Illumin Blog

Your brand is your calling card and plays an important role in determining the type of clients you attract, the culture you create and positioning in your industry.

Your brand can precede you through reputation or association and because of this, it is considered one of your most leveragable and valuable assets.

Build a Strong Brand

A powerful brand emerges when you possess a strong understanding of your business's purpose and mission. It should reflect how you see yourself as well as how you want to be seen by others. A strong brand elicits emotion such as relief, happiness, spirituality, control, enlightenment, fun, security, comfort, confidence or a sense of belonging, for instance.

Brand is created through gaining a greater understanding of your Identity and Passion and how you, as the service provider, bring that to your business. Only by uncovering the essence of you as an individual (your internal drivers, motivations, passions) can you create a brand that reflects you and what you authentically represent to others.

Personal exploration is a critical part of foundation building for a business as it helps define your business culture and creates relatedness to your clients. This exploration (which are the first two pillars--Identity and Passion--of the Illumin Mapping process) are the building blocks for creating the personality, or the brand, of your business.

Brand Creates Corporate Identity

While brand is achieved through exploration of Identity and Passion, the 3rd and 4th pillars of Illumin Mapping--Vision and Design--put structure around your brand by creating your business platform (services, targeted niche, etc.). Once your platform is identified, you are well positioned to develop corporate identity that reflects you and appeals to your target audience.

"Your logo, business stationery, website and packaging are all important components in your brand message; they are the vehicle to convey your brand," commented Tonia Misvaer, Director of the visual identity agency 3SL Creative.  "The strongest, most effective visual identities are almost always created from a strong brand architecture.  Without that structure to draw upon, it is like trying to decorate a room before the house is designed.  Having a clear, brand strategy and vision before creating your visual identity not only saves time and money, it is in fact essential to creating an impactful identity."

Above All, Be Your Brand!

Brand dilution comes when there's lack of clarity about who you are, who you are targeting and what you stand for to your clients. It also comes from trying to be too much like the competition and not creating a presence that is unique and different.

A weak brand leaves prospects lukewarm and looking for alternatives. A strong brand may not appeal to everyone, but it will appeal to your ideal customer if you've done the exploratory work.

According to Misvaer, "The easiest way to define a "brand" is to identify what it isn't.  A brand isn't your logo, website, packaging, business card, etc.  A brand is that subjective, gut feeling a consumer or customer gets when thinking about your company.  A good brand is invaluable."

Once you've developed a brand that you feel passionately about, "be" that brand.

By honoring your own brand through consistency, integrity and authenticity, it can prove to be one of your most powerful business assets.