Jen A. Miller Consulting

Tag: brand

How to bring your Brand Personality to life through design

Step 4: How to bring your Brand Personality to life through design

Hi guys! It’s Jen here where we’re breaking down everything you need to know to build your brand. And, we are smack dab in the middle of our series with Fiverr where I am showing you how to build a brand from the bottom up in just a few short weeks. I am super super excited to share my updates with you today. If you recall, last week we went through the exercise of filling out our brand equity charts. This is the tool that really lets us get to know our brands like they’re real people – what do they do, how do they make people feel, and what kind of personality do they have? There are so many ways this equity chart can be used but one of the biggest ways is to guide the development of your brand identity. And what do I mean by that? I simply mean the way your brand looks and talks. Otherwise said, it’s how we bring your brand personality to life through design

Let’s unpack a little further by starting with the way our brand looks.

First Impressions

Research reveals that we make a subconscious judgement about something within 90 seconds of seeing it. That means we need to make an awesome first impression every time someone encounters our brand. And an awesome first impression begins with how our brand looks or our brand design. It’s the outward expression of our equity that brings to life our brand personality.

The first step in developing your brand identity is to create a mood board which is a simple visual aid for bringing to life the look and feel of your brand. An easy way to build one is with Pinterest. Just create a new board and then begin to pin pictures that you feel reflect your brand personality.

The mood board sets the visual tone and is the source of inspiration for the core elements of your brand design like your colors and fonts.

It’s also an awesome tool when you’re working with creatives. It can really help them understand the look and feel you’re going for.

Which is exactly what I did this past week. Here’s my mood board:

While I had figured out what I wanted my brand to look like, I still didn’t have a name or logo. I turned to Fiverr for help with both of these things. So are you ready to see them, already??

Ok – tada!

So the name is Live Freely. And this was really inspired by this idea of the customer being freelancers and creatives and really anyone outside of the normal 9 – 5. It resonates both with who they are but also what the brand has to offer them.

And with the logo, I really wanted to reflect that spirit of being free. Which is why we chose this script font.

Besides influencing your logo, you can also use reference your mood board to identify your brand colors and fonts as well as and when you’re selecting images for everything from your website to an Instagram post.

Of course, visuals are only way one to communicate with your customers. The other is through your brand voice. Seems pretty straight forward but for a lot of people finding the perfect tone of voice is actually one of the most challenging parts of the brand building process.

So here’s my easy hack. Imagine how you’d talk to your customers if you met them at a party. Then, read out loud as if you actually are talking to them while you’re writing. I find that doing this really helps your words to come out more naturally. Another trick I like to use is to come up with a handful of signatures words and sayings which can really give your brand personality.

At this stage we’re really starting to see our brand come to life. Next week we’re going to talk about how we use this brand identity when we develop our website and social media.

Services Used + Cost

I Will Give Your Product, Invention, Business or Book A Name

– Basic, $35
– Medium, $65 (My choice)
– Premium, $115

I Will Create Your Logo and Brand Design

– Basic, $400
– Medium, $700
– Premium, $1,100 (My choice)

I Will Design A Product Package, Product Label or Product Box

– Basic, $50
– Medium, $50 (My choice)
– Premium, $50

Total: $1,215

Total for weeks 1-4: $1,975

PS: Want more tips on how to bring your brand personality to life and examples of how other brands have designed their brand identity? This post is for you.

If you missed week 1, week 2, or week 3 of this series, check them out.

Cheers!

Jen

November 28, 2017
How to build a brand equity that sets you apart from the crowd

Step 3: Brand Equity, Learning to Put it All Together

Hi guys! If you’re just popping in, I’m partnering with Fiverr to launch a new line of apparel for the freelance lifestyle and my very first product are these “work from home shoes”. Over the course of 8 weeks I’ll be building out a blueprint that you can follow to launch your own brand. Last week we dove into our brand story and how we start to talk about our brand. This week we’re going to go through how we use that work to develop our brand equity. Ok, so what do I mean by that?

Remember what we talked about last time? People don’t fall in love with brands because of what they sell. They fall in love with what a brand promises to do for them and how that brand makes them feel. In marketing lingo this is what we mean when we talk about a brand’s equity. It’s what a brand stands for in the hearts and minds of consumers. So how do you begin to stand for more than what you sell? That’s a great question. It’s about delivering on your mission statement through your words and actions. It’s how you talk to your customers, the content you put in their social media feeds, the bigger impact you have on the world, and ultimately every little interaction someone has with your brand.

The 5 Steps

To figure out what your brand equity is I like to use this 5 step framework:

First, list the tangible products and services your brand creates or provides. In my case this would be my work from home shoes.

Second, write out your brand’s unique points of difference – the reasons someone would choose you over another brand. I might list out how my shoes are handmade, super soft, really cute, the style is totally unique, and they come in a variety of awesome colors.

Third, decide how you want your brand to make people feel. I want my customers to feel comfortable but more than that’s it’s about feeling free to be creative, to be curious, and to explore.

Fourth, describe the traits your brand would have if she were a person. I’d say she was optimistic, free-spirited, an adventurer, and selfmade.

Lastly, summarize this all in a short statement that describes what your brand stands for. The way I feel I can best describe my brand is with the line ‘Free to Be’.

Don’t worry, if you didn’t catch all of that, below there’s a link to a free downloadable template that lays this all out for you!

It’s All Coming Together!

The important thing to know is that going through this process will help you see how the different parts of your brand all come together. You can then use this framework to evaluate whether something like a new product, partnership, or even a social media post helps or hurts the equity you’re working to establish.

At this stage, I also like to do competitive research to check that the brand I’m building truly has a distinct positioning versus others already in the market. For this project, this provided another great opportunity to hire help from Fiverr. I identified a few other brands who I believe my customers are likely already buying slippers from. I then worked with someone from Fiverr to get an understanding of how each positions itself. As I think about my pricing and messaging, I’ll be able to use this research to make sure I’m setting my brand apart.

The other way you’ll use this information is to develop our brand identity. Your brand colors, font choices, and name should all work together to bring to life this brand equity we’ve created. And that my friends, is exactly what we’ll be getting into next week!

Services Used + Cost

I Will Do An Awesome Competition Analysis

– Basic, $195 (My choice)
– Medium, $295
– Premium, $495

Total: $195

Total for Weeks 1-3: $760

PS: Want more tips on how to learn how to make your brand stand out in the hearts and minds of your customers? This post is for you.

If you missed week 1 or week 2 of this series, check them out.

Cheers!

Jen

November 21, 2017
Writing Your Brand Story and Brand Mission

Step 2: Focusing on your brand story and mission

I hope you remember that for the next few weeks, I’m partnering with Fiverr to show you how to build a brand from the bottom up! As a solopreneur what I love about Fiverr is that it gives me extra sets of hands to help me get more done. Their freelance services cover just about everything you can imagine which is going to be a huge help. YUGE. In case you missed the first episode and post, the brand I’ll be building is centered around these comfy and cute slippers. This week we will be talking about your brand mission.

Last week we talked about the importance of identifying your customers and how Fiverr can help with services like customer market research and surveys. I even had a cool freebie to help you bring all that research to life. Check out episode 1 if you missed it!

Storytelling

This week we’re going from who to what.

Have you noticed how some businesses make you fall in love with them? Like right off the bat of meeting, you’re ready to be bffs? Then wondered to yourself, how do they do that??

That right there is the power of a boss brand. They connect with us on a deeply emotional level and make us feel like you’re in on their party. And let’s admit, being on that guest list makes us feel damn good.

So, how do they do that? Well, it’s more than just a happy accident. It all starts with a story.

Storytelling is a part of human nature. When you share your brand story people are able to develop a trusting relationship with you. Think about it, would you rather buy something from someone you know nothing about or someone you know, trust, and like? I think we’d all vote for the latter.

My What

You’re probably wondering why I picked slippers to be my first product right? Well, here’s my story:

When I was in college I went on a trip to Peru to do some service work and I discovered these slippers while I was there. I loved them so much I began importing them from Alibaba, like before Alibaba was a thing (*whispers to side* so sketch) and I would sell them around campus straight out of my backpack. I’ve been wearing mine ever since which has been a long time. A. Long. Time. But I decided I wanted a fresh pair and lightbulb moment – I thought, I should totally resurrect the product for Slippers 2.0. New and improved and branded.

Now here’s the other half of that lightbulb moment. Earlier this year, I began coaching and consulting on my own which meant a lot more hours working from home. All of a sudden my work wear looked very different. Pants, what pants?

But seriously. I started calling my slippers my “work from home shoes”. Which got me thinking, about the market research that I’d done. I wasn’t in an empty boat. There’s a heck of a lot of us working from home. In fact, one piece of research stated that 40% of us are going to be part of the freelance economy by 2020. And for all of us, our definition of work wear is different because we have the luxury to wear whatever we want. That lead me to the idea for my new brand – a line of apparel and accessories that suits the freelance lifestyle. Clothes that allow you to feel free to be and work from where you choose – wherever you are in the world.

Why You Do What You Do – Your Brand Mission Statement

One of the things you’re going to uncover as you’re writing your brand story is your brand “why”. That is, why you do what you do? Why are you building this brand in the first place?

The way the answer to that question often manifests itself is in your mission statement. I like to think about your brand mission as the most important promise you will make to your customers. It is a declaration of what you’re going to do for your customers and how you plan to make it happen.

I’ve decided that my brand’s mission is to inspire entrepreneurial spirits to embrace their journey by redefining modern workwear. If you want more inspiration writing your mission statement, I’ve left a link below to a free download with 20 more examples.

Your brand mission is also where you begin to introduce your brand values.

It’s an important opportunity to reveal what you care about and will deepen the emotional bond you have with your core customers.

You brand story, mission, and values all make for great website content. You often find them on the “About” page and when done well, you can feel them come through in all of the content a brand produces.

With this in mind, I enlisted the help of a Fiverr content writer to help me start to write copy that I’ll be able to use once I’m ready to bring my brand online.

Service used + Cost Breakdown

I Will Do The Copy Writing For Your Website

– Basic, $350
– Medium, $500 (My choice)
– Premium, $570

Total for week 2: $500

Total for week 1 & week 2: $565

That’s all for this week. Next time we catch up we’re going to talk about how all of this work will be used to develop your brand positioning.

Cheers!

PS: Want more tips on how to write great mission statements and really connect with your customers? This post is for you.

If you missed week one of this series you can see it here.

November 14, 2017
The BEST Way to Get to Know Your Brand Customers
Step 1: Getting to Know Your Brand Customers

This week we’re talking about how to get to know your brand customers as well as your BFF.

Jen again, and this week, I start my new series and Fiverr partnership, How to Build Your Brand. If you’ve been in the Toast Meets Jam fam for awhile, then you know that this is the place to learn all about how to build your brand.

There’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and that is to take you through that process step by step – everything from picking out a brand name, to building a community of customers and fans, and all the parts in between.

So how’s this going to work?

Each week for the next 8 weeks I’m going to take you along with me as I build a new brand from scratch! If you’re not already subscribed, make sure you hit that button so you don’t miss any of the steps in the series!

Now since being a solopreneur can be kind of tough, I’m going to use Fiverr as much as possible to get some extra help. In these videos I’ll not only be talking to you about what I’m doing, but also what services I’ve hired out. Over on the Toast Meets Jam blog I’ll be sharing all the links to those services as well as how much money I spend along the way – so by the end you’re going to have this phenomenal blueprint you can follow to build your own brand. Pretty awesome, right? You Ready?

Ok, so let’s talk about what brand I’m actually going to build.

Tada!

These puppies are literally the softest, comfiest slippers on earth. And they have to be at least top 5 for the cutest – I mean soo cute.

My Who

Whenever I approach a new brand building project, the place I always start is with my who. And by that, I mean who are my customers and what do I know about them. I like to say that you should get to know your customers as well as your BFF. And here’s why:
- When you really know your brand customers you’ll know exactly what they need from you. This information is POWER. If you’re creating the right offerings you’ll get more sales.
- You’ll know how to sell to your brand customers in a way that isn’t salesy. When you can talk to your customers about how you’re going to help solve their biggest struggles or achieve their biggest dreams, magic happens.
- And, you will know when and where your brand customers want you to jump in. It’s the difference between your brand being an annoyance and a godsend.
On top of all of that, when you get this right, your customers will love you for it. So much in fact that they’ll want to tell the world about your brand. Because you’ve been so darn amazing for them they’ll want to let others into the secret. This is literally MONEY because you know what?

92% percent of consumers around the world say they trust word-of-mouth or recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.

Fiverr Partnership

Okay, by now I hope we can agree that getting to know our customers is a fundamental first step. The next question is what to do about it.

Well for me, this was the perfect opportunity to turn to Fiverr for help. You can actually hire marketing pros who can put together market research studies and surveys to help you figure out who your ideal customer is. This research can help you determine the demographics of your customers like age, gender, and location. But even better, it can also help you understand what they like and don’t like. What other brands they currently shop, and where they like to spend their time online.

Through my market research we discovered that the most likely buyer of my product was women between 25 – 35 in the US, primarily along the coasts. We also learned that she’s very interested in the arts, fashion, current events, and entrepreneurship. In fact, one interesting stat that came out of our research is that many of them don’t work traditional 9-5 jobs but are actually consider themselves to be creatives, entrepreneurs, and freelancers.

Like I said, having this data is golden but sometimes it can hard to really make sense of. For that reason, after I gather my market research, I like to use all of the insights to create customer personas. For me, this is the best way to get to know your customer because it really starts to bring them to life.

So you can see here, I have my customer persona.

It describes her demographics but also her personality. And this is really great because as I’m thinking about what my brand customers want I can think about them in terms of this girl rather than a generic person. Click below to get a free download of this template.

Services Used + Cost Breakdown

Service – I Will Conduct Online Survey With Up To 500 Real US Consumers

Price
– Basic, $5
– Medium, $20 (My choice)
– Premium, $120

Service – I Will Write A Clothing Business Plan

Price
– Basic, $5
– Medium, $20
– Premium, $45 (My choice)

Total for Week 1 = $65.00

Well that’s it for me this week. Next week we’ll start getting into figuring out what your brand stands for. I’ve already got a lot to do, so I’m going to duck out and get to work. Come back next week to see what I’ve found out!

Cheers!

PS: Want more tips on how to better get to know your brand customers? This post is for you.
November 7, 2017
How This Female Entrepreneur Built the Perfect Bag for Working Women

An interview with Melissa Mash | Co-founder and CEO of Dagne Dover

Ever rummaged through your purse for a full five minutes before finding your keys … or wallet … or headphones?

Girl, we’ve all been there.

Most of the bags I own never have enough compartments and are impossible to keep organized.

Luckily, one woman is changing the game in a MAJOR way.

Melissa Mash is the c0-founder and CEO of Dagne Dover, a company that builds functional handbags, backpacks, and accessories for fashion-forward women.

Watch our interview above or read it below … I hope you enjoy!

Melissa Mash: After seeing this was a problem that every single woman had (and actually a lot of men too!), I thought, “OK. Absolutely, I’m gonna start this.”

Melissa Mash: I worked at Coach corporate for a long time in New York. In 2009, I had the opportunity to turnaround Coach’s 1st store ,which was in London at Heathrow Terminal 5. It was through that experience of managing a store, a team and actually speaking with customers every single day that I got to hear their biggest handbag frustrations. I saw that there was a real need in the market for a brand that nailed the fashion piece, that of course nailed the work/organization piece and that was a very compelling value.

Jen Hacker: So, when this light bulb went off for you, where did you take from there? Did you think, “yes, I need to start a business!” or did you think “ these other brands need to fix their bags”?

Melissa Mash: No, I was like “they’re not gonna do it.” There really need to be a new brand that is made for this generation that really speaks to their values. This was in 2009, so Bonobos and Baublebar had started to emerge for direct-to-consumer verticals, but no one had done it yet for handbags. I honestly wasn’t totally sold that I was going to do this immediately, but I had always wanted to start my own business. It was always part of the plan but I tabled that idea, I decided to apply to business school and went in with a completely different business idea. It was during that time that I saw my peers doing what I call the ‘two-bag schlep.’

They’d go to recruiting events and they’d have 15 clothes in one bag and their professional stuff in the other and they’d try to pull out a resume, chargers, gum wrappers, flyers … these were people who were perfectly put together from head to toe: the hair, the makeup, the clothes, the shoes – but their bags were a complete disaster. A lot of the time also, they would either carry something that looked like a gym bag or something that was too flashy to be professional. They knew it but they didn’t know what else buy to replace it. So, after seeing that this was literally a problem that every single woman had and actually a lot of men too wanted different options, I was like “OK. Absolutely. I’m gonna start this.” So, the first thing that was really important was doing adequate market research – we were not going to pretend we know everything and just create this thing, put it out there, and hope people buy it. We wanted to make sure there was product-market fit, so we surveyed a focus group of 1,000 people. We got samples made so that people could have something to base their opinions off of. But, it was really backwards engineering based off of that feedback: “OK, the drop length of the handle needs to be this length … the key strap needs to be this length.” Taking all that feedback into consideration, we did pricing studies, we did the basic branding elements, and built it all into our brand.

image credit: being melody

Jen Hacker: Talk about that a bit more because I’m always interested to understand how the brand part comes about. Obviously you had the product. But how did you come up with like the actual Dagne Dover brand and the identity and what it was going to mean?

Melissa Mash: So, it was really important for our brand to be something more than just arm candy or a pretty face and we felt the name really needed to reflect that. Dagne is a Nordic word for “new day.” This bag is really there to prep you for whatever the day hits you with. It should be as intuitive as an iPhone, it should have everything so you have easy access to your things. Dover is Jessie’s last name, so it really is like the creative face is part of the brand name, and Dagne is, “there for you.”

Jen Hacker: What was that space then from all the research to actually getting to launch? What were the steps?

Melissa Mash: We were running dual paths in terms of doing the branding, market research and connecting with factories, suppliers, and sourcing everything. It was a lot of hustling all these tiny little pieces to get the samples made, get a website up, and all of that. We launched the brand in 2013 with a pre-sale and said this is what the bag looks like, this is what the price is at, these are the colors … would you buy it? And people did, it was awesome! A lot of our first customers came from that group who were in the focus groups and they were like “yes, I really wanna try this product” but I think that something that really resonated with our customer base is feeling like they’re a part of the story. So much of what we attribute our early success to was our early social media following – organic social media. This was a time where you could post and people would actually see your posts. You didn’t have to pay for everything. We couldn’t pay. Every single dollar was going towards making the product, improving how this business needed to exist. But really, that’s what a lot of people were super drawn to is we were three women and we had handbag problems and we decided to do something about it and this is made for a generation of us.

image credit: ecocult

Jen Hacker: We often see or hear these stories where it sounds like everything just went perfect. Was there any moment where you thought, what are we doing? Is this going to work?

Melissa Mash: To be totally fair, that was the cliff notes version, so that’s why it may sound like that. It wasn’t like that at the time. There was no moment where we were like “we’re going to fail, this is it, this was a mistake”. I think there are a lot of like foundational things that are really important early on that founders need to do their due diligence for before they take anything at face value. You should never think just because everyone does something that’s the right way of doing it.

Jen Hacker: That leads into my last question which is that for someone who’s got an idea and wants to start their business, what would you advise them right now to think about?

Melissa Mash: Following through with that concept, there is no formula for success in a digital media brand today. What worked for us 2-3 years ago is not necessarily what’s going to work for a brand today and certainly not two years from now. Sometimes, we go to talks or sit on panels and people ask us, “who did you use for PR? Who did you use for this?” This is part of the ecosystem in your head that you should have in mind, like “oh, this could be helpful for that my work” but you figure out which of those points are actually helpful for your business and then focus on them, versus just assuming that there is a formula for working with this PR agency, you work with this distribution center or you get funded by this type of investor, that’s absolutely not true.

Jen Hacker: Well, I think what you’re doing is working, I have seen the process, I’ve seen you guys everywhere … so congratulations on all the success! I appreciate you sharing your story with us and for everyone who’s aspiring to take the same path or their own version of that path. So, thank you and a toast to you and Dagne Dover!

Ready to learn how to build your own brand? This post is for you.

October 27, 2017