Creating your own brand is a lot more complex than it seems, but at the same time it could be so easy if you know what your brand is all about. Every business needs a brand. Every business has a brand regardless if they’ve thought of it or not, but not all brands can move people.

When people start to create their own brand, many confuse branding with marketing. I’ve seen this asked in Facebook groups time and time again. In fact, just yesterday I saw in an ecommerce group a question about how to build a brand with their store and all the replies were about starting an email list, collaborating with influencers, running more ads, changing the description of an item, etc. Nope. Nope. Nope. Branding and marketing are not the same thing.

Branding is your voice. Branding tells your customers or your clients why you are unique and memorable. In perspective, branding is basically what people say about your business behind your back. Branding is portrayed in the mind and is not physical or tangible. Marketing on the other hand is tactical. Branding should always come before marketing because if you don’t know what your brand stands for, then your message in your marketing will be confusing. You’ll need to have a brand building strategy.

Branding is your core value and your mission. A company’s brand can be summed up in very little words. Let’s use Nike as an example. When you think of Nike, what do you think of? You think of their motto ‘Just Do It” right? Maybe you think of the their logo, the Nike swoosh. Perhaps you think athletes, movement, or fast speed. As years went on, Nike became such a powerful brand that the name Nike was removed from their logo and they just went with the swoosh. If Nike had been confused with their identity, their marketing campaigns would not support the brand’s mission. Can you think of any other companies in the same niche as Nike doing as well as Nike? Nope? I can’t think of any either.

When you think of Coke and Pepsi, how do you differentiate the two brands? For many people, they have a preference on which beverage they like better. Is it the flavor? Or is it really hidden in their branding? Maybe you are one that prefers one over the other. Coke has always been classic. Their brand has been consistent. Their logo has been consistent and has hardly changed over the years. Their cans and bottles for the most part has the same look. Pepsi on the other hand has had very many rebrands. You’ll never know what your next can or bottle will look like with Pepsi and that’s because they’re brand is always evolving with the new generation. They are always changing and trying out new things. Both are very profitable companies in the same industry, but with different branding. Both have a cult following. Are you a person who doesn’t like change and like the classic stuff like Coke? Or do you adapt to change quickly and always have the latest things like Pepsi?

Your brand building strategy should figure out your voice, figure out your values, figure out your brand personality, and figure out your brand design and visual identity.

Your voice is interpreted by how you want to come off to your audience. How do you want your audience to feel when you speak or how do you want them to feel when they see your marketing materials? Good brands always make their ideal audience feel something. Companies that don’t have a strong brand don’t make anyone feel anything. If you can’t make anyone feel anything then there will be a lack in sales.

People buy because of the emotional connection. It doesn’t matter what you are selling.

Branding Archetypes

Brands have personalities. There are 12 branding archetypes and each brand falls in at least one archetype, but many brands usually fall in two or three. There usually is one dominant archetype though.

Below are the 12 branding archetypes. Which one fits your brand?

THE CAREGIVER

• STABILITY CONTROL
• Goal: Put others ahead of themselves.
• Traits: Compassionate, trustworthy, love helping others.

THE RULER

• STABILITY CONTROL
• Goal: Rules them all and won’t hesitate to show why they are the leader.
• Traits: Exerts control

THE CREATOR

• STABILITY CONTROL
• Goal: They are non conforming by nature and want to build a better world with their tools.
• Traits: Craft something new

THE INNOCENT

• LEARNING FREEDOM
• Goal: They are positive and see the good in everything.
• Traits: Retain or renew faith

THE SAGE

• LEARNING FREEDOM
• Goal: They seek knowledge and share with those around them.
• Traits: Understand their world

THE EXPLORER

• LEARNING FREEDOM
• Goal: They want to travel the world and experience everything it has to offer
• Traits: Maintain independence

THE HERO

• RISK ACHIEVEMENT
• Goal: Act courageously.
• Traits: Brave, selfless, and defends the underdog.

THE OUTLAW

• RISK ACHIEVEMENT
• Goal: Want a revolution and aren’t scared to break the rules to achieve it
• Traits: Rule breaker

THE MAGICIAN

• RISK ACHIEVEMENT
• Goal: Their skills are so awesome that at times they may seem supernatural.
• Traits: Affect transformation

THE EVERYMAN

• BELONGING
• Goal: The guy/girl next door.
• Traits: Be OK just as they are.

THE JESTER

• BELONGING
• Goal: Mission in life is to enjoy it.
• Traits: Have a good time

THE LOVER

• BELONGING
• Goal: Find and give love
• Traits: Idealist that spend the time daydreaming.

Did you find one or two that fit your brands mission and values? My personal brand is a mixture of creator and explorer.

Now each one of these archetypes have certain colors associated with them because each color represents something. This is what we call color psychology. There is a reason why most corporate companies are blue while fast food companies are red and yellow. Corporate America companies that are blue usually stand for loyalty. Red and yellow colors usually stimulate hunger, which is why it works so well for fast food companies. Purple means royalty and luxury, while green means wealth and natural. There are so many meanings for each color. Well known brands did not just use their favorite color. They used color psychology for their brand. You should consider this too when you are creating your branding identity design.

Want to know what colors work well with the 12 different branding archetypes as well as examples of companies in that archetype? Just fill out the box below for a pdf download of the branding archetypes and colors associated with them.

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Brand Design

Now that you’ve created your brand and core message, you can start designing your brand! My favorite program for designing is with Adobe’s Creative Suite if you plan to do it yourself. Adobe has all the programs that your business needs to have in terms of creating. For logo creation, Adobe Illustrator is the perfect program as it is a vector-based program. That basically means you can scale anything as big or as small as you want without it losing quality. Do not use Adobe Photoshop for logos as it is a raster-based program, which basically means that your pixels are constrained and you can’t just enlarge things without it losing quality.

To find a font that works best for your logo and brand identity, you can download fonts from Google and then use them in Adobe Illustrator. Try to stick with the same fonts for all your marketing material.

You can have great branded photos just by using Adobe Lightroom with Mastin Labs’ Lightroom presets. As you can see from the image sample below, you can see the photo straight out of my camera and then the preset applied on to the photo gives it a different look, not look so flat, and gives off a different feeling. Remember, we want feelings with our brand! If you want your brand to be memorable, stick with one filter for your photos to give it your signature look. This is especially crucial for brand awareness on Instagram as it is a visual platform.

My go to programs for all my graphic work are Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Lightroom. These programs are very handy when you are running an online business and don’t have a graphic designer. It’s especially handy when you are in the ecommerce and blogging business.

It’s time to apply the knowledge you’ve learned into creating your own brand! Download the pdf to get a sample of a brand identity as well as the cheat sheet for each branding archetype.