Brand Persona: How to build one with cool factor!
Brand Persona: Everything you need to know to create clarity and content for your brand persona!
In a noisy digital world, brands cannot simply afford to just take up space. They need a strong Brand Persona that is unique and magnetic. So let’s cut to the chase, shall we?
What is a BRAND PERSONA and how does one go about getting a BRAND PERSONA? It’s quite a simple process but requires a very diligent and organized system that really works within the DNA of a business.
A brand persona isn’t just the right logo or color palette, it’s the DNA of your brand. I like to keep it simple and look at a Brand Persona as a beautiful tree. You can’t simply sow the seeds of a tree and expect the foliage and branches to show all its glorious blooms overnight.
A beautiful tree begins at the root level.
Before the first offshoot blooms, it needs the right DNA or information in place to know what type of tree it will become.
Your Brand DNA
Your brand DNA answers crucial questions like:
-What is the purpose of your brand?
-WHO is it benefiting?
-HOW are these clients benefiting?
-What are they currently using to satisfy similar needs?
-Can you serve them better?
-What type of environment are you creating?
-Etc….
Answering these questions on the root level of your brand persona will already impact the way you behave as a business. The root level of your brand persona will shape the way you communicate and help define & organize your client outreach.
Adding the Personality in your Brand Persona
Now that you have gathered some brand DNA, let’s start building a brand personality. A great exercise is to pretend that you are creating an actual person. Some marketers go as far as using a stock photo to put a face to the name of their brand persona.
Ask yourself, how does your brand behave as a whole?
Are the main personality characteristics of your brand kind, philanthropic, and down to earth? Or a firecracker and go-getter that can be trusted to get sh** done at any cost?
This exercise isn’t meant to put your brand in a tiny box but it’s helpful to summarize your brand personality as you would an actual person.
Now take it a step further, and add key scenarios to the personality of your brand persona.
How would your brand persona handle key situations in your business?
For example:
How does your brand persona handle a tough customer?
How does your brand persona handle negative press?
How does your brand persona interact with competitors?
How does your brand persona interact within its community?
You can then take it a step further and compare these scenarios with how your competitors handle the above scenarios. Perhaps you’ll see a niche form hidden in plain sight from that observation.
Building the visuals of your Brand Persona
Now it’s time to make your brand sexy. Salon branding is the outward-facing visuals of your business that can really entice your ideal customers (when done right of course).
We’ve covered the personality of your Brand Persona and now you’ll want to start “fleshing out” the visual details that combine the head, the heart, and face of your brand.
Adding the right color palette: Spend some time discovering the psychology of color and use that as your starting point for your brand. Follow us on Pinterest for Color Inspo.
Font combinations can really elevate the look of your brand or tank the look of your brand persona so choose wisely.
A great branded logo font is worth its weight in gold. Glossier comes to mind when I think of a memorable font logo that is coupled with the right branded fleshy pink color to represent their youthful beauty brand.
It’s best to invest in a brand designer or course that can help you design and curate branding to match your overall brand persona on all levels. A brand designer can also help you create a brand guide to make sure everyone involved in your brand persona stays on track.
Why is a Brand Persona crucial for business growth?
Brand Personas have always been crucial but as more consumers shop from home post-Covid, a strong brand persona is increasingly more important than ever. A cool brick-and-mortar salon or retail space with little to no online presence or brand persona will be overshadowed by brands that steal the show with a great online brand persona.
However, this also presents opportunities for growth. Never has it been more attainable to create a cool brand with simple tools and resources.
If you are a salon, beauty, or fashion brand, check out the Salon Branding Course which covers the full spectrum of building a cool fashion-focused brand.
Conclusion:
Building a cool brand persona and visual brand identity in 2021 and beyond is the best investment you can make for your business because it defines your community and inspires them to be a part of your world. According to WGSN, the marketing world is buzzing with the gold ratio of 60/40 which says 60% of brand marketing budgets should actually be allocated to branding the business while 40% should be used for marketing efforts.
Why the sudden boost in interest in branding? Well, top marketing agencies are starting to understand that branding is a long-term game, it does the heavy lifting and creates a more solid return on investment when brands target with ads or SEO.
So if you’re ready to build clarity and cool factor for your brand persona, get on the
Salon Branding List or stay tuned for our Launch By Lunch short branding courses + Design Vault resources (coming soon) where we hand you the keys to pre-made design templates for building cool factor for your website!