What’s the best way to grow your business and leave a lasting impression on your target market? A clearly defined brand personality is the key! It’s the best way to communicate your brand’s unique attributes and create an image for long term success. Lets get into How To Identify Your Brand Attributes.
Your brand attributes are basically the specific personality traits your brand would have if it was a human being. What would your brand look like, think, and act like as a person? It includes identifying characteristics as well as emotional and behavioral attributes. Defining your brand’s attributes can lead to a more distinct brand personality.
But where do you start in identifying the attributes that define your brand? There are many useful processes and techniques to discover the traits your brand communicates. Here are some helpful hints to get you on your way to identifying your brand’s attributes.
Table of Contents
Describe Your Brand
The first step in identifying your brand’s attributes is defining what characteristics your brand is all about. This seems like an obvious step but it is often overlooked. This exercise will give you a starting point for expanding your brand identity.
Think about your brand and the adjectives that you would describe it with. Are you strong and consistent? Or is your brand all about a carefree, fun vibe? Be honest with how you are presenting your brand and don’t be afraid to include negative descriptions if they are accurate.
This is a great team, brainstorming exercise. Each person can jot down a few adjectives on scrap paper and combine all of them. Reading each word aloud, discuss which are true of your brand and why creating a list of the most accurate descriptors. Look for other ways to get the whole team involved in the branding process.
Applying this strategy across all channels of your branding leads to more consistency. Think about the way your social media is presented? Does it have similar characteristics to your website and print media branding efforts? Whatever attributes you list for each one, it’s important that they be cohesive through all of your communications for stronger messaging.
Describe Your Customer
Think about the consumers that you are marketing to. The product or service you offer significantly impacts your natural customer base. Your typical customer can tell you a lot about your brand. They can also help you communicate more effectively to your target market.
This is a similar thought process as describing your brand and can lead to a lot of insight. Consider the characteristics of your customers. Do your customers tend to be more serious and intentional? Or does your product attract customers that focus more on a carefree, spontaneous lifestyle?
Think about the needs of your customers. It’s important that your brand conveys a message that your product can meet their needs. What attributes of your brand communicate that yours is the right one for them?
Honing in on these details will help you reach your target market more effectively. Focus on branding your product to align with these attributes. Similar customers will be proactively attracted to branding characteristics that they can relate to personally.
Use Analogies
Sometimes it’s difficult to step back and objectively analyze your brand. You may be describing how you would like your brand to be perceived instead of a more honest interpretation of its identity. Using innovative techniques can lead to more successful identification.
Think about your brand and compare it to something familiar to you to discover its traits. Try to imagine if your brand was a food dish. Would it be an exciting, spicy plate of nachos? Or would your brand be a more comforting and dependable chicken noodle soup?
You can also use this process with everything from restaurants to car brands to further identify your attributes. Try to think of brands that have similar descriptions to yours. It also helps if they share a market segment with your company.
Separate Yourself from the Competition
Depending on the industry your business is in, competition may be stiff. For instance if you are developing a shopify website, you will probably be competing with Amazon. Where you stand in your area can tell you a lot about your brand identity. Your competitors can also give you some great insight into your brand’s attributes
Think about the other brands in your specific niche. What features make your brand stand out from them? The things you do differently create your specific brand identity. You can emphasize these features to help set your brand apart and focus on your uniqueness.
Focus on Emotion
Think about the emotional response you want to invoke with your brand. How do you want to make your customers feel about using your product or service? Compare that goal with the emotions your customers actually experience regarding your product.
If you want to create a brand image that focuses on reliability, your product will instill emotions of confidence and contentment in customers. Your brand may make customers feel invigorated or inspired by your product, indicating a more thrilling brand identify.
Ask your customers how they feel emotionally about your product. It’s important that the emotions they feel lead to an image that matches your intended identity. Knowing how you make customers feel will help you further hone in on your brand’s attributes.
Consider Your Price Range
Think about your brand’s image in terms of your price point compared to similar products. Your identity should reflect your unique balance of value and quality. Think about how your customer perceives your brand to discover the attributes that match best.
Your company may focus on creating the highest quality product made from expensive materials at a premium cost. If so, your brand is likely more closely associated with a luxurious or opulent identity. However, your focus may be on keeping costs as low as possible and providing maximum value to your customer. Then your brand identity may revolve around thriftiness and sensibility.
It’s important that your brand identity aligns with your pricing strategy. The attributes you communicate let a customer know what to expect. Your brand identity lets your target market know if your pricing is what they are looking for.
Use Archetypes
Branding archetypes are extremely helpful in identifying your attributes. This circular map system helps you identify the key traits of your brand’s personality. It also aids in identifying the traits of your customers.
The four sections of the inner layer of the archetype circle reflect the goal of your brand and your customer. Is the focus on connecting to others or a spiritual journey? The priority may also be on leaving a legacy or providing structure.
The second layer defines the broader goal more clearly into more defined characteristics. These twelve categories range greatly. They include everything from emotions like enjoyment and understanding to ideas like innovation and freedom.
Each one of these characteristics has a specific archetype attached to it.
The Twelve Archetypes and Their Voices
The Innocent: Humility, Honesty
The Hero: Candid, Brave
The Ruler: Commanding, Refined
The Magician: Mysterious, Reassuring
The Outlaw: Disruptive, Combative
The Explorer: Exciting, Fearless
The Sage: Knowledgeable, Assured
The Creator: Inspring, Daring
The Jester: Playful, Optimistic
The Caregiver: Comforting, Warm
The Lover: Sensual, Soothing
The Everyman: Friendly, Authentic
Identifying your brand’s archetype or even narrowing it down to two can be extremely valuable. You will have a clearer vision of your attributes as well as a well-defined target market.
Solicit Feedback
One of the best ways to learn about your brand is to evaluate how others perceive it. The feedback of your customers and your target market can prove invaluable. Asking for their opinion can help you identify your attributes and improve your brand awareness strategies.
A focus group can help you gain some informative snap judgments and allows for the facilitation of dialogue. What are these customers’ immediate reactions when first interacting with your brand? Their first impressions can tell you a lot about the public’s perception of your brand.
A survey is also a great opportunity to receive feedback on your brand. You can ask what your values and traits your audience thinks best represent your company. This is also a good chance to find out which components of your branding are most appealing to your target audience.
Create a Clear Voice
Once you discover your attributes, it’s essential that they work together in one cohesive branding voice. You want all of your branding communications to be consistent. This will lead to a more reliable and effective message.
Visually communicating your brand is vital. Everything from your color scheme to your logo and font choices should be thoughtfully chosen. You want their tone and mood to be aligned with your brand identity.
Your social media presence should match the characteristics of your brand. If you are trying to convey a message of seriousness and reliability, your messages and posts should be efficient and to the point. Are you aiming for a more playful brand identity? Your social media communications should be more cheerful and light-hearted.
Conclusion
Using these techniques can lead to a clear brand image that will resonate with customers. The attributes you convey will match your brand more accurately and clearly. This will allow you to communicate your brand’s personality to customers more effectively.
A well-defined brand personality can elicit emotional feelings in your customer base. It can also lead to a more memorable impression and lasting brand awareness. Think about your brand’s attributes and how you can use them to develop a cohesive brand message. Just imagine how it will lead to a growing business and a loyal customer base!
We hope you have found this article about How To Identify Your Brand Attributes helpful, and if you are looking to learn about brand strategy you must check out Brand Master Secrets its a great course for you to learn everything you need to know about brand strategy.
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