positioning.

They were feminine Asian and we ended up defining them as natural coasts and part of their DNA was, was the spirit of it, which was an Asian Audrey happen.

They had got everything came back and everything came home and

it was all about how do we interpret that in a way that people recognize and it was not fantastic Asian art, but it was traditional Asian values in a contemporary way.

So it was Ch Sam’s ceremonies beside beautiful modern interiors. We’d keep the chandelier but they’d be modernized certain parts of the aspect. It, went all the way through their, their organization. Of course, it had a profound impact on how they built out their hotel experience across the world.

It went much deeper than that and it went into  brand architecture  and the four-star, five-star, six-star, things like that. So that was one. 

Another one is, Canada’s probably most famous, boy school here, St. George’s which I’ve been working with for now 10 or 12 years.

And they came to us with a classic there’s always a change and this was an imminent change of headmaster and leadership and a classic five-year of the cycle of strategy, which they needed to come up with. 

We ended up articulating their DNA.

Building fine young men, one boy at a time and that may not sound very profound, but when we started the journey, they were querying whether a single-gender, education was relevant, in a world where everything was going co-ed. 

They were questioning whether or not they still needed boarding, which was, they were struggling to compete against some of the other island full boarding schools.

So major fundamental issues, and have gone through a discovery and definition process, they realized that their soul was in not only being specialists.

That’s what we know from the whole experience.

We are experts in educating boys.

We know that they need, kinesthetic energy and they get up.

They need more space to move.

We have lower attention spans.

We know that they’re more heavily influenced by tutors,

all those things, and that positioning. 

So they’ve stuck with that for kinda 10 years and moving on

Explore Brand Strategy Programs & Tools

Top methods to define brand dna.

I love it, this is the beauty of Brand DNA.

This is where it becomes that tool for the true north is when when you’re crystal clear on exactly who you are as a brand, then the big decisions become so much easier to make because 

You know who you are, 

You know where you’re going, 

You know what you want to represent.

And as I said, the smaller decisions, just become so much easier and the bigger decisions become so much easier as well with that. 

So in terms of methods that you use to define DNA with your clients, can you give us an insight as to those methods?

We had a process, a trademark process.

Everyone’s got their own process which we call the 4D process within what we call  brand-centered management . and if you remember,

brand-centered management was putting your brand at the heart of everything your organization does and says. 

So if you articulate your desired brand DNA, what you wanna stand for and why and to whom, and you put that at the center of your organization.

It drives everything from the  corporate strategy  to how you deal with your people, to the products and services you offer, to the experiences or how you communicate those experiences and to the actual experiences of your stakeholders, which drives their perception and then that comes all the way back to your DNA.

So a lot of. It still circulates around the DNA, and I always say it’s all in your DNA. 

So how do we go about generating a DNA? We had this four D’s process. 

The 1st D is, discovery. 

The 2nd is definition, defining your dna. 

The 3rd is direction, what you do with it to set strategic direction.

And the 4th is delivery. 

I focus mainly on the first two Ds, discovery and definition. 

Discovery is doing the ground homework and we would work with big organizations that were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on tailor-made quantitative research and the details of the numbers and statistical analysis, cluster analysis for their different groups and sizes, and things like that.

It’s all fine, but actually,  It wasn’t giving rich data of how people feel about the brand and how they were articulating the emotional side. 

That really drove choice and you can do a very effective, In fact, we recommended always you can, you can get 75% of the way there with 2020 5% of the effort if you do a well-structured qualitative interview project with key stakeholders within the brand. 

You don’t need to do many, I mean, 15 to 20 of the right people, and those are people who are kind of close to the brand representing the different interest groups or segments who really understand it and who’ve got a vested interest in seeing the brand succeed.

Then we ask structured questions from general to specific in terms of setting the context, what springs to mind when I say, U b T or whatever, what springs to mind when I say AIA or AIG, what springs to mind? 

So you get, and it brings people right down to earth often because you can be a multibillion-dollar insurance company as, as it was then.

And it’s not the biggest thing on people’s minds. It’s what they live for every day and is totally consumed by. 

They’re one of many big insurance companies and we consider you when we have to take out life insurance, which is kind of unpleasant anyway, Don’t really wanna talk about that with two or three others.

So accept a context and then once you’re into the category,

Where do you stand relative to competitors? 

What is your key opportunities are key core strengths and weaknesses? 

How do you go about it culturally? 

How you were different? 

So it would give you a lot of rich insight and we would have a semi-structured, discovery questionnaire that would guide them.

But we would do it and we would interpret it and set that up to bring everybody up onto a level of real honesty and what we would call courageous truth. 

We wouldn’t be afraid to say the truth in front of the truth, the power and so we would say what is the overall category truth here?

What are the conventions that you need to kind of breakout or be aware of what’s the underlying customer truth or human truth within it.

So you really get to the emotional side of it and then combined within that what’s the consequential brand truth? That would be a kind of focused effort from the discovery report, and we would also open it up to questions. 

So this is where I go back to what I was talking about, the brand being integrated linked with business and communications. 

The best question at the end was that the three wishes to change things for the better.

What would you do and so it invariably brings it back business issues.

Asked about tools and, and tricks. 

So that would be the first thing, do your homework, do a great discovery process.

You can shortcut it and in a cost effective, but rich way by doing in depth qualitative interviews and interpreting the while. 

Of course, you back that up with other external, internet and desk research. You do your competitive reviews, you look at your current trends, you look at your consumers, you look inside the company, but it doesn’t have to be rocket science. 

So many of the great creative people that I work with were actually brilliant natural strategists. They’re very good at boiling down to key things and focusing on it, and, and not compromising. 

They’re very good and natural, empathizes with their customers.

They’re much better at putting their shoes and or their feet into their customer’s shoes generally. 

Shouldn’t come naturally, to people who have the creative executional sides skill that are looking to move the next step to add strategy to it. 

I love that as well about about distilling it down and drilling down to get to that meaning and to be uncompromising about staying on point and getting to the root of what the brand means.

When you get the client being protective of the DNA that you have helped them to discover, that’s when you know that this is something that they truly believe in an now we have buy-in.

Anything that we want to do from here becomes much easier because we’re all pulling in the same direction and they have this believability in the brand with the years that you’ve spent working with the likes of  Coke  and McDonald’s and BMW.

What would you say, now, reflecting back to all of those workshops that you did all of those meetings with the stakeholders within the brand on defining the brand and making those big strategic decisions.

What would you say are your most effective or your favorite brand strategy tools that you would still use to this?

Well, obviously we’ve been talking a lot about the brand DNA and that’s the heart. 

That’s where I would really go back to articulating that rich template of your, role your key beliefs. Your overarching promise, your commitment understanding the benefits you’re delivering so that you are customer oriented and capturing your spirit.

Those, those elements allow enough, um, simplicity to be able to be remembered, but enough complexity and diversity to make you completely unique. 

So that would be probably one of the most powerful tools and then working within structured 4D process so that you’ve got your discovery work. 

The definition is doing your brand DNA development workshop so that you give your clients ownership and they take ownership of it and then cascade it into direction.

Your DNA becomes a kind of beacon to guide strategy, the key choices you make to bring your, your desired future state to life.

It informs strategic frameworks, and again, there’s so many models of strategic frameworks, but I just, I like the simple circular one where you boil down to three or four key pillars and then three strategic priorities within that.

They’re not thinking about building relationships. They’re just trying to please what they think are the interior designers, customers, which is the end client the homeowner. 

Yep. Gosh, is there an opportunity for us there? Could we do something that would really let that message sink in? Unlike the rest of your providers?

We do this thing that serves this need, that our competitors didn’t know you had.

I think that that’s the kind of emotional and psychographic information that is. Impossible to get from whatever large-scale data sources, like a Sparktoro. 

I think, the one thing I might look at is I might look at things like the words and phrases that people use in their posts and shares.

I might look at pages that are resonating sort of this is a trending piece in the industry there, that must have hit home with a lot of folks in our field, that sort of thing, but really surveys and interviews, man. 

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Dim Sum Strategy: Bite-Sized Tools to Build Stronger Brands

Peter’s been kind enough to send his book, Dim Sum Strategy to me,  it’s on a race between that and Nelson Mandela, which I’ve also ordered, whichever arrives first is gonna be my next.

Why don’t you tell us, a bit about the goodness that we can find inside Dim Sum Strategy and then where we can go and find that book? 

The book Dim Sum Strategy, the name is a kind of giveaway.  

It basically shares 40 or 50 of the best creative, strategic thinking tools that I’ve used the last 30 years of doing  brand strategy consulting  and advertising across all of those big blue chip clients, but also some of the smaller clients as well.

I was working here in Vancouver with a great company called  BluMaan , and they were basically selling men’s hair care products online through YouTube. 

The very young group, the CEO was 24, they were already turning over two or 3 million and they were super smart, well read, um, and knew the theory, but we’re still getting to that point of just not quite knowing losing sight of who they were and where they were going.

They had so many opportunities to be able to expand into this and, we were lucky, kind of find each other at the right time and they, they were not that I’m labeling all Gen Z like this, but small attention spans.

Give it to us quick, Peter and if we’re interested, we’ll go further.

What amazed me was that they were very bright, but they were missing some incredibly powerful tools that had been effective tools and around for 30 years that just lifted the mis for them and illuminated things.

And when I shared them with them.

So that’s basically what it is,

It’s a combination of book of the brand company, what brand center management was the 4D process, how to build your DNA and, and listed and peppered with these creative and strategic thinking tools in bite-size chunks. 

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What’s Your Brand DNA?

7 steps to define your brand.

At its core, branding requires work that can’t be outsourced. It requires looking inward at your product and organization. That said, an outside marketing agency or consultant can help guide the process and provide a neutral perspective as you go through the process.

To get your branding on track, here are seven questions to answer. Ideally, gather answers from across your organization to provide broader insights.

• What type of product, service or content do you offer? Specifically what benefits do you deliver to your customers? Go beyond your physical product or service. Does your product offer status or security or other elements. For example, every woman wants to receive a little blue box that she knows is from Tiffany’s , even though she could get a larger piece of jewelry for the same price on 47 th Street (NYC’s Diamond district).

• What are your core principles, goals and values? What’s important to your organization? For example, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream talks the talk. In their words, “ We have a progressive, nonpartisan social mission that seeks to meet human needs and eliminate injustices in our local, national and international communities by integrating these concerns into our day-to-day business activities.” They donate part of their earnings to charity. Also, Ben & Jerry’s is a fun brand that leverages pop culture with flavors like Cherry Garcia.
• What’s your company and/or product’s personality? To answer this question, you have to think like a product psychologist. You have to answer “Who are you?” for your company. In terms of airline brands, Virgin America is cool; they provide an experience unlike many airlines with added benefits. By contrast, Southwest is unpretentious and folksy. They incorporate the peanut into their brand.
• What’s your voice? Go beyond the sounds of your product or company spokesperson. What type of language do you use to communicate? How do you use language? This means more than English. Do you speak like Snooki or a Harvard professor? The images projected are very different. From a brand experience, who doesn’t recognize a PC booting up with Microsoft by its tones?
• Who’s your target audience? When it comes to branding, think beyond the purchasers and users of your product and/or services.  Include past customers, influencers, employees (present and former), investors, the media, the government, suppliers, distributors and the public.  If you’re a not-for-profit or educational institution, consider donors and board of trustees. This can have major impact on your brand. To this end, it’s important to create targeted marketing personas .
• Who are your competitors ? Just as your customers define your brand, so do your competitors. Consider how you differentiate your products and organization from others in your marketplace. What sets you apart and why? What do these differences mean for your brand? The classic example of a brand defined by its competitor is Avis with the slogan “We’re number 2, we try harder.”

Regardless of how you do it, branding is critical. Answering these seven questions can get your organization on track to have a consistent brand message across every aspect of your brand and company.

Are there any other branding related questions that you’d add to this list? If so, what are they?

Happy Marketing, Heidi Cohen

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Here are some related articles you may find of interest.

• 30 Branding definitions
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Michael Kors: Building the Brand

Former chief marketing officer at bottega veneta, kering, inpractise.com/articles/ michael-kors-brand-building, why is this interview interesting.

• How Michael Kors took the original luxury jet set brand DNA to the global mass market

Lisa Pomerantz

Lisa is a luxury goods marketing veteran and has worked at a handful of the world’s most valuable brands. Lisa is the former CMO Bottega Veneta, the Italian brand with €1.1bn in revenue and owned by Kering, where she has spent a total of 10 years leading marketing during two spells working at the brand. Previously, Lisa was SVP, Global Communications and Marketing at Michael Kors for 7 years after spending 6 years leading marketing for CELINE, the luxury leather goods brand owned by LVMH, in North America.

Interview Transcript

Moving on to look at your experience at michael kors. arguably, more affordable luxury, if that makes sense. that’s a paradox; as you said, those two words don’t really go together in the truest sense. how was the target customer different for michael kors’ collection line, versus bottega, which was the older, more mature customer.

I would say that Bottega had a very clear vision and brand promise, brand DNA and every decision was taken through these criteria, this exercise. Michael Kors, because the goals of Michael Kors, the size of the business that they wanted to build and this was during the IPO, so taking the company from private to a public company and the growth and the size of the business and the market cap, they needed to reach a massive audience. In order to do that, they used the halo of the Michael Kors Collection, which was the original designer brand, that Michael Kors created, which was more at a designer price point. They used the halo of that and established a second line and they, kind of, blurred the marketing story and imagery around it. I believed that the customer didn’t really understand the difference between the designer and the second line, because all of the marketing was by the same photographer, who was Mario Testino, for over a decade, shooting both the high-end and the low-end and making it all look very similar.

That was the beginning. After we went public and we needed to really grow quickly, we started to create the second and third tier campaigns, that allowed us to start to build out different segments. So talking to different countries and making it relevant. For example, jet set, which was always the underlying brand promise, this jet set glamour. It didn’t resonate in China; China didn’t know what jet set meant. Nor could they really relate to these six-foot-tall, blonde, Amazon women, that he always portrayed in his ads, because that was going back to the very original Michael Kors Collection. How do you take that and broaden it and build out different facets of brand story, that would then appeal to a much broader audience? Whether that’s different parts of the world, different socio-economic, different ethnicity. We really had to be a very broad focused marketing communication team, which meant tons and tons and tons of content, constantly being pushed out, very segmented to the different audiences, but all under this halo of this jet set.

What we did is, we pivoted the idea of jet set from being, literally, getting in your boat, your helicopter, and I’m sure everyone has seen these ads. The woman and the guy are always jumping off a boat or a plane or a helicopter. They’re living this magical life. What we did is, we pivoted to more of it being a jet set state of mind and what does that mean? It means that, whether you are taking the subway to work or you’re in your private car or you’re riding your bike, it’s more about the mentality. It’s waking up in the morning and wanting to look your best. It was just taking what was already part of his DNA and creating a broader scope from which to work. Jet set became jet set state of mind and what that meant. Michael Kors, the man. He had many years on Project Runway, he became well-known. He became almost a celebrity, in a sense. People always say, was that the reason for the success of the brand? No, it’s not. It didn’t hurt, obviously, because it helped brand awareness. But he wasn’t really the face of the brand, when it started to grow.

We decided that that it was important to use him, not just as a fashion designer because, quite frankly, the second line never even had a fashion show. It wasn’t considered a fashion brand in the very specific sense of what that means. It never had a fashion show, we never showed the second line on a runway, or even a presentation. We decide to use Michael, the man, as a content creator. Then Michael started to have his own dialogue, through content and opportunities where he started to, not on Project Runway, but through being his own media publisher, almost, rather than relying on third parties, we started to create media, from him, to the audience, on different topics, whether it was how to get dressed or a celebrity moment conversation. All kinds of different content.

Michael is very optimistic, very upbeat, as a person. He was a child actor and he’s a completely different personality from a Tomas Maier, let’s say, who’s very private, who doesn’t want to tell the press what he ate for breakfast; he doesn’t know why it’s relevant. Michael is much more of a performer and he engages. That was really a unique attribute to the brand, that no other brand had. Again, it’s also looking at, here’s my original brand DNA, I’ve been in the business now for 10 years, times are different. Do I need to pivot? How can I move left or right, in that X, Y axis, because maybe the space that Michael was in, has started to get really crowded? It had. There were the Coaches, there were a lot of brands that had created this accessible luxury idea, Tory Burch, for example. Times had changed and so we looked, very carefully, at what do we have? This goes back to the brand key and unique attributes. What is special about your brand that you can use to your benefit?

Definitely, Michael, the person, is a massive asset to the brand. That definitely came to the forefront. Philanthropy. We spent a tremendous amount of time choosing a very specific, philanthropic focus. Kors had always given money to different charitable organization; he’s a very philanthropic person. But it wasn’t really targeted around an idea. We spent a lot of time discussing this and what would resonate globally and what could we activate and really be true to the promise of the brand. It was around hunger and solving hunger. We joined forces with the United Nations World Food Progam. Michael, ultimately, became an ambassador; he was at the UN, recently, speaking. We created a watch campaign, because the Michael Kors watch was a massive product, for many years. The idea of the campaign was Watch Hunger Stop. For every watch that was purchased, a certain number of school meals would be served, which would ensure that kids would be sent to school, specifically girls, who sometimes would be pulled out of school, to work at home. This ensured that, not only would they be sent to school, to be fed, but they would also be educated.

Very thoughtful idea, around something that Michael really felt strongly about and that created another facet that, if you weren’t, let’s say, someone that obsessed about fashion, you weren’t really interested in fashion, but you would buy a nice handbag, once a year, you might find the brand through philanthropy, just because you like brands that have a strong voice, a strong approach to solving an issue. To date, I think they’ve served over 15 million meals. It’s an incredible thing that he’s done, but I think it helped attract new audiences to the brand, but still making sense, within the original DNA.

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Michael Kors: Challenges Scaling a Brand

Bottega veneta: luxury brand building, luxury brands: european versus american, advice to young marketers entering luxury world, copyright notice.

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ZeBrand is a branding app for early stage businesses.

• A to Ze Branding
• Brand Bites
• How to use ZeBrand
• Ze Community

How to Build a Brand: Branding 101

Define your Brand Core, Business Idea, Inspiration Reference, Competitive Anlaysis, Market Positioning, Customer Persona, and Messaging

Branding Your Business

Zebrand’s branding approach, steps to build a brand, business idea, customer persona, inspiration reference, competitive analysis, market positioning.

• Brand Strategy

Vision Statement

Mission statement, core values, brand story.

• Visual Identity

Photography

Brand guidelines, clear space, logo/symbol misuse, typography usage & misuse, brand assets, social media logo, asset libary, brand portal links, brand insights, brand feedback form, brand score, multi-brand management, brand coach.

Welcome to ZeBrand. Your brand is the most important aspect of your business operation, even more than the products or services you offer. Your brand is what sets you apart from your competitors, and it’s what differentiates you in the minds of your customers. A strong brand has a unique vision at its core that guides everything it does, from how it goes to the market to the types of partnerships you make and to the internal company culture. Your brand idea should solve many of your operational problems with the same solution. Critically, your brand is what appeals to consumers’ emotions. It’s what draws them in and makes them want to grant your company the privilege of entering their lives. The strongest brands in the world are so good at this that consumers will literally use them as badges of their identity because they connect so strongly with what the company stands for.

Oftentimes, people make the mistake of thinking that a brand is only a logo, visual presentation, and colors. While these are important aspects of the brand for sure, there is so much more. A brand is also a vision or a mission. At the center of your brand should be why you exist. Any company can offer the same products and services, but they don’t all share the same reason for being. Increasingly, consumers want to connect with the values and vision of a company. Additionally, your brand should also have a consistent tone of voice it takes in its messaging, advertising, thought leadership, and social media communications.

Don’t worry, ZeBrand enables you to do all of this effectively. Let’s take a closer look at how the process works.

Branding is not a one-time, set it and forget it process. Instead, it’s an ongoing process for as long as the brand exists. We offer a continuous branding process that keeps the three steps of define, design, and deliver in rotation.

Step 1: Define

The brand definition phase is critically important, and therefore, it comes first - even before colors, logos, photography, and style guides. In the brand definition phase, you will first sharpen your brand story. Your brand story includes your reason for being and your brand’s why. It includes your brand’s mission statement. And finally, it includes your brand’s values.

Your brand story is what will draw your customers in and allow them to connect with you emotionally. For almost all new companies, an established set of competitors already exists who are offering similar products and services. So your brand story is, at least initially, the only thing that sets your brand apart.

ZeBrand’s process will ask you thought-provoking questions that help you isolate the key elements that make up your brand story and lay the foundations for future success. After you’ve completed your initial strategic modules for your brand, we offer coaching sessions with experienced brand strategists who will work with you personally in a Zoom session to help answer any questions you may have or eliminate any roadblocks you may be experiencing. Brand coaches are highly valuable resources available to you to help you finalize a brand story that stands out and that you feel good about delivering.

Step 2: Design

After you’ve locked down your brand story, the next step is to translate that into a design and visual system for your brand. Let’s say your brand sells sustainable dog and cat products, and you exist to improve the lives of both pets and the planet. This will obviously impact how your brand should look, feel and present visually. Humans are accustomed to reading visual cues as shortcuts for information. If this was your brand, you’d likely want to use planetary colors, like greens and blues, etc., to cue what your brand stands for. This is why it’s best branding practice to develop your brand story before you get into designing your visual identity, fonts, logo, photography style, and color palette. All of these visual aspects communicate in nanoseconds when your customers encounter your brand. That is why it’s critically important that they work to build the meaning you want, and they help tell your brand story for you.

ZeBrand’s design platform enables you to translate the values, moods, and feelings you want to convey and then seamlessly develops a design system and style guide for your brand. You’ll walk away from ZeBrand with a design system that plays off your brand story and is ready for you to begin using to bring your brand into the world.

Step 3: Deliver

The last step in ZeBrand’s iterative process ensures you deliver your brand to the world effectively. Once you developed a resonating, compelling brand story and you’ve translated that story to visual identity, you’ll need help creating brand assets like websites, pitch decks, and social media kits.

ZeBrand has you covered there too!

Here are some examples of how you can go about building a brand, managing a brand, or rebranding with ZeBrand.

Example 1: Create a New Brand

• Review the Branding Checklist to see which elements you’re missing.
• Try to fill out your Brand DNA and Brand Guidelines to the best of your ability.
• Check in with a Brand Coach and get feedback and advice on your brand story. In this first brand coaching session, your brand coach will help you arrive at actionable next steps to tackle before meeting again.
• When you are ready to launch your business, please apply to our Spotlight on Brands , where we feature your mission and brand story on our Instagram
• Later, learn more about the wants, needs, and desires of your audience with a brand survey.
• Check in with your Brand Coach again to review your progress and answer any lingering questions you may have.
• As you go along, if you need any updates on your Brand DNA or Brand Guidelines, consult with your Brand Coach again for a third session.

Example 2: Manage Your Brand & Considering a Rebrand

• Try to fill out or reflect your brand’s information in your Brand DNA and Brand Guidelines

If you need to rebrand,

• Check in with a Brand Coach for guidance and to confirm what you still need to create for your rebrand.
• Finalize a list of what you need to create and do, like a logo or a presentation template. This list will be your action items moving forward. You will check in with your brand coach periodically to ensure you are making the progress you want.
• When you’re ready to move into design, you will design your Visual Identity with a Design Coach.
• At some point, send your brand survey to your audience to see how how the brand elements are performing from their perspective.
• Finally, if you need any updates on your Brand DNA or Brand Guidelines, consult with your Brand Coach in a third session.

Every brand's DNA is different, just as every person's DNA is different. You can create your unique brand by clarifying and clearly expressing the base DNA that makes up your brand.

Use the Brand DNA boards to organize and build the core elements of your brand.

• Envision - Envision the ideal future for your brand and business
• Expand - Collect brand and business inspiration from the world around you
• Elevate - Define what makes your brand stand out from the pack
• Expression - Create a framework for expressing your brand visually and verbally

Pro Tip: Everything in your DNA should be core to your brand. It is the essential building block of your business that informs the rest of your brand.

Brand Core includes the brand name, vision, values, and brand personality. As the name implies, the Brand Core shouldn’t change very often. It is the most evergreen part of your brand. It will be something that the brand will set forth to move forward unwaveringly. The Brand Core is a reference point when you are unsure of a decision or if your brand is at a crossroads.

Reflect on what makes your business unique and what goals you want to achieve. By gaining clarity on critical factors like target audience, potential partners, revenue models, and resources, you will understand the basic framework of how to make your business work.

If you try to make your brand appeal to everybody, you’ll appeal to nobody, and the results won’t be as sharp and emotionally resonant as they need to be. A customer persona is a singular representation of your ideal target audience based on your user research. It is a valuable tool to synthesize your findings and goals into clear actions and behaviors in the Customer Persona template.

Tip: Don't get caught up in minor details of your persona that aren't relevant or are random. Remember that your idealized portrait should be representative of your user research.

For example, below are guidelines for translating your customer persona into your brand’s look and feel:

Introverted: Your look and feel should be calm and somewhat quiet. Clear, negative space and plenty of breathing room in your designs will be key.

• Extroverted: Your look and feel should feel energetic and exciting. Your tone of voice and how you speak to your audience will be key.
• Analytical: Your look and feel should feel intelligent, clean, and professional. Look for fonts with a trustworthy sense and nice numerals to make your stats shine.
• Creative: Your look and feel should be expressive. Think about how to make your photography style (or even illustration style) unique and evocative.
• Loyal: Your look and feel should feel grounded and confident. Your tone of voice and messaging will ensure a sense of trust.
• Active: Your look and feel should feel energetic. Look for fonts that have impact and movement, and use action words in your messaging.

Inspiration for business, branding, and design can come from anywhere. Yes, they can come from other businesses and people, but they also exist in books, movies, on the road, and in conversation. You can also find them in philosophy, literature, and the arts. So look far and wide.

This exercise allows you to collect and keep track of these various input sources to provide a mood board for your brand and business. Your inspiration is designed to help you translate the feelings that caused you to start a business to the wider world.

• Source: Look far and wide. From historical movements to fine art, books to objects, cultures to individuals, inspiration can be found everywhere. Don’t decide whether it’s relevant enough just yet—if there’s something interesting there, keep a record of it here for future reference.
• Summary: Keep this short. You just need two or three sentences to jot down your thoughts as a reminder for yourself when you return to this board later.
• Similarity: Everything shares similarities one way or another. What aspects or elements resemble parts of your brand? It might be a specific design feature or as broad as an emotional feeling.
• Specialty: Ask yourself what makes this thing unique. What drew you to it? What makes it significant and meaningful? What allows it to work the way it does?
• So what?: Think tangibly. What can you learn or gather from this piece of inspiration? What aspects of your brand—whether it’s product features or communication style—can benefit from it?

It is vital that you understand the competitive landscape to differentiate your brand effectively. You will examine relevant competitors to understand the positioning they are taking in the marketplace so that you can identify an ownable “white space” to occupy that is very different. Lastly, it enables you to compare yourself to your competitors on various dimensions, such as pricing or communications. It's a valuable and objective way to assess your brand and business.

You can use this information to decide your communication strategy and visual languages. How do the competitors sound, what colors do they use, and what personalities do they use? How would your brand like to express itself in response?

Visualize your market position and find new opportunities. It's how your customer might perceive you in comparison to competitors. Most importantly, it will help you get a clearer picture of where you want your business to be headed. (Competitors are synced from the Competitive Analysis module.)

Your brand story and messaging are the foundation for all of your communications and even your business pitch. Create a cohesive story to introduce yourself to the world. Think of it as your elevator pitch. Understanding the changes in your customers' thinking and behavior in response to changes in the world can help you figure out how you should move and respond.

What’s Next? After completing your Brand DNA, we recommend you book a session with a brand coach to review.

Pro Tip: Revisit your DNA whenever there’s a big change in your business – such as a change in leadership, pivot in business, or big milestone anniversaries – to ensure that everything is still relevant and up to date.

Make sure your brand decisions align with your business decisions and needs. Your Brand Story should be interesting and compelling to audiences. Make sure your vision and mission are clearly communicated.

Do you have any apparent contradictions? You want to make sure your brand strategy is in sync, and all aspects ladder up to and express one singular core idea and emotional takeaway for your customer. Inconsistency in your brand's core concept and core emotion won't allow you to use it as a filter for your decision-making.

Pro Tip: Try not to be too vague with your strategic choices or language. The more specific and clear your strategy is, the easier it will be to use it as a filter to make decisions. When you try to design for everybody, you are designing for nobody.

Does your vision statement express the WHY of your company in a compelling and emotional way? Your company's vision is why you exist and started what you did. The WHY is how you will make an emotional connection with your prospective audiences, so it's critically important. For example, Airbnb's "Belong Anywhere."

Does your mission statement reflect WHAT your company is trying to accomplish in the world? It should clearly indicate to potential customers what your company is trying to do. Your customers will be attracted to your mission, but they need to know what it is.

Your core values are what support your vision statement or your WHY. You have a reason for being - WHY you exist - and what core values lead to that reason for being? To continue the Airbnb example, if their WHY is belong anywhere, then you could see how their core values might be things like "empathy," "peace," etc.

ZeBrand provides you a template for asking yourself the right questions to sharpen your brand DNA (your WHY WHAT HOW). It also allows you to translate your completed brand DNA into your brand identity (your look and feel - e.g., colors, photography, logo, etc.). In short, ZeBrand enables you to get unstuck and take the first steps in the right direction.

Your brand story is a succinct "elevator pitch" of what your company is all about: WHY you exist, WHAT you do, and HOW you do that. You want to aim for a short, emotionally compelling pitch that unites these elements.

Frequently Asked Questions on Brand Strategy:

- How do I make/decide on a brand?

- How do I know if my brand is good?

- What is brand strategy?

- When should I change my brand or brand strategy, and how do I know?

- How long are brands good for?

What’s Next? Your visual identity/brand guidelines that follow your brand DNA

• Book a meeting with a brand coach to discuss your thinking with you. They have lots of experience with developing a brand strategy, so they will be able to help you make it even sharper/better.
• After you meet with a brand coach, make the agreed-upon edits/changes, and finalize your Brand DNA board.
• Then you're ready to move to the next step of the process and use your completed Brand DNA board to guide your answers to your brand visual guidelines. Your visual guidelines should always follow your Brand DNA.

Make sure the right fonts, colors, logo, and imagery are being used throughout your materials. Make sure your brand “looks and feels” right and appeals to your target audience. Make sure your Visual Identity is aligned with your Brand Strategy,

The logo communicates ownership, quality, and values. It's imprinted on your products, business cards, website, social media, and most importantly, in the minds of your clients.

Your logo is likely to be one of the first interactions people have with your company, and it's your opportunity to make a solid first impression, show you deliver a quality service, and visually express your purpose.

The primary color should be the dominant main go-to color, whereas the secondary color is proportionally less. They may be used in less prominent cases as small accents/highlights.

Typography adds personality to your brand voice. It helps to communicate their brand image quickly. Use the same brand typography on your website, social media, pitch deck, and other marketing materials to keep your brand look–and sound– consistent.

Tip: Take into consideration the font license when you use it. There are strict rules for paid fonts.

Brand imagery is the visual representation of your brand's core message. It results from all the elements that consumers associate with your brand. You can choose and create your photography library within the Asset Library.

Brand imagery aims to convey the right message to your target consumers and create a strong emotional response when they encounter your brand.

What’s Next? After completing your Visual Identity, we recommend you finish your Brand Guidelines or check and download your Brand Assets.

Pro Tip: Brand Design requires test-driving to see what works and doesn't. Don't expect to get everything right all at once. Instead, start using your Brand Elements to see what needs to be edited or expanded upon. Apply it to various channels and materials to see how flexible or rigid your system needs to be.

Firstly, share your Guidelines with collaborators so that they can begin test-driving your brand. You won’t know how effective it is until another person starts using it.

Observe how your team is using and interpreting the guidelines: What’s working (where are people most successful?), what’s not working (where do people need more support or clarity?), and what do the results look like (do your materials look on-brand?)

When start-up founders and small business owners create a brand, you’ll likely work with the bare minimum visual elements (a “starter pack”). However, as your business grows, you will need to expand and refine your elements to ensure it addresses all of your growing needs and touchpoints.

All other entrepreneurs, keep observing your brand from a high-level view: Does everything look consistent? Does anything feel off? Does this feel right for your brand and the target audience you are trying to reach? If not, it may be worth relooking at your guidelines.

ZeBrand’s Brand Guidelines include:

• Primary Logo
• Logo Misuse
• Primary Logo files
• Social Media Icons
• Secondary Logo
• Primary Font
• Secondary Font
• Typography Usage
• Typography Misuse
• Customize Components (add whatever else you’d like within Visual Identity)

See a sample of ZeBrand’s brand guidelines here .

It is important that the corporate mark be kept away from other graphic elements. To regulate this, a clear space is often established around the corporate mark. When you use a logo, it must be surrounded by a clear space to ensure its visibility and impact. This area should not contain graphic elements of any kind.

It is a very important visual element, and we all need to use that element correctly. However, if anyone misuses it, it can damage the brand and its integrity. So, it is necessary to clearly state the do's and don'ts so that everyone can easily understand.

Building brand recognition is the main priority, so you want to ensure not to hinder this by altering the official logo.

Do not outline or frame the logo: This tends to result in a "sticker effect," which isn't the most elegant solution for placing your logo. If you need to place your logo against a dark background, try to use the inverted version of the logo. If it needs to be placed on a busy background, try to create white space for the primary logo to be placed in, rather than boxing it in.

Do not outline the symbol: Depending on the complexity of your symbol, this may change the shape or visibility of your symbol as outlined shapes do not scale down as well as solid shapes.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rules, depending on the complexity of your logo and the look you are going for.

There are many best practices for typography, and setting guidelines ensures consistency.

Primary font is usually used for headlines and large-scale copy such as titles, divider slides, banners, graphics, and social posts. The secondary font is used for small-scale copy such as body copy such as long paragraphs, descriptors, small labels, and sub-items.

How to use: Share your Brand Guidelines with designers, writers, and marketers for visual and tonal consistency –regardless of who is creating brand communications; it will serve as a reference point for specific design specs, color values, elements, and inspiration. It can also be an onboarding tool for familiarizing new team members and collaborators with the brand (first intro to a brand). Essentially it's a document that serves as the "official" source of truth: for documentation of add brand additions or edits.

What’s Next? Create a Brand Feedback form and get feedback from your audience. Once you identify areas for improvement, revisit your ZeBrand modules. If you feel stuck, set up a 1:1 session with a Brand Coach.

Pro Tip: Your brand is never done. Make sure it evolves and grows parallel to your business growth and any significant milestones.

Brand assets are all of the things your brand “owns” and considers an asset in its business operations. Typical assets are websites, photography, social media, typography, etc., before eventually, advertising and marketing. Brand assets help businesses scale their business by providing pre-designed assets that will allow them to stay on-brand whether they’re launching a new product or expanding markets.

Make sure the right fonts, colors, logo, and imagery are being used.

Curate a diverse enough image library that addresses your various needs while maintaining a clear and distinct "look."

Ensure you use the correct fonts and understand the different use cases between your primary and secondary fonts.

Make sure you use your logo icon (instead of the full logomark) to maximize your profile icon space. Also, use platform-specific assets since the asset sizes are optimized for each platform requirement.

Make sure every page is purposeful, clear, and concise. Make sure it tells a story about your brand (verbally) and demonstrates the overall look and feel (visually). Don't overcrowd pages with too much text or visual elements. Simplicity and clarity are key.

See a sample of ZeBrand’s brand assets here .

An Asset Libary is a dedicated place to manage and save all your brand assets. Think of it as your digital asset management system, where you can always find what you’re looking for. Upload original full sizes and approved materials to eliminate misplacing or losing assets. It’s easy to save and easy to find, which will simplify your workflow.

Brand awareness is essential for brand growth. Brand Portal Links aggregate information about a user's brand and deliver it to their audience. User’s brand guidelines and brand story pages are automatically reflected, making it quick and easy to share the uniqueness of your brand.

What’s Next? Ensure your assets are well organized and that your team can easily find what they need. Add any brand assets made outside of ZeBrand to ensure everything lives in one place.

Pro Tip: Organization of brand assets is key to good brand management.

Brand insights can be tricky to define and uncover, which is why there are entire disciplines of marketing professionals, called brand strategists, whose job is to research and discover them.

At the most basic level, insights are grounded in the psychology of your customers or in the changing cultural currents. You know you have an insight when it helps you look at the world differently than before because you’ve made a new connection between two things that you didn’t see fitting together before.

You can uncover brand insights within ZeBrand by engaging with your target audience through the Brand Feedback Form or introspectively reviewing your brand's current state with the Brand Score feature.

If you ever feel at a loss about what to do after reviewing the brand insights, don't worry, as your brand coaches have lots of experience defining strategies for it.

We believe that branding works if we have a good match between what we think of the brand and how your end-user feels. Brand feedback gives users visibility into how end-users think about their brand and what end-user base their brand is reaching. If there is a difference, something may not be working, so it’s essential to evaluate.

It’s important to learn how the users’ audience perceives their brand. Users can now send out the Brand Feedback Form to see what their customers think. It's crucial for them to bridge the gap between their brand's intentions/vision and how it's currently being perceived.

They can send the pre-made survey to their audience to discover the perception gap and use the feedback to build a stronger brand. When a user creates or uploads a brand identity in ZeBrand, a survey like this one will be sent to them.

Then the results will be all wrapped up beautifully within their Brand Insights page. The user can analyze and improve parts of their brand based on this valuable feedback. They can also consult with a Brand Coach on the insights and determine whether they should pivot their brand strategy to close the gap.

In the early stages of launching a brand, it is difficult to withstand change because the business model and brand identity have not been finalized. We believe that a brand that can firmly establish its brand vision and continue to advance its vision will evolve into a solid brand in the future. To this end, we have released Brand Score to help users view themselves objectively.

The Brand Score gives the user a snapshot of ​​how their brand is performing right now. Maintaining a high score over a long period indicates good branding. Data that affect the score are things like user ratings, team satisfaction, and account activity. The Brand Score will be low if you don't have the data from the Brand Feedback Form, so users should gather it as soon as possible.

To learn more, read Uncovering Brand Insight Through Brand Feedback and Brand Score .

Think web developers, business coaches, consultants, social media managers, and brand strategists. All these entrepreneurs have one thing in common, and that’s managing multiple clients. It can get overwhelming to create separate accounts, so ZeBrand has a feature where you can manage it all through one account.

If you have multiple brands for yourself or as clients, you can use the multi-brand management feature. If you are interested, please contact [email protected] .

Brand Coaches help you think through your brand strategy, craft the story you want to tell, advise on whether your brand design communicates your business strengths, etc.

Brand Coaches are brand strategists to help you take the proper steps to grow your business. They will be the ones who have your back when you start to worry.

You can get access to 45-minute virtual sessions with Brand Coaches. If you're on the Premium Plan subscription, you can consult with your coach every month. They will recommend your next steps.

Frequently Asked Questions during a branding session:

Question: Tell me how I should do brand strategy.

Answer: Start with Brand DNA boards and a good sense of the WHY, HOW, and WHAT of your business, and then schedule a meeting with a brand coach to work on it together.

Question: How long is a brand strategy good for? When should I update/change my brand strategy, and how do I know?

Answer: Define your brand DNA on ZeBrand, and this should be the foundation that propels your brand forward for the next 3-5 years.

Question: What makes a good brand strategy?

Answer: Accounts for your customers (persona), your market (analysis of the competition and their messaging), and your brand DNA your WHY HOW WHAT = Brand DNA board.

Question: How do I know if my brand strategy is right/good?

Answer: Does it express a POV on cultural tension today? Does it move your target customer emotionally? Does it signal to potential customers that your brand gives them something to believe in and belong to? ZeBrand: meet with a brand coach to go over your brand DNA.

Build Your Brand Today

We hope you’re more inspired than ever to brand your business your way with ZeBrand. Launching a brand and business is sure to be one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do. There’s clearly a strong passion that brought you here. Now it’s time to realize it. While it can seem like you have to do it all yourself, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Anyone who’s ever launched a brand did it with the help of others: with the help of confidants, friends, and family, with the help of business partners and consultants, with the help of your customers whom you learned from, and with the help of ZeBrand. With ZeBrand, you’ll always have a supportive team to encourage you, keep you going, and allow you to brand your way .

Start now .

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Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle

Personal Branding: How to Successfully Build Your Brand

Do you want to build a personal brand? Wondering how to create a viable business around your personal brand?

To explore what marketers need to know about building a personal brand, I interview Rory Vaden on the Social Media Marketing Podcast .

Rory co-founded the Brand Builders Group and is the host of the Influential Personal Brand Podcast. He's also the author of Take The Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose .

Rory shares why marketers should care about building a personal brand, how to use the Brand DNA Helix to develop your own personal brand, and more.

Listen to the Podcast Now

This article is sourced from the Social Media Marketing Podcast , a top marketing podcast. Listen or subscribe below…

Where to subscribe : Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube | Amazon Music | RSS

Why Marketers Should Care About Building a Personal Brand

People don't do business with companies. They do business with people they like. We have relationships based on trust and mutual connections. There's just something about a connection with a human being that creates a level of endearment and customer loyalty beyond any relationship a company could ever reach. The strong bonds people have with one another can't be overestimated.

Even big companies have people whose personalities serve to advance their brand's mission. Apple had Steve Jobs, Tesla has Elon Musk, and Virgin has Richard Branson. If you're a small business owner, then this persona is probably you. If you're in the marketing department, it's probably one of the executives. Even if you work for a company as an employee, there's no reason why you shouldn't build your own personal brand.

Personal Branding and Leadership

One of the most fundamental and enduring things Rory has heard about leadership is that a leader's job is to influence people's thinking. Today, avenues exist for personal branding that give any leader an outlet to influence people's thinking. This can include their customers; vendors; shareholders, stakeholders, and partners; and even their employees and internal team members.

As a CEO, business owner, or founder, your personal brand serves as a huge asset that can grow your company both publicly and internally. Even an externally focused initiative like a podcast can be an incredible way to scale culture. It's an opportunity to communicate with employees; especially those whom you don't regularly encounter. Maybe you never see people many levels down from you, but they can listen to your podcast and find out exactly who they work for and what you believe.

I add that whether you work for or lead a company, you'll become known simply by putting yourself out in public and allowing your thoughts to be known. People will start listening to you and may find value in what you have to say. The power of that human connection can potentially lead to more opportunity for you and your company.

What owner, founder, or CEO wouldn't want to activate, utilize, and maximize every available asset to advance the mission of their company?

Listen to the show to hear more about the benefits and value of being known and trusted.

Curious About How to Use AI?

We recently launched a new show that help marketers, creators, and entrepreneurs understand the business applications of AI. It's hosted by Michael Stelzner and explores this exciting new frontier in easy-to-understand terms. Pull up your favorite podcast app and search for AI Explored. (Look for the cover art shown to the right.) Or click the button below for more information.

Building a Relationship Engine

The digital world gives us an amazing opportunity to create many human interactions and multiply them at scale. While it doesn't compare to the level of closeness that comes with having coffee in person or getting to know someone face to face, the digital environment does allow for a one-way broadcast that lets people feel like they know you.

In Rory's speaking career, he travels around the world and often meets people who know him as well as a best friend. He tells a story about a trip to Japan where the gentleman picking him up from the airport had read all of his books, listened to every one of his hundreds of podcast episodes, and read every one of his hundreds of blog posts.

Although they had never met before, this person from across the world knew an incredible volume of information about Rory, including details about his family, his favorite sports teams, and the time he was sick. More than that, he felt a deep bond with Rory. He was part of Rory's army to get his message out into the world. It was the coolest thing!

Within the Brand Builders Group, this phenomenon is called the relationship engine . They take every personality they work with and create a digital ecosystem that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and across different media and environments. Every part of a personal brand they develop is tied to one overarching strategy and presents several touchpoints and opportunities for someone to get to know you, learn from you, or be activated by you.

Rory wakes up every day and says, “This is the most amazing time in history!” Don't miss the boat on this opportunity to multiply your influence through building a personal brand. He encourages you to take advantage of the tools available to all of us.

What's a Personal Brand?

A personal brand is a relationship with you, an individual who exists separately from your company. The process of personal branding involves finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on the things you want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them. Ultimately, the goal is to create something that conveys a message and that can be monetized.

Discover Your Uniqueness

Rory shares that the key personal branding advice he has received comes from Larry Winget, a member of the International Speaker Hall of Fame and bestselling author. He says, “You have to find your uniqueness and exploit it in the service of others.”

How to Start Developing a Personal Brand

Defining your message and the media.

The first thing you have to do when it comes to building a personal brand is to define your message. This is probably the biggest thing most individuals struggle with. The next step is defining the media and modalities through which you can communicate your personal brand. Then you determine the methods by which you can monetize your personal brand.

There are many media, modes, and methods to choose from. Having a personal brand doesn't necessarily mean you have to be an author or launch a course. You don't need to run a mastermind, lead an event, or even become a speaker if these things don't suit you. While all of these things are possible, a personal brand can be as simple as driving awareness to a thing you love or already do every day.

Defining the Problem You Solve

The genesis of a personal brand is being able to answer one simple question with one word: What problem do you solve?

You can easily write an entire book but explaining it in one word or a single sentence is tough. It's hard work but it's a necessary exercise to describe yourself to the world. It's also a litmus test for defining your entire identity as it relates to a personal brand.

A personal brand goes beyond superficial vanity. It's meant to be your life's purpose and illustrate what it means to you to live well. It's what you've been put on this earth to do. When the problem you're looking to solve becomes really clear, everything else will line up.

Personal branding is similar to what a company might have as a mission statement.

Amplify the Problem

Rory's first book, Take the Stairs , is a great example of defining the problem and making it the focus of your marketing. The phrase “take the stairs” is clearly a metaphor for hard work. There have been millions of books written about hard work. The concept of working hard is probably as unoriginal as possible for a book. What sets Take the Stairs apart from all other books on hard work is that it solves the problem of procrastination.

Rory didn't market the book as being about hard work, although that's essentially what it's about. Marketing hard work would have been marketing the solution. Rory wanted to be the ambassador of the problem. He wanted to promote, celebrate, highlight, and amplify the problem. Then position his book as the solution.

This approach has sold hundreds of thousands of copies of the book. It is a number-one Wall Street Journal bestseller and number-two New York Times bestseller. The reason it works so well is that people don't really buy luxuries. They buy solutions to problems. To the extent that you can tap into a buyer's emotions and responses to talking about their problem, the stronger you can position yourself to be the best solution.

Listen to the show to hear how Rory pivoted from the early focus of his career, solving the problem of procrastination, into personal branding and solving the problem of obscurity.

The Brand DNA Helix

Most people find it challenging to answer simple questions like, “What problem do I solve? What do I want to dedicate the rest of my life to? Why am I here? If I had a podcast audience of a million people, what would I say?” There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. They can be hard to define, articulate, and turn into a business.

In response, Rory's company developed the Brand DNA Helix, a framework built on six primary discussions that help define an individual's personal brand. Its methodology is wholly based on what's uniquely true for the individual. As Rory's company evaluates the questions, thematic overlaps and places where answers align are used as guideposts to determine what makes someone truly unique and irreplaceable.

The process allows you to break free and separate from the noise of a crowded marketplace. It conquers the notion of competition simply because there's no one like you. Rory quotes Sally Hogshead's idea, “Different is better than better.” There's no race to the bottom when you're in a space all your own.

Six Primary Discussions of the Brand DNA Helix

Unlike companies that have to deal with a collective of personalities, egos, politics, and ideas, personal branding is singularly focused on one individual. All you have to do is find out what makes you special. What's your magic? What's the thing you do that no one else can do?

The DNA part of the Brand DNA Helix's name is a metaphor for the uniqueness of an individual person. The first phase of this process is drawn out with six questions, which are paired and operate together two-by-two like chromosomes. Half of the questions focus on the issue of who the world needs you to be. The other half deals with the concept of who you were designed to be.

If you're only who the world needs you to be, you could be rich, famous, and influential. You could also hate your life, burn out, and get totally sick of what you're doing because it's out of alignment with who you were designed to be.

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On the other hand, only being who you're designed to be and only focusing on the things you want to do runs the risk of spending your time on something nobody cares about or needs. It would also fail to serve the other elements of your life that are equally important.

The Brand DNA Helix seeks to define the intersection where who the world needs you to be and who you were designed to be can meet. Each person is programmed with certain callings and their personal brands live somewhere in the space closest to this calling, whatever that may be.

What Problem Do You Solve and What Are You Passionate About?

The first pair of questions in the Brand DNA Helix covers the problems you can solve in tandem with what you're passionate about. These two questions offset one another because there can be a limitless number of problems any one individual can solve and ways they can solve them.

Find something that the world needs but that also fires you up and activates you. Rory describes this feeling of finding your true passion as giving you “goosies” (goosebumps). Ask yourself what you could talk about all day or what really gets you excited.

Most people have a variety of skills and experience, as well as interests and passions. It can be a struggle to decide which way to go. Begin by making a list of all of these things and determine what you're great at and what you actually like doing.

To visualize this, Rory is excellent at developing spreadsheets but isn't particularly passionate about creating them or teaching others how to create them. So it's easy to eliminate this idea from the start. Other needs and passions may be eliminated further along in the process if they don't align with the other questions or fail to be an economic driver. This is only the first part of the Brand DNA Helix and other questions will further refine your personal brand.

Another way to approach this pair of questions is to ask yourself what's the one thing you'd like people at your funeral to say that you helped them do or create. When you die, it won't matter how many Instagram followers you had or how much money you made. What made your life worth living is what will matter.

Listen to the show to hear more about Rory's litmus test for figuring out what fires you up and gives you “goosies.”

What Have You Researched and What Do You Have Results In?

The first pair of questions answers what you like and what you can solve. The next pair addresses what you should communicate and who the world needs you to be.

Draw From Your Education and Knowledge

The third question of the Brand DNA Helix, “What have you researched?”, asks you to consider what you've studied and know about. It combines your formal education and experiences, which encompasses everything you've read, heard, or observed, as well as the things that fascinate and intrigue you.

A major insight tied to this part of the helix is that Rory believes everything a person has done in their past and present has a throughline to their future. There's always a significance and a reason, whether consciously or subconsciously, to the jobs or hobbies we pursue at any point in our lives.

Measure Your Experience and Results

The fourth question, “What do you have results in?”, explores what you've accomplished and what credentials give you the credibility to talk about a topic or the focus of your personal brand. Have you walked the walk and are you able to guide others to do the same thing? You earn the right to talk about something once you've actually done the work and seen results from it.

Rory's company explores the results and accomplishments in each of these areas. Then it connects them to the things that you want to do or feel called to do based on your answers to the questions in sets one and two. Each accomplishment is evidence or an indicator of who you're designed to be and whom you're meant to help.

Often, the person you're most powerfully positioned to serve is the person you once were. You understand the psychographics of what the person's experiencing daily. To illustrate, Rory is one of the best people in the world to help someone who dreams of becoming a professional speaker.

Rory knows exactly what it's like to have that dream but feel unqualified and clueless about how to start. He shares that he grew up in a trailer park with a single mother and limited opportunities for education available to him. He launched his professional speaking career by training for and entering Toastmasters' World Championship of Public Speaking contests.

Over time, Rory heavily researched, studied, and received formal training in professional speaking. He has been able to turn his passion into eight-figure businesses that incorporate resources on branding, digital marketing, sales funnels, email marketing, PR, and so much more. Having served millions of people and successfully achieving hall-of-fame speaker status, Rory has the education, experience, and credibility to lead others in this space.

Listen to the show to hear more about how Rory pursued his passion for professional speaking by training for and entering speaking contests.

What Are the Things People Would Buy From You and What Business Do You Want to Be In?

The last pair of questions is often overlooked, but as a businessperson, you must address the economic components of your personal brand as you narrow your focus on your uniqueness. Once you've determined what problems you're qualified to solve and which of those you're passionate about pursuing, the next step, question five, explores the modality from which people would be willing to buy from you.

Creating a Business Model

Rory points out that a common mistake people make when trying to pinpoint their personal brand is that they get “shiny object syndrome.” They tend to constantly chase the latest way to make money. One day they're selling video courses, and the next they now run a membership site. Maybe they're developing a mastermind before hopping on to events, and so forth. In the absence of focus, we become strangely loyal to daily acts of trivia.

Rory warns that constantly switching business models isn't only a huge distraction, it's actually very closely related to the cause of obscurity and distraction, which he and I discussed in a previous podcast interview.

Listen to my previous podcast interview with Rory in which we discuss how marketers and business owners can get ahead by procrastination and minimizing distractions.

Monetizing a Personal Brand

The sixth question in the Brand DNA Helix asks, “What business do I want to be in?” This question considers all of the ways you can make money and create a viable business given your passion, skill set, experience, problems to solve, the current market need, and more.

Rory offers a framework and the DARES (Digital, Automated, Recurring, Evergreen, Scalable) test to put all of your business ideas through as you determine which you can monetize. Given the opportunity, the goal is to design a business model that has as many of these five as possible.

The Brand Process

The Brand Builder Group's proprietary Brand Process is four phases. In this interview, Rory shares a fairly deep dive into Phase One and represents what would ordinarily be a two-day experience. Although they also have events, live virtual training, and webinars, the company works exclusively with personal brands and primarily operates through one-on-one interaction with a brand strategist who talks to clients and encourages them through the roadblocks.

Beyond the four phases, there are five specialty sub-components of phases two and three for those who are interested. They aren't necessary for every personal brand. These include experiences such as “World Class Keynote Craft” that's specifically about the art of speaking and “Full Keynote Calendar,” which teaches how to get booked as a speaker, as well as tracks for books and podcasting.

Discovery of the Week

Tuigram is a cool app that helps share tweets to Instagram as a story or feed post. Rather than relying on taking screenshots of tweets and posting them separately, Tuigram allows you to share on Instagram with a tap of the Share this Tweet button found on the tweet.

Select Tuigram and an image of your tweet will be generated and ready to post on Instagram. The image will be nicely formatted for Instagram but you can also crop, add hashtags or GIFs, and more as you would for any other Instagram post.

There are examples of this tool in action in Social Media Examiner's Instagram account. We take questions posted on our Facebook and Twitter accounts and post them to Instagram using Tuigram to convert them into images. Erik shares that these are some of the most engaging posts on our account.

Tuigram is free to use and available in the App Store for iOS devices and the Google Play Store for Android.

Listen to the show to hear more about Tuigram.

Key Takeaways From This Episode:

• Find out more about Rory Vaden on his site.
• Read Take the Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose .
• Check out the Brand Builders Group .
• Listen to the Influential Personal Brand Podcast .
• Find out more about Larry Winget .
• Learn more about Sally Hogshead .
• Explore Toastmasters .
• Listen to my previous podcast interview with Rory on More Marketing Time: How to Procrastinate Your Way to Success .
• Examine the four full phases of Brand Builder Group's proprietary Brand Process .
• Request a free call with Brand Builders Group if you're interested in building and monetizing your own personal brand.
• Check out Tuigram .
• Watch our weekly Social Media Marketing Talk Show on Fridays at 10 AM Pacific on Crowdcast .

Help Us Spread the Word! Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. Simply click here now to post a tweet .

If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review, and subscribe . And if you listen on Stitcher, please click here to rate and review this show .

What do you think? What are your thoughts on building a personal brand? Please share your comments below.

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Guinness & The Premier League: The Beautiful Beer meets The Beautiful Game

To celebrate the launch of Guinness’ partnership with the Premier League, Diageo.com sat down with Stephen O’Kelly, Guinness Global Brand Director, to discuss the brand’s biggest ever global campaign with the world’s most popular league.

Stephen, this is an incredibly excitement moment for Guinness. Why did Guinness decide to make the Premier League its first-ever global sport partnership?

Great partnerships go beyond visibility and sales. They transcend geographies, languages and communities to bring people together.

The Premier League is more than football, it’s a global occasion. Watched in over 180 countries and enjoyed by millions all year-round. The essence of Guinness truly comes alive in sport, and for the past century we have used the positive forces of sport to build our brand globally.

I couldn’t be more excited about these two iconic global brands with local heartbeats coming together. The beautiful beer meets the beautiful game – both inspire passion and community.

Can you describe the level of scale that the Premier League provides Guinness?

When you imagine the possibilities of a partnership between the world’s most popular league and the world’s most distinctive beer, who are both enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, it really is magic.

The Premier League is broadcast in 189 countries to 920m homes, with an estimated 2.1bn viewers around the world. This partnership opens the doors for Guinness to connect with new consumers around the world.

The team has been hugely busy in preparation for kick-off. Can you tell us what we can expect for the launch?

It’s been a monumental team effort. We are making our Premier League debut with our biggest-ever global campaign that showcases the vibrant connections between fans of the beautiful game, and the beautiful beer. It consists of four new TV ads, global out-of-home advertising, Lovely Game for a Guinness creative in pubs and retail outlets, and a special fleet of 20 tankers ‘wearing’ Premier League kits to deliver Guinness and Guinness 0.0 to pubs ahead of the opening weekend and beyond. We were delighted to work with record Premier League goalscorer and former England captain Alan Shearer on this activity (see picture below) and many might have seen him on our advertising ahead of the opening weekend. We’ve really pushed ourselves and this is just the start – watch this space!

Guinness is a global brand synonymous with story-telling. What is the idea behind the campaign?

To stand out we knew we had to do something different, and uniquely Guinness. Pelé popularised and embodied the idea of football as “jogo bonito” or “ the beautiful game” . Not only did this refer to the skill, speed and imagination of certain players, but also the passion it ignites from all walks of life.

Inspired by this we created an exciting collection of four global fan stories, which travel beyond the expected geographies of the Premier League to land our global perspective on the relationship between two global icons with local heartbeats. With matches played, games watched, and pints of Guinness and Guinness 0.0 enjoyed together, everyone is united.

The stories take us from the remote Outer Hebrides, to a Nigerian viewing centre, via a rooftop in Seoul. No matter where you are in the world, our campaign celebrates the magic of Guinness and the Premier League together, illuminating the shared sense of belonging that’s just as strong in a Premier League stadium as it is in a Korean after-hours bar.

As well as being the Official Beer of the Premier League, Guinness 0.0 is also the Official Non-Alcoholic Beer of the Premier League. What can this partnership do for the growth of 0.0 around the world?

I’m particularly excited about the opportunity for the Premier League to help lay the foundations for the global roll out of Guinness 0.0. Our campaign launch marks an exciting time for Guinness 0.0, which is now the number one selling off-trade non-alcohol brand in Great Britain and has just doubled its sales in Europe.

As the Official Non-Alcoholic Beer of the Premier League and Official Responsible Drinking Partner of the Premier League, we’ll be finding opportunities both in-ground and on broadcast to encourage responsible drinking throughout the football season.

Our debut Premier League TV ad for Great Britain & Ireland, Eriskay , celebrates how the love of the game and beautiful pints of Guinness 0.0 brings a football community together in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, where 10% of the population play for the only team on the island. We are committed to opening up new, creative ways to promote and encourage moderation.

You have worked on some of Diageo’s most impactful marketing and partnerships campaigns over the years – where does this rank?

Very highly! This is a very exciting moment in the enduring story of our beautiful beer, and to continue the legacy and spirit of Arthur Guinness is something I’m really excited about.

It’s been a real career highlight to see a project of this magnitude develop from an inception to launch. Seeing the creativity, strategy and human connection come together, working alongside some of the brightest minds in marketing, within Diageo, with The Premier League and our agency partners has been a real privilege. I hope we have all gained from our experience in turning this from conversation into reality – I know that I certainly have!

These opening games, months and our first season as a Premier League partner is very exciting for everyone in Diageo. But what are the long-term aims for this partnership? How do you see it evolving?

This is just the start of what I believe will be a transformational relationship for the brand with the Premier League. We have this story, this energy, and unique way of looking at things that we've been nurturing for over 260 years, and this is just the next bold chapter in beautiful Guinness, travelling everywhere.

The brand is experiencing unprecedented cultural momentum, and right now, with this partnership, we get to create even more magical moments and connections with our consumers and passionate football fans on a global scale. We're putting our heart and soul out there and it's incredibly exciting.

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