Branding Is A Personal Journey

Building a brand identity is an extremely personal experience. Designing logos, creating graphics and writing branding statements, includes a huge amount of necessary self-focused processing time.

Building a business and creating a brand that reflects your ideas and experience for many is a defining moment. Throughout our careers and life challenges we learn a lot about who we are and also who we are not. We soak up our experiences and learn from them in our own personal journey. However there are not many occasions where we open up and analyze all these profound moments and influential people who affect our lives.

Authors, speakers and thought leaders process their experiences to find the message that will resonate with their audience. Often this means revisiting difficult memories or reflecting on failures in order to find the positive outcome. This can be an emotional activity, and it takes time to digest.

When conceptualizing a brand, a significant part of the creative process is talking, story telling, getting to know our clients. This means going beyond what is your favorite color? Sharing your successes and failures is a brave thing to do and this means having faith in your creative team. A top class creative team will aid this process in natural progression to deliver customized results.

Here are 5 things to help you make the most of your creative team:

1. Ask for examples of previous work. Are the examples formulaic? Do the examples span different industries? This will give you an indication of the level of personal investment you can expect.
2. Ask for a detailed proposal with three price points. This will help to build your understanding of the process and time scale. This proposal should include details of any 3^rd party input and extra costs to avoid any nasty surprises.
3. Schedule regular check-ins. During the concept phase of development your project manager should maintain contact. Your creative team should have set up a file sharing or project facility such as Basecamp so you can access files and keep track of progress.
4. Don’t be shy…. If you have an idea or would like something changed speak out! It is your investment and you should feel good about the finished project. Your creative team’s greatest honor is a happy customer.
5. Maintain the relationship. Now you have reached a level of trust with your creative team, carry the affiliation forward. Offer a positive testimonial or permissions and in return you have an ally for future development.

It is important to remember trust is a two-way street; your creative team are professionals in their field. Good relations and mutual respect will have a huge bearing on the outcome of your project.

Emma Wyatt