Is Branding Important?

Intro

Branding Explained + Why Consistency Online Matters

Okay, so what is branding? The simple explanation about branding is, it's like your business's personality. It's how people see you and how they remember you. Think of your brand, as a person. What kind of clothes does it wear? What is it like? Your brand is what makes you unique, just like a person's personality. What comes to mind when you think about your favorite brands? For me, I love Apple. When I see the Apple logo, I think of sleek, tech, minimalist, clean all the things that speak to me. I love the store, the store is very clean. I've always said I would love to work there because I think it would just be a fun job to do, they've done an excellent job of branding and they speak to a certain person and each person that likes that clean tech minimalist look is drawn to their is drawn to their brand, so they've done a great job of that.

Consistency with your brand – it's important to be the same awesome self you are whenever you show up online. So for me, ya’ll know that I am kind of funny, I don't always know or have the things done that I'm supposed to do, but I'm trying! I want you to know that it's okay to be fun and entertaining – not everything is perfect. I mean, again, I've been in business for 27 years now, and haven't been doing this online business that long. However, learning the online space learning, then going live, all that kind of stuff, that takes time and you need to give yourself grace, it’s okay that you screw up, it's okay. So, just give yourself grace and learn that, as you're learning. It's okay to be a beginner, so give yourself permission to be a beginner. Again, you want to be the same awesome self that you show up every single time you want to be. So imagine you meet a friend, sometimes they're happy. Sometimes they're serious. It's confusing, right? So consistency and branding are like being that friend who is always reliable and true to themselves. Why does it matter? People connect with personalities and values. When your brand has a consistent personality, it stands for something, it becomes a friend to your customers, they'll remember you, and they'll recommend you, and they'll keep coming back for more.

For our brand for our air conditioning company. Besides the logo, it's the logo, it's the colors, it's what people think of when they think of our air conditioning company, and so it's airwaves, and the logo is kind of a wave like the air going through when you imagine it. The colors are blue, red, and white. Which red, white, and blue for our country, our state, but also the heating and the cooling. So red for heat, cool, blue for cold. And the slogan I came up with all those years ago, is “Cooling the Texas heat wave.” And because in Texas, it's always hot. So that's what our focus is, is cooling the Texas heat wave. It’s keeping you cool and comfortable, and then it's changed a little bit over time as far as the logo goes because it's improved and modernized. The font for the rest of the company name “Air Conditioning and Heating Inc.” is just a simple font, because I like a minimal font, it doesn't take away from the logo. And when people see our name, I want them to know that, that that's us, and to know that it's good quality and that we're reliable and trustworthy. And so I haven't advertised for our business in a lot of years. Just recently, my husband joined this networking group, and they are doing a billboard advertisement. But before that, I did not advertise our business, I probably haven't advertised anything in at least 15 years 10 to 15 years, and so all of our customers are either customers that we've had for all of these years, or they're word of mouth.

And so word of mouth is the best form of advertisement, which we're not talking about advertisement today, but it's the best form. When you have built a brand and you've built your company and your company speaks to your customers, then your customers will share that with their friends and their family so that they can experience the same thing that our customers experience. Those are things you want to make sure that you're speaking consistently to your customers whenever they come. I want to talk about my tanning business today. But again, my tanning business has a specific brand, and I rebranded I guess I am going to talk about it for a second. Sorry. So, I rebranded it in 2019. When I originally created my brand logo, it was in 2001. It was a fun logo and it had a sun in it and a palm tree, and it just resonated with, you know, easygoing, laid back, and in being tan. Then as I changed, as I grew, and as I developed, and I changed into a spray tanning business, that logo, while it still went with it, to me it was more the childish part of my business, the beginning. So I rebranded and I really liked modern. My kind of thought is coastal, modern, and minimalism if that's even a thing, but it's my thing. Now my colors are not blues, so coastal, but they're earthy colors. And so with my brand, I have a new modern name, I mean, the name is still the same, but I use modern text, so a very straight text, and then I have like just a single palm leaf over. What it says to me whenever I think of my logo, is that it is clean and simple. It is very relaxing, and luxurious and also is tanning. So whenever people say “I gotta get a tan” that's what I came up with the name for. With the way it is now, people say “I gotta get a spray tan” or “I get a spray tan”, but I'm obviously not changing my name to “I gotta gotta get a spray tan.” I've had that business for 22 years. So again, I'm not an advertiser on that as well. A lot of it is word of mouth. So, back to this. You want to keep them coming back for more.

I want you to grab your imaginary superhero cape and start defining your brand's awesome personality and values. And it's time to make your business a true superhero in the eyes of your customers. And if you don't have your business yet, it's okay. Start thinking about what your personality is, what your business's personality is, and what you want to convey to your customers. When they see your name, or when they see your logo. What do you want them to think? What do you want them to know? So the goal is to make sure that your brand language is easy to understand, relatable, and engaging. It's like having a friendly chat with your customers making them feel comfortable and excited about what you offer.

Just like having a Coffee Chat with Candice, you want it to be you, you want it to be a comfortable conversation. You want them to feel comfortable, and you want it to make them want more from you. In the comments, I would love to hear what your brand says about you. If you don't have a brand yet, talk about what you want your brand to say. Put that in the comments and let's have a discussion about it.