I loved talking all things branding at the Bridal Retail Success Academy at Bridal Week Harrogate! It was great to talk directly to boutique owners and inspired my next article, as I wanted to share some key points with Bridal Buyer readers. 

So, why is branding so important?

Your branding is your identity. It’s what allows your audience to connect with you, and connections are key in any successful business. Once a connection is built, you’re more likely to convert your audience into a customer. 
It should run through your whole business, from your values to your store interiors and your website to your social media. You need brand consistency across all your touchpoints to build trust with your customers.
You need to dig deep when it comes to branding, it’s not just a logo. It needs to come from understanding who you are as a business and what your goals are. Once you’ve established these fundamentals, you can then explore how you want to present this to your audience and it should drive all verbal and visual communication.

Brand Values & Mission Statement

WHAT IS A MISSION STATEMENT

A statement that communicates your purpose and objectives. It summarises why your business exists.

A GREAT MISSION STATEMENT

-    Combines physical, emotional and logical elements and creates a connection with your customer
-    Helps you stand out by differentiating you from others in your sector
-    Is ambitious and bold

WHAT ARE COMPANY VALUES

Fundamental beliefs and principles that guide your organization

GREAT COMPANY VALUES ARE:

-    Clear - Easily understandable so they can be applied across your business
-    Authentic - Properly reflect your culture, who you are and your beliefs
-    Memorable - Short and catchy so everyone remembers them
-    Actionable -  Guide you through decision making
Some of my favourite brand mission statements are: 
TED: Spread ideas, foster community, and create impact
MICROSOFT: To empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more
DISNEY: To entertain, inform, and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling
You should have a document that outlines both your mission statement and your brand values that is easy to understand and can be used by both internal staff and external businesses to ensure your branding is consistent and effective.

Visual Branding

Visual branding is what people see when they interact with your business. This is often the most obvious form of branding, and it’s incredibly important as it helps people understand who you are when they are making quick judgements. 
In order to have fantastic visual branding, it needs to be consistent. It needs to follow rules to ensure that wherever your audience see your branding it matches with your other touchpoints. To do this, you need a brand style guide.

WHAT IS A BRAND STYLE GUIDE?

It defines the design, composition and look-and-feel of a company’s branding.
It is a rule book for internal staff and external contractors to use to ensure your brand is always consistent when presented to your audience.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A BRAND STYLE GUIDE?

-    Logo
-    Colour palette
-    Typography
-    Imagery
FOR YOUR FREE BREAKDOWN ON WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN YOUR BRAND STYLE GUIDE, EMAIL eokstudios@outlook.com

Verbal Branding

Verbal branding is what people read or hear. You need to clearly define how you wish to speak to/with your audience and ensure you have clear standards that can be followed across all audience touchpoints. To do this, you’ll need a Tone of Voice document.

WHAT IS MY TONE OF VOICE?

It serves as a guide of what to say and how to say it when presented to your audience.
It should be used across social media captions, website copy, in-store materials, email content and in-person communication with customers.

HOW TO DEFINE MY TONE OF VOICE

-    Brand values
-    Think about your audience
-    The ’No’ list
-    Voice features
FOR YOUR FREE BREAKDOWN ON WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN YOUR TONE OF VOICE, EMAIL eokstudios@outlook.com

What steps can you take to wow your customer with your branding:

1 – Create your brand values & mission document
2 – Take a look at your social media and website – these are two of the most common places that your bride will travel between – note down any ways you think they visually & verbally don’t line up and take action on fixing this
3 – Choose 5 words to cover your tone of voice – how do you want to communicate with your customer. Put these somewhere that can always be seen when you are creating external communications

If you would like help with defining your mission statement and brand values, want assistance curating your brand tone of voice or feel like your boutique needs a visual brand refresh, get in touch by emailing eokstudios@outlook.com and we can chat through how I can help! 
Or if you want 1-2-1 support on other aspects of your boutique marketing, drop me an email and I’d love to arrange a consultation call.