Sibila Ribeiro joins the podcast to teach us how to create and build your brand. Here are the steps to get clear on your story, concept and identity.

Your story:

1) Uncover what makes you unique.

Identify what will set you apart from everyone else. It will help you establish credibility with your audience.

2) Find your why.

Finding your why will create brand resonance, a memorable first impression and a lasting emotional connection. Focus on why your business exists instead of what your business does. Ask yourself these questions:

– What led you to create your business and why?
– What parts of your own story can help your business stand out?
– What is the impact you’re hoping to create with your offering?
– Why do you have a soft spot for your audience?

(Pro tip: Be vulnerable, empathetic, and most of all, authentic.)

3) Identify your ideal audience.

Get specific. Don’t try to talk to everybody!

Visualize your ideal customer and ask yourself these questions.

– What makes your ideal customer unique?
– What are their fears? Their strengths?
– What specific difference do you hope to make in their life?
– Psychographics instead of demographics.
– Focus on values and beliefs instead of age or gender group.
– Is the person you want to be working with?
– Will they buy what you are offering?

4) Identify your brand benefit or promise

– What is the benefit a person walks away with from your product or service?
– What specific problem are you solving with your product or service?
– What value are you adding to someone’s life?
– Tell your audience what’s in it for them
– Differentiate benefits vs features. Feature: a factual statement about your product or service. Benefit: what your customer can do or be with your product or service

Your concept:

Steps to translate your unique story into a brand foundation.

1) Think of your brand as a person.

What are their qualities? Attitude? Style. Does this match up with your audience and your mission?

2) Establish your tone words.

Select 5 words that will become the basis of your brand. Look for clues in your audience, mission and benefit. These words will help reverse engineer the emotion of your brand.

(Example: artistic, creative, romantic, relatable, minimalist, bold, soulful, classic, vibrant, mystic, luxurious, feminine, fresh, playful, uplifting, exclusive, earthy, vintage.)

3) Build a visual vocabulary.

Find what each tone word looks and feels in terms of imagery and design elements. Pull together the right inspiration images into a mood board. Search for your tone words on Pinterest, It’ll help your tone words come to life and defines a basic brand aesthetic “look & feel” as a starting point for your visual identity.

Your Identity

Identify your brand identity assets.

1) Color palette

2) Brand Typography.

Use Google Fonts if you are a beginner or Typekit for intermediate users. Look for fonts that align with your tone. Must be legible and readable. Be wary of trendy fonts. Use hierarchy: bold, colors, sizes, different fonts for different situations

3) Pairing fonts: balance similarity with contrast, different enough but not competing.

4) Logo.

Ask yourself these questions:

– Is is versatile?
– Can it live in a lot of situations? Can it stand the test of time?
– Does it represent the tone of your brand? Is it memorable?

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