What is Your Brand Image?

Nailing your brand image may not happen instantly and it may not be easy, but it is super important. So, let’s start with the basics, what is your brand image and why does it matter?

Your brand image

Your brand image is the perception or impression people have of your brand. It develops based on people’s experience of and interactions with you as a brand and although it can be quite subtle, it flavours how people think of you. Think of those instantaneous, knee-jerk, and almost subconscious reactions you have to some things, before you’ve even had a chance to think it through.

For example, you may subconsciously associate a politician with sleaze. And before they even begin to speak (and regardless of whether they have a positive and genuine message to convey on this occasion) they start on the back foot as far as you’re concerned. Their brand image is tarnished and they’re going to have a tough job cleaning it up.

Clearly, you want your brand image and that first gut reaction people have to your brand to be both a positive one and also a reflection of everything that your brand stands for. And the success of achieving that is in the detail.

It’s not just about your logo and graphics

When it comes to thinking about your brand image you need to think about every single aspect of your business. Of course, that includes your logo, your website, your copy, and the images and photography you use. But it also involves much more, including how you answer the telephone, your customer service, the way you write your terms and conditions… in short, any area of your business.

So, for example, if you are a fun and slightly whacky brand, but your terms and conditions are terminally boring and filled with legal jargon, there is a disconnect between these and your brand image. You’d need to re-write your T and Cs and inject a little fun into them (whilst making sure they’re still legally effective of course).  Every single way in which you interact both with the public and with your own staff counts towards building your brand image.

But how?

In order for your brand image to be effective and come across as genuine, you and your team need to live and breathe this stuff, and a great way to achieve that is to nail 5 key areas. They are all interlinked, and they should all underpin everything you do:

Your purpose.  As a business, what gets you up in the morning and then gets you excited? Why do you do what you do? If it helps, research your competitors and see what they say about their purpose. A simple example for a restaurant might be: to serve nourishing and delicious food that people love. It’s short, it’s clear, it’s to the point. And it also has a dash of inspiration about it.

Your vision. Inextricably linked to your purpose is, of course, your vision for the future. Do you want to make the planet a better place, to make people’s lives simpler, to inspire people? Our restauranteur (who happens to be based in Hampshire) may have a vision to help make it easier for the people of Hampshire to eat better and be healthier.

Your mission.  Quite simply, how are you going to achieve your vision? And don’t just think about the practical aspects of the how. Think about the tone and manner in which you want to achieve this – with kindness, with fun, with determination?

This will help you unravel your values. Our restaurateur may be determined to offer affordable, nutritious food sourced entirely from local, organic producers via restaurants situated on farms. He may also want to help educate people about food production and nutrition in an easy-to-understand but non patronising way.

Your values. I always think values are tricky little creatures which are not necessarily as easy to pin down as you might think. They need to be genuinely felt by everyone and meaningful, so just trotting out: our values of fun, transparency, and integrity isn’t going to cut it.

Try and identify those values that really sing to you: is your brand adventurous, inspirational, calm, whacky, bold? What lights up your office and gets your pulse racing or alternatively, what brings you a profound sense of wellbeing? For our restauranteur it feels like his values would be honesty, nature, and being natural (yes, that can be a value if it’s important to you), being down to earth, educational, etc.

Your USP. In unravelling all the above, you may have the answer to this one already: what makes you different and unique from your competitors?

Inject and infuse everything you do with the above

Once you’ve gone through the list above, you should have a deeper understanding of the very essence of your business and have a checklist by which to live.

From now on in, all of the above should colour all your communications and interactions: how you answer the phone, what colours you choose for your branding, how you dress for meetings, how you write your blogs, the tone and message of your brand story.

I know one entrepreneur whose values are to be bold, different, and adventurous. She wears startingly bright patterns and eclectic jewellery, bounces into meetings, and writes her blogs with a sense of irreverence. In short, everything she does oozes her values.

Keep going

Some of the above advice is easy to give but harder to follow, I know. It can take trial, error, and time to nail your brand image and then make sure you always convey it. But it’s one of those things that does make a difference both to how you’re perceived and how you grow and expand as a brand. If you’d like more advice about nailing your brand image, why not get in touch. You can contact me on 07988 676219 or email me here.