Modish Biz Tips

Incorporate Charitable Work into your Brand Indentity

The following is a guest post by Meredith Keller

{photo by raceytay}

The key to brand building is telling a story. Anyone can sell handbags or earrings, part of what makes your products stand out is the personality behind the business. There are lots of great ways to show a bit of yourself to your customers: create a Flickr account, maintain a blog. Share your process, share your workspace, share a bit of you. One valuable way to share with your customers is through your charitable activities. We all like to do business with socially responsible companies, so if you're involved with a good cause make this part of your brand's story.

1. Be Authentic

If you're not currently involved in a charitable organization, your first task is to select one. When doing this, make sure it's a charity you really care about. For one thing, it will come across as more genuine when you tell the story and for another, it will help you stay engaged with your charity. Some good examples include running a marathon for breast cancer, teaching art classes to underprivileged youth, or volunteering for a conservation organization.

Ideally, you'd want to pick something that fits with your brand. If you're an illustrator, teaching art classes might be a natural fit. If you make products from recycled goods the conservation organization might make more sense. At Ex-Boyfriend, we are very involved with local animal rescues. Our whole company is run by animal lovers and a lot of our illustrations feature some of our favorite critters. Our customers are likely to be animals lovers and interested in our work with animal rescues, so it makes sense to share our experiences with them.

2. Tell the story

Marais: A study in awesomely effective marketing

I just came across this remarkable example of how to use video on your site to effectively draw in your customers and had to share it with you!

From Daily Candy this morning I stumbled upon Marais, a new start-up shoe company run by a bunch of awesome, down to earth, versatile and smart women. And how do I know that about them? Because I "met" them on their site through photos and videos.

Not only are their shoes fantastic enough for me to want to buy them anyway (key to successful business #1: have a good product! :) but their marketing efforts really seal the deal:

• The entire site is infused with their personality- when you first head there, you're led directly to a page that introduces all the women involved in the company. Click on their pics, and you see an about page on each of them that integrates photos and video- you can see them and hear them and get a sense of who they are.
• The about pages also link to the girls' individual favorite shoes from their line so if you identify with the style of one of the girls, you can click right over and see (and purchase!) the shoes they like best.
• The whole "Marais world" section is really brilliant- it creates an ideal "world" of what it's like to live in their shoes. It depicts the lifestyle who they see as their target customers, allowing us to relate to them all the more. This awesome "A Day with Marais" video gives a glimpse into what the girls behind Marais are like and also what their target customers are like. It shows them having fun hula-hooping, picnicing in the park, walking along trails and running around taking pictures, all the while wearing their line of shoes, of course. They make you want to be part of their world. Plus, the video let's you see the shoes "in action" so to speak and makes them appear to be super comfy and perfect for everyday life.

Obviously I'm exactly the customer they're targeting- a fashionable 20-something who likes cute, but comfortable shoes and can't spend a fortune on them. And let me tell you, their marketing worked on me. I checked out every shoe, thought of which colors would look best with which outfits hanging in my closet... I didn't purchase today, no, but that doesn't matter. I'm affected, they're in my head and bookmarked- I'm going to remember their site and I'm very likely going to buy from them in the future. That's what you want your marketing to do too.

I think they are a great example of really effective marketing and branding- they create a presence in a real way and look, it got them on Daily Candy! Check out their site for ideas of how to incorporate video and more of your personality into your own website, so you can connect with your customers even better.

The next 3 steps to Build your Brand

{image from Abbey Christine, who's rockin' her personal brand at Renegade Chicago}

Last time, I introduced the concept of your own personal "brand" and how to start building it up. Today, I'll focus on the more "literal" aspects of branding. This will be most insightful to newbies who are just starting their businesses and need to begin from the top, but hopefully even those with more established businesses can incorporate some of the tips. (And psst: if you've been around the block already, I'd love to hear your insight and experiences of your own branding choices!)

As I stated in the last article, branding is the most essential tool you have for the success of your business. It's what will differentiate your products, your services and make you stand out from the pack. 

Smart branding makes you more memorable in the eyes of customers and keeps them coming back. So, it's time to start building up the image you'd like to present to the world. There's a few branding basics that every website needs:

1. A name

It's hard enough naming a cat, but to name your precious business, all your sweat and hard work- what's the best way to go? 

First, your name needs to be original. You can take a peek at this guest post by Maddy over on Modish for tips on how to find a business name that's not already in use. Also, you want a name that's memorable and one that is easy to communicate, easy to say. 

I'm a fan of kind of "non-specific" names because they allow your work and your branding to give them definition (and if you change directions here and there as you figure things out, you can still stick with the same name- an added bonus!) For instance, what does Pink loves Brown sell? How bout Moop? Or Honey & Milk? While your name should relate to what you create in some way, it doesn't have to be explicit, like these examples show. 

Make your business name fun, make it interesting, engage your customers to find out more. Choose something that shows your personality and means something to you. You want a name that can take you through many long and successful years, right?

2. A tagline or slogan

4 Things you need to do to Build your Brand

{photo by lolololori, brand strategy}

Once you find your niche within this big ol' crafty, artsy world, you can start building your brand around it. 

As small business owners and entrepreneurs, we can actually take a great lesson from the mass-produced products we've come to love (and sometimes loathe) when we explore how their brands were built. 

A strong brand can become synonymous with the product itself, above all its competitors. For example, we often say "post-it" instead of sticky note, "kleenex" instead of tissue, "sharpie" instead of permanent marker, and those are just the brands I noticed here on my desk!

These examples show how impactful a strong brand can be for your business. In fact, I'd say that

branding is the most essential tool you have for the success of your business.

All your future marketing efforts will stem from the brand you create. So first, let's explore the more implicit elements of your brand, the stuff your customers can't necessarily see but can definitely feel.  These are things like:

• your image
• your personality
• the perception of your product quality
• your customer service

A brand is much more than a good name and cool logo; your brand is your identity, your promise to your customers, what you can deliver. Your brand is the sum of all your parts. It's what customers perceive of your business the second they come to your shop. It's what tells them they'll find something here that they won't find elsewhere and it's what makes them think of you when they think of "silver flower necklaces" or "mushroom paintings" or whatever it is you've found your niche in. 

How do you start to build your brand?