Branding Is A New Buzzword
Every January, new buzzwords roll into the business and self-development worlds. Gurus across the world plunder those buzzwords for more social shares and the world spins as usual.
“Branding” looks like it’s a buzzword now.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with introducing concepts and otherwise giving people something to focus on. But when you’re giving advice to people who want to start businesses or better themselves, you should probably start with actionable advice as opposed to vague terms that won’t actually see anyone progress.
In this article, I’m going to tell you what to avoid with the new buzzword, how to actually think about branding and how to do it as a businessperson.
I’ll also link to a cute little exercise for people that don’t want the boring truth of the matter.
Why You Need To Avoid Buzzwords
Lifestyle gurus are always hopping from one thing to the next. Over the years I’ve been involved with internet business, we’ve had a few:
- Mindfulness, motivation, mindset, motivation-set, mind-ivation
- Life-hacking, bio-hacking and other non-hacking hacks
- Influence networking, network influencing, network influencers
- Putting butter in your coffee instead of milk?
And numerous other things that have a grain of truth to them but get blown into the next big thing by the next generation of bloggers with affiliate links. Aside from me poking fun at them, these trends tend to do more harm than good because with most things, slow and steady wins the race and obfuscating terms tend to mean you’re being sold something overcomplicated.
“Branding” seems to be another word that’s doing the rounds. I’ve seen plenty of people say, “You’ve got to build your brand!” and by brand they’ve meant:
- A website
- Tweeting lots
- Wearing particular clothes in YouTube videos
- Ranting about politics and other boring stuff
- Interjecting completely irrelevant information into a topic to prove you’ve been outside or whatever
- Spending loads of money to take cool photos for Instagram
You can debate the merits of doing any of the above actions. However, they don’t really have anything to do with anything approaching something that might “build a brand” and – like with most of these fad ideas – they cause people to spin their wheels looking for something big at the expense of time they could spend on stuff that’s actually productive.
How To Actually Think About Branding
If you want to spend all day on Twitter arguing the finer points of Trump versus Clinton or the degradation of movies/your country/girls/boys/computer games/money, then go ahead.
However, there’s a strange contingent that believes that this sort of thing is a “brand building exercise.”
The reason I’m writing this article is because you can’t build a business (or anything else) based on identity.
Nobody is paying for your identity. It makes absolutely no sense. I’ve never thought, “That guy is really cool so I’m going to give him my money just for the sake of it.” I’m sure there are people out there who behave like that, but it’s not a great business model.
It’s also not one actual brands follow. Despite the recent political hysteria, think about the world’s most famous brands: Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Mercedes etc.
How much of their marketing budget goes towards aimlessly setting an identity?
Big businesses don’t think of their brand like a lifestyle blogger does. Despite what idiots on Reddit seem to think, for the most part businesses make rational decisions with a return on investment in mind.
How To Build a Brand
Here is a no-nonsense way to build a brand which doesn’t waste your time for dubious results. Also, you won’t make me shudder by saying things like, “How do I build my brand?” It’s also in an easy bullet point formula:
- Find a market with an unmet need
- Build a product that fits that need
- Ensure that the product is great
- Provide great customer service and make sure you follow up with your customers
- If you must… take inspiration from elsewhere for your logo/design
That’s it.
Now, some of you might be thinking, “But… that doesn’t involve doing any branding exercises or telling my customer who and what I’m about?”
It really does. Having a brand = people associate you with something.
If you’re providing a high quality service in a niche that needs filling, then that’s what people will associate you with. Your “brand” arises naturally through your actions.
I know some readers won’t be satisfied with that though, so here’s an extra section just for you.
How To Build a UNIQUE Brand
I wrote an article a while back with possibly the best exercise ever designed for building a brand. You can read it here.
Now, that exercise will bring out all the little reasons why you’re unique and nobody is going to approach things in quite the same way as you. It’ll bring out the personality quirks in a way that doesn’t make it seem like you’re cosplaying being a businessman/weirdo.
But it’s not going to build a brand on its own. That comes from providing a high quality service and having happy customers.
Final Thoughts
With any business decision you make, you should put utility first. Branding is no different.
Everything that leads to progress in business, self-improvement or anything else comes as the natural result of action. It doesn’t come by display or by identity.
You can’t tell people, “I’m a hero” or “I’m brave.” You can only act and allow people to give you that branding. A person who says, “I’m special” just looks like an idiot.
That’s exactly the same as statements of the same kind in business; if you want to be associated with a virtue, you get there by creating something which embodies the virtue.