THE BRANDING PROCESS

 

Step out of your role within the business for a few minutes. Take a top-level view and look objectively at the brand you’re building. What’s the experience like when people interact with you at every touchpoint? What’s your value proposition and how is it communicated? How do you compare and differ from others in your industry? Who are you for? How do you attract, engage, and retain your community? You can probably answer these questions, but the Branding Process helps solidify them for the business. But before starting, know that there are three Processes that create a wholistic framework for business development. 

In short, these Processes are designed to complement and integrate with your existing structure while supporting the long-term needs of the business and brand, including remote work and API integrations. #1 The Branding Process: Lay a foundation of information, direction, and assets to ensure consistent brand experiences across digital and physical channels. #2 The Marketing Process: Create a framework of quality evergreen content custom-tailored to your brand. Tell your story, share your value, and connect with your community through select channels. You can utilize Asana (work management platform) and the custom template (included above) as a business structure to manage team projects and operations, yes for marketing and branding, but also across departments as a highly customizable and affordable ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform. Use the Marketing Strategy Questionnaire and Digital Content Strategy Walkthrough to develop your marketing calendar. Then setup your initial email marketing and social media to distribute content. #3 The Technology Process: Simplify and scale through repeat processes, manageable projects, connected teams, and configured automations. Measure performance through KPIs (key performance indicators) and perform better remotely. Get familiar with the software stack that small businesses, marketing agencies, and enterprise companies use every day. Pick the software that suits your business best for the long-term.

What To Think About

Consider where marketing, technology, and attention are going. Small businesses have increasing “demands” from consumers. Businesses have access to resources and technology to help meet these “demands”. Unfortunately, most don’t invest the time to utilize them optimally or sustainably. They don’t consider the human element. And still, not every technology that you prefer or are most comfortable with is API compatible. This means no or limited information/data can be shared between platforms. An example is Mailchimp, the email marketing platform withholding customer data from Shopify (and everyone else), preventing businesses from delivering a more custom and timely experience for their community. Shopify announced: “We recommend choosing a new email marketing app that syncs your customer data back to your Shopify admin to ensure you can manage your marketing efforts from one place, no matter how many apps you use.” Ultimately, choose a platform that allows API integrations with Shopify (or other e-commerce platforms) if applicable but especially your CRM (customer relationship management) platform to ensure you can manage your external email communications seamlessly between software. Note, some CRM platforms come with email marketing functionality – consider this before choosing an email marketing software.

Collectively this all impacts your ability to brand and market your business, resulting in good or bad experience from UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) perspectives for both team members and your community, which will impact engagement and sales. Choose software that has built-in API triggers or that integrates with general automation platforms such as Zapier or Tray.io (very costly, but essentially allows for any data field to be synced between two or more software platforms) to gain access to essential data wherever it is useful.

Phase 1: Create a Brand Playbook (80 – 160 Hours)

The Brand Playbook is used to establish and communicate the essential details of your business to just about anyone.

The Brand Playbook can include:

  • About Statement
  • Mission
  • Value Offer
  • Value Overiew
  • Lean Canvas Business Model
  • SWOT Analysis
  • Competitive Advantages
  • Vision
  • Vision Visualized
  • Issues
  • Process 1
  • Process 2
  • Process 3
  • Priorities
  • Performance
  • Brand Personality
  • Customer Personas
  • Customer Journey Map
  • Logos
  • Colors
  • Fonts
  • Graphic Design Assets
  • Photography
  • Social Media
  • Content Themes
  • People
  • Slogan

Add any existing assets you have and expand over two to four weeks with dedicated time and focus. Include some of your team members or partner agencies. Shared alignment and clarity on how all should view and communicate the brand is a very good thing.

Phase 2: Website, CMS, E-commerce, and Point of Sale (160 – 280 Hours)

As mentioned above, when looking to modernize your tech stack it is important to pick technologies that play well together from the start. It may be difficult to see a time where massive automation workflows and a costly ERP are necessary for your business. Likewise, there may be a number of missed time-saving opportunities by not investing appropriately. Regardless, choosing the software that scales with you now and in the future is important to avoid costly migrations, development, and training. Moving from old software to new should always mean increased productivity across departments.

Below is a list of industry-standard software. They are simple to setup and make managing workloads easier for you and your team.

Setup Software

  • GSuite – Access to Google tools
    • Google Analytics, Data Studio, SEO, Docs, AdWords, etc.
  • Gmail – name@mywebsite.com
    • Add a branded email signature
  • Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc – Document storage
  • Slack – Team member communication
  • Asana – Work management platform (reference templates)

Here’s a visual representation of all the technology systems connected in a wholistic framework. This goes along with the 3 Processes and is broken down thoroughly in The Technology Process. It is helpful to see how a modern business or organization can structure its tech stack across departments.

Website and CMS

Perhaps you’ve heard how easy it is to build a website with Wix or Squarespace. Both offer a user-friendly platform, content management system, and in-house hosting / domain setup. Be that as it may, these platforms may not scale with your business upfront or in the long-term. WordPress is likely your best bet, and arguably offers better SEO (search engine optimization). Most website platforms offer themes to determine the layout and general look of your website. Choosing the right theme for your brand while ensuring the least amount of coding for development is like flipping a coin without familiarity. With WordPress, Flatsome is a theme that generally can meet expectations. It offers a variety of drag-and-drop templates that accommodate most website features. It’s also entirely customizable for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices without developers.

User Experience (UX Design)

Before jumping in to build your website, use the Brand Playbook to outline your sitemap. Choose a call to action (CTA) for each page and create a wireframe accordingly with this in mind. Outline copy and any graphic design, photography, or video needed to complete the website. Ensure that visuals are edited or selected for each device to best ensure a quality user experience.

Many tend to overlook the importance of quality photography, design, and copy when it comes to their brand. Keep in mind these assets will likely be used elsewhere, so make sure they’re done right the first time. If you create a Brand Playbook, reference it to maintain consistency. It’s ok if photos aren’t Photoshop perfected, just make sure all are consistent quality and style (especially color tones). Optimize your website for SEO through page titling, descriptions, meta descriptions, categories, tags, photo titling, and custom URLs. Submit your sitemap to Google to better ensure your webpages crawl in search rankings. Make contacting your team convenient and avoid overselling. People today don’t respond well to aggressive used car sales tactics or poorly designed online experiences.

Install Analytics Tracking

Create a Google Analytics pixel through your Google Admin Console. Even if you don’t intend to monitor your site traffic immediately, it’s beneficial to be gathering data from the start.

E-commerce and Point of Sale

WordPress is complemented with Woocommerce. Although this e-commerce platform works well, some may find it limiting with shipping, discounts, and other custom UX and UI options that should be standard. It’s also a recurring task to keep plugins updated without access to a developer or customer service when needed. Because of this and the long-term “vision” referenced above with regard to your technology, you may prefer to keep your e-commerce separate from your website by using a paid option such as Shopify, and use a URL redirect accordingly. Shopify is one of the better options when it comes to businesses with both online and brick & mortar sales. If you offer B2B sales and require separate login credentials for wholesale customers, you may prefer Magento. It’s costly to develop, but is entirely customizable to your specifications. That being said, Woocommerce has a plugin to accommodate wholesale businesses that works adequately.

For the majority, Shopify’s POS (point of sale) system is a good option for businesses with a storefront, and makes managing online and retail products easier without having to create and manage products from two platforms. Shopify also integrates with a variety of software, making it easier to access data where you need it. You also get better updates and access to customer service, sometimes even with “plugin” app providers such as Bold Commerce (which allows you to create custom bundle deals and tiered pricing). Their team will also setup the plugin for you in your Shopify account.

Remember, this is one of the final stages in your sales funnel. For some it may be the first and last time they interact with your brand. Be thoughtful in the experience you offer here.

Phase 3: Packaging, Label, and Physical Asset Design and Manufacturing (~480 Hours)

The main thing to note when printing or manufacturing physical assets is the print format, materials and how they adhere to each other, how they wear over time, and how much it all costs. You should also consider the environmental impact of the materials you choose and the brand equity to be gained from doing so. In general, there’s standard sizing for a majority of print materials. Always remember to confirm bleed lines, seams, gluing, stitching, and any overlap your physical assets may encounter. Get a digital proof. Review it/them multiple times, have your designer review, sleep on it and review again before ordering any samples or going to production to avoid costly oversights. Of course, ask your manufacturer for MOQs (minimum order quantities) for discount pricing based on order volume. You want something and someone that scales and prices things accordingly as you grow. Don’t waste either of your time. If you have a realistic desire to order a financially viable number of units, local and online manufacturers are happy to bring your branded physical assets to life.

It’s a delicate process to design and manufacture a packaged product’s physical presentation. Conduct your own market research and get input from trusted sources. Look for what you like, identify what you don’t, and remain unbiased as the end-product should be catered to your target audience’s taste. Then find manufacturers, take them examples of what you’re looking for, and see what options they have. Be mindful of size limitations for store shelving and displays. If your brand is in food and beverage or supplements, be sure to follow Nutrition and Supplement Facts Panel requirements per the FDA’s guidelines. 

Labels

Design and print for:

  • Label elasticity (air bubbles)
  • Artwork distortion (due to heating or stretching)
  • Glues
  • Metallic or gloss coating
  • CMYK, pantone, and PMS print color limitations
  • Wear and tear from exposure (shipping and aging)
  • Sales volume
  • Shelf life (expiration dating)
  • Lot coding

Packaging

  • Long-term size constraints (store shelving and displays) and wasted material
    • Ask your manufacturer for industry-standard sizes (avoid added mold, dye, and material costs)
  • Glues
  • Metallic or gloss coating
  • Foil stamping
  • Protective coating (for delicate materials)
  • CMYK, pantone, and PMS print color limitations
  • Branded product displays (material “matching”)
  • Wear and tear from exposure (shipping and aging)
  • Sales volume
  • Shelf life (expiration dating)
  • Lot coding

T-shirts

  • Screen printing
    • Maintains colors and quality
    • Cost-effective for orders 100+
    • Limited to CMYK and/or RGB print processes
  • Heat transferring
    • Inexpensive to produce
    • Some design and color flexibility
    • Will fade and crack
  • Direct to garment
    • High quality print color
    • Low MOQs
    • Less efficient than screen printing

Stickers / Decals

  • Dye cut
    • Weather proof
    • Print and cut to specifications
    • Blocky (less refined)
  • Transfer
    • Modern and simple
    • Black and white (some offer PMS color matching)
    • Size limitations by pixel

Sales Brochures and Business Cards

  • Tri-fold, bi-fold, square or rectangle
    • Materials
      • Gloss and matte finish paper
      • Eco-friendly or other material
    • CMYK or pantone print process

Banners and Signage

  • Retractable banners
    • Easy to transport
    • Retains quality
    • Print color options
  • Pop-up
    • Cost-effective
    • Print color options
    • Less clean and modern
  • Inserts
    • Paper, plastic, natural materials
    • Added print colors
    • Difficult to transport
    • Typically less durable
  • Hanging
    • Specific dimensions
    • Requires assembly and mounting
    • CMYK and pantone print process
  • Displays
  • Pop-up print branded walls
    • Simple or difficult pop-up frames
    • Easy install magnetic panels
    • Difficult to transport
    • CMYK or pantone print process
  • PVC or other plastic
    • Templated or custom
    • Heat bending (no edges)
    • CMYK or pantone print process
    • Lightweight
    • Low cost
    • Recyclabe (sometimes)
  • Wood/natural material
    • Templated or custom
    • Clean design
    • Natural looking
    • Exposed edges
    • Less eco-friendly
    • Added shipping costs (weight)
  • Corrugate
    • Semi-customizable
    • Natural looking and eco-friendly
    • Lightweight
    • Low quality color
    • Less clean aesthetically

Conclusion

Be thoughtful and intentional with all aspects of your branding. Build relationships with agencies and manufacturers that listen, align, and invest the time to ensure successful project launches and ongoing scopes of work. Choose software with built-in API triggers or that integrate with general automation platforms such as Zapier. Strive for quality over quantity in all things. Prioritize the impact your business has on the environment and stakeholders.