Creative Strategy

So you’ve finally decided to build your brand, Hooray! What next?

Before we dive in, let’s take a look at what branding actually is – whether you’re branding your business or creating a personal brand:

Branding: Is the act of shaping how the public perceives you, your product or services. Great branding involves aligning your personal perception of your brand, your mission and values with the public’s perception of your brand through consistent communication and creative.

Simply put, your brand is only what people perceive it to be, so branding strategy is the act of aligning your vision and mission with how the public views you/ your brand.

Let’s dive into Branding 101, the BASICS, to help you define your brand’s mission, core values, target audience, tone of voice and logo!

1. Mission Statement

Your mission statement is a statement of purpose and vision, it communicates what your brand stands for, your goals and your value proposition. This statement should be clear, short, inspiring and authentic to your brand’s values. A great mission statement speaks directly to your ‘Why’ or the core belief that drives your brand.

Your mission statement should clearly define What you do, Why and How you do it. I would start by defining your ‘Why’ and once you’ve established that, what you do and how you do it will fall into place.

To define your ‘Why’ consider the deeper purpose driving your brand’s identity: What value are you offering your community? What is your purpose? What do you stand for? How does your brand solve a problem for your customer and how is it different from everyone else?

Brand Mission Statement Inspo:

“To nourish people and the planet. We’re a purpose-driven company that aims to set the standards of excellence for food retailers. Quality is a state of mind at Whole Foods Market.” -Whole Foods Market

“To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.” – Warby Parker

“Spread ideas.” -TED

” Our Mission is to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” – Patagonia

Image Credit: Brooke Cagle

2. Establish Brand Core Values

Core values are a set of guiding principals that establish the foundation of your brand, this set of fundamental beliefs should drive every decision made within your brand. To define your core values, ask yourself what core themes and beliefs are at the center of my work? These should be un-shakeable, as they determine both what value you offer to your community and what your mission is as a brand.

Brainstorm key-words that you find to be fundamentally important to you and your mission as a brand, choose five of those words that resonate deeply and let those five core values drive everything that you do. If you find yourself questioning whether or not to write a post, create a product or post a piece of content to social media, ask yourself: does this align with my core values? If the answer is no, don’t move forward. This is a great barometer for your brand! To build a devoted audience and community, staying true to your core values and mission is incredibly important!

Your brand will resonate with individuals that share your core values, people align with brands that share their belief system and stand for their shared values and aspirations.

Core Value Inspo:

Authenticity, creativity, health, spirituality, achievement, adventure, community, self-expression, beauty, contribution, wellness, mental health, friendship, humor, leadership, technological advancement, connection, family, optimism, security, purpose… and so many more.

Image Credit: Brooke Cagle

3. Identify Your Target Audience

The community that you wish to serve is at the core of your brand, identify your specific niche and get really detailed! Create a profile for your ideal customer and create content that speaks directly to them by offering a solution to a problem they have.

But how do you find your target audience?

Some questions to consider: What is their age, their gender and what is most valuable to them? What problems do they need help solving? What do they want to achieve? What does their lifestyle look like? What are they searching for online? What online platforms do they use regularly? Where can you find them in their free time?

Once you create a clear picture of who your target audience is, you can better serve them as a brand.

People want to support brands that align with their belief systems, if you stand for what they believe in and if you provide them value in some form, they will advocate for you!

Image Credit: Hillary Ungson

4. Brand Tone of Voice + Personality

This is how to show up in the world and how you communicate to your audience. Your brand’s tone of voice is a culmination of your mission, brand values and target audience; The way you communicate and the personality that comes through in your copy and creative content should align with your beliefs as a brand. Your Voice should be consistent and distinct to you and your brand’s mission, it conveys the personality and ethos driving your brand and can build deep connections with your audience. Your Tone is the subtle inflection that can vary slightly depending on the content and the platform. Your tone of voice is incredibly important to building authentic connections to your audience, so stay true to your mission and values when deciding how to communicate to your community. Choose a tone that will allow you to convey your message as clearly as possible and will resonate deeply with your community!

For example, a scientifically driven medical brand will want to communicate with authority and poise, they wouldn’t want to communicate in a casual manner or use slaying or pejorative language. On the other hand, a holistic health or yoga brand will use language that resonates with their customer on a more personal and spiritual way, this language may be softer and more inspirational as opposed to authoritative.

Your brand’s tone of voice should be a reflection of you and your values, this will bring a sense of authenticity to your communication. While your tone across different platforms may vary slightly, consistency is key to retaining the trust of your audience.

Image Credit: James Resly

5. Brand Mood Board

Mood Boards help you visualize your brand’s visual identity, by gathering a set of key visuals, designs and color stories, you can create more clarity and strategic direction for your brand. For help defining your brand’s personality, logo, brand colors and fonts, I suggest creating a branded mood board that visually aligns with your brand’s purpose, mission and tone. This board will serve as a visual representation of your brand’s visual style and can help you identify what brand colors, fonts and content styles best communicate your message and story to your audience. My favorite platform to use is Pinterest, simply create a private board and let yourself go wild! Keep in mind, don’t just pin any image you like to this board, try to keep your brand’s mission, tone of voice, value-proposition and target audience in mind when brainstorming your brand’s visual identity.

Image Credit: Joyce McCown

6. Content Pillars

Brand’s often have a set of content pillars that drive their creative content strategy. When planning and posting different types of content, brands will consider different sub-sets of their audience and think of creative ways to target individuals using a number of different content styles. This can help bring your brand to life by varying the content you post, creating dynamic, engaged posts that bring your brand’s story to life. These pillars are often targeted toward different sub-sets of your audience and niche, individuals within your audience that seek specific content to fit their goals and needs. Content pillars are at the core of your creative strategy and can come to life in many different ways, they centralize around core themes that stem from your brand’s mission statement. Content pillars represent relevant topics for your target audience, they can be centered around a core service or product that you offer

An example!

Brand: Natural Snack Food Brand

Audience: Health-focused millennial women, men in their mid-30’s seeking improved physical health, mid-30s father’s/mother’s seeking healthy snack options for themselves and their children

Content Pillars: 1.Recipes 2.Lifestyle Photography 3.Educational Health and Wellness Content 4. Brand Storytelling

Each of these pillars tie back to a core service or product that this brand offers, yet the creative content and style of communication varies depending on which content pillar their creative falls under. With consistent visual style and tone, all of this creative content will still align with the brand’s mission.

Image Credit: Nathan Dumlao

6. Logo + Variations

A killer logo can help your audience identify you across different platforms. The best logos are clear, legible and distinct. Your logo should tie into your tone of voice and clearly communicate both your brand name and the essence of your brand and mission. In terms of logo design, simple often works better. Symbols can be used to help bring clarity to your design, but make sure that they don’t detract from your overall design. Once you establish your main logo, you’ll want to create a set of variations to use in different circumstances. These should all work together cohesively. Logo and branding design are a unique and coveted skillset, hiring a professional designer can be a huge help, but there are great, free resources online as well!

To dive deeper into logo design and inspiration, I suggest that you check out these great resources!

Canva

Béhance

7. Brand Colors + Fonts

There is a true psychological meaning behind choosing brand colors, certain colors have automatic and often sub-conscious associations. When choosing your brand colors, think back to your statement of purpose and target audience, what mood or emotion would you like to convey through your brand colors? Font choice may seem simple and obvious, but there are important subtitles to consider like clear legibility, how you will incorporate several different fonts (especially when considering website design), modern versus traditional serif fonts, the weight and size. I suggest exploring the links above for more inspiration and assistance in defining your brands colors and font choices.

Image Credit: Keila Hötzel

5 Creative Practices to Ignite your Inspiration

Image Credit to Jeff Sheldon

We all find ourselves experiencing creative block at one time or another – inspiration and creative flow are somewhat illusive to even the most seasoned creator, but incorporating some of these creative practices into your everyday can help re-ignite that passion!

1. Wake Up Early + Engage Your Brain

Many creatives tend toward the night-owl lifestyle, and I understand that personally! The seemingly simple practice of waking up an hour or two earlier than you normally do can make a huge impact! I feel my most creative and productive if I wake up around sunrise, get some coffee brewing and have a glass of warm lemon water – not only does this ignite your metabolism, but this allows your body to release toxins (Delish!). Yes, this practice has a physical effect on your body, but what I’m interested in is the impact that this has on us mentally.

“A large-scale genetics study found that being biologically programmed to wake up early is linked to greater happiness and a lower risk of schizophrenia and depression. Those who naturally want to go to bed late and wake up late are at greater risk from the mental toll of having to fight their natural body clock.” -sleepcouncil.org/uk

While sipping my coffee, I try to find a space to allow myself to awaken gently – I find that allowing more sunlight into my home, and even finding a space to get direct sunlight onto my face and body can be extremely energizing. We are naturally meant to arise with the sun, and allowing more light into our homes can enlighten our creative space and mind. When I’m really feeling really tired or lethargic, I try to do some simple stretches to loosen up and awaken my body.

2. Journaling Creative Ideas + Gratitude

Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed with creative ideas or a complete inspiration block, writing down these thoughts and ideas can be immensely impactful. It can be hard to journal when you feel stuck, but many times this can be the most freeing. If writing isn’t you thing, try doodling or creating a thought map. Don’t censor yourself, this practice is for you. Hell, if you feel the need to burn after writing, that can be another great release! Here are some prompts to get you going:

What is on my mind? Why is this weighing on me? Where is this coming from and what core belief is driving my feelings around this?
What am I grateful for today? What gifts do I have that are unique to me?
What is challenging me today? How can I reframe this challenge to see it as a growth opportunity?
Have I been procrastinating? What fear is driving me to put this off?
Make a To-Do list of actionable items for today, this week, this month. Make these items attainable and physically write them down so you can eagerly scratch them off later – Oh, so satisfying!
What creative practice makes me feel fulfilled and connected? How can I incorporate this into my every-day?

Often times, I find myself censoring my writing, or harshly criticizing my artwork before truly giving it time. While I experience this myself, I believe this to be the death of creativity. Man are humans complex. We all hold ourselves to such a high standard, that we won’t allow ourselves to fail. We will quit before we’ve even started. I’m telling this to myself as much as I am to anyone else – We must fail in order to grow. We must create complete shit before we can truly see a path to growth. Not only should we allow ourselves to fail, we should seek out opportunities to push ourselves beyond our current limitations.

We must experience a break-down in order to see the breakthrough.

3. Self-Expression Through Style

Style is a form of self expression. We all make choices as consumers as to what clothing, hair style and accessories resonate with us on a deeply personal level. We have choice in how we present ourselves, this is an inherently creative act even though it is rarely viewed that way. I personally feel my most expressed as an individual when I’ve taken the time to thoughtfully represent myself through my stylistic choices. When I make these decisions passively, is when I end up feeling frumpy, generic or uninspired. I’m trying to choose my words carefully here because I don’t want to suggest that any certain brand or status symbol should or will make you feel more complete as a person. I don’t believe that. What I do believe is that we all must choose to present ourselves in some way, shape or form, and doing so with intention, a sense of creativity and self-expression will make you feel more like you. I am always looking to edit down my personal wardrobe to items that make me feel amazing, self-expressed and sexy (at times). Here’s a great motto to live by, not just in terms of personal-style but in everyday life:

If it’s not a Fuck Yes, then it’s a Fuck No.

Edit down your wardrobe; items that feel dated, warn down or Meh to you should be donated or sold! Allow more space for self-expression and creativity by clearing out space in your closet, surprisingly this will clear out space in your mind as well.

4. Seek-Out a Change in Scenery

Leave your house and explore your city, take a short road trip, actively seek inspiration in an environment that you are unfamiliar with. Simply, a change in scenery can not only take you out of your element but it can ignite creative inspiration. Bring a journal, sketch pad, camera or just simply Be and observe. True creativity is inspired by one’s surroundings and experiences – often times we are scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest, marveling in other’s creativity or their lives, this prompts us to feel a need to emulate this or experience a sense of lack in comparison to others. We have everything that we need in order to find success in our own creativity, we just need to observe, listen and engage more directly in our everyday lives. Open yourself up to inspiration by listening to what’s around you, I don’t just mean the physical act of listening, I mean observing and listening to learn or understand more fully. Oddly, sometimes all we need is to get out of our element in order to feel fully present. There’s something exciting about exploring and creating a sense of adventure for ourselves. Don’t be afraid to do something out of the norm, just shake things up! Go to a show that you wouldn’t normally go to, find an art gallery that you haven’t been to before, go hiking, go shoot street style in an urban setting (get consent too!), plan a road trip that you’ve been wanting to take forever – and just commit to it.

Sometimes all it takes is just a commitment to allowing adventure and uncertainty into your life.

5. Learn Something New

Seeking out a new creative outlet can often help you find a fresh perspective, there are any number of new skills that you can teach yourself (for free!) that will open up a whole new world of opportunities for you. These don’t have to be majorly complicated new skillsets like coding (Agh!), unless that’s what you’re drawn to girl, go for it! Some ideas for creative exploration: painting, creative writing, sewing, design, blogging, photoshop, macrame, gardening, cooking and on and on. Many times we think that we’ve pinpointed our skillset and avoid seeking out new avenues for self-expression, but the challenge is – our world is ever-evolving and changing, we must remain fluid with these changes and intentionally seek out new areas for growth within ourselves.