Building an Authentic Brand

Your role in building your business's brand – whether in marketing, creative, strategy, or all three – will only be successful when your brand delivers on its promise. I’m going to assume that you know who you are. You know your name, your close friends, where you live, where you like to shop, your favorite foods, what your crazy friend or family member will do at family gatherings, and things of that nature. I’m also going to assume that you have some sort of system of beliefs or code to live by. And all of these things are what make you . . . well, you.

Your beliefs, your likes, and dislikes, the places you go, the things you align yourself with all makeup what attracts you to other people and what other people find attractive or appealing about you. You are like a brand.

On occasion, you can lose that part of you that makes you most attractive to the people you want to connect with. As you learn new things, you might be slow to evolve and implement what you’re learning. The same thing can happen to a brand.

Think of a brand as a “living” entity. It’s made up of certain characteristics. It has a mission and values. It wants to be liked, seen, known by name, and remembered. It wants people to interact with it, introduce it to others, and be especially important to those it is most interested in. It also should know its faults, what it’s not, and what it can improve on over time. The only way this is done – and done well – is for those responsible for building, maintaining, or evolving the brand to understand all of those parts, pieces, and perspectives.

A well-built and well-maintained brand will attract the right people both internally and externally and help your business be more profitable. But a truly authentic brand will go a step further: it will create a relationship because it builds trust. And that is when brands can build culture, legacy, advocacy, and raving support that can help your business go to new levels.

So how is a brand authentic? A brand is authentic when it truly represents, lives out, walks, talks, and smells like its company’s mission, vision, and values. It knows the audience it is built to talk to, and it truly talks to them, not at them. And because everyone in the organization must believe in and support the authenticity of the brand, when a rebrand is desired or an organization shifts in a different direction, the branding process becomes a critical catalyst for change and reinvigoration.

No matter the stage your brand is in during its life and career, it is critical for the brand to be clear about who it is, and it’s essential for those taking care of the brand to know this clearly too. Because when the brand is aligned with who it truly is – with its authentic purpose – that is definitely where the brand helps your business succeed at a whole new level.

For guidance on building an authentic brand, let's talk today!