*HINT* it’s not all about you!
We all kind of have an idea of what a brand is… But it’s more ambiguous than many realize.
The truth is, your brand is not your logo, it’s not your products, not your voice, and not even your brand guidelines.
Those may be what you put out in the world. But the brand that results is more about the gut-level feeling people have when they interact with your company/organization or products. In short, your brand is how you make people feel.
And to be clear, it’s not how they feel ABOUT YOU, but how they feel about themselves when they interact with you.
Because people don’t care about you!
Not to sound like a jerk, but nobody cares about you, and the sooner you can get that through your head, the sooner you can start marketing yourself well. All people care about is how you make them feel about themselves.
People care about how you resonate with their identity.
People flock towards brands that align with their identity and the kind of person they want to be in the world!
Think about how you feel walking downtown with a cup of Starbucks coffee in hand. Or the emotions that arise when you walk out of an Apple store with a new phone or laptop.
If thinking about those things makes you feel happy, you’re probably right in the sweet spot of their target audience!
Of course, everyone is different. Those companies don’t necessarily market their products for everyone! So the first step is getting to know your target audience well.
Once you figure that out, make sure your actions and marketing serve to make people feel good about being the type of people that work with a business like yours.
Your brand is a source of positivity.
Every aspect of your company should build these positive feelings people associate with your brand.
Your products/services, social media posts, website, attire, office space, and even the tone in your emails! They all come together to create the overall feeling people get when they interact with your company.
The TLDR (too lazy didn’t read) takeaway.
Here’s the main takeaway. If you talk to a new person, say at a party or networking event, and your main goal is to impress them, you will say and do very different things than if your main goal is to make them feel good about themselves.
Same for your marketing, and I really believe, if you make this shift to focusing singularly on making your target audience feel positive emotions, and it’s authentically backed up by what you do, you will easily outshine your competitors still trying to serve their egos.
If you can make people in your target audience feel good about themselves for working with you, your brand is golden.
