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Image credit: Vanity Fair Note: This brand archetypes article will continue to be developed and enhanced. All images below are credited to Getty, the individuals mentioned, notable publications, or their employers. VCM Strategies takes no credit for the images in this article. Black Brand Archetypes (12 Personalities) It is September 18, 2022, when writing this, and I could not find brand archetypes solely representative of people from the African Diaspora. So, I decided to create one. Brand archetypes were initially identified by the psychologist, Carl Jung, to represent common personality types. There are 12 core personality types, each with four sub-brand archetypes. Brand archetypes are great for getting clear on who we are and the who of our brand. Here they are: Brands/People Who Want to: Leave a Legacy | Be Remembered The Outlaw, The Magician, and The Hero Brands/People Who Want to: Provide Structure The Caregiver, The Creator, and The Ruler Brands/People Who Want to: Explore Spirituality | Seek Paradise | Obtain True Freedom The Innocent, The Sage, and The Explorer Brands/People Who Want to: Pursue Connection The Lover, The Everyman/Everywoman, and The Jokester Why Brand Archetypes Effective For Brands Brand archetypes are effective in marketing for several reasons: They create a clear and consistent brand identity By aligning a brand with a specific archetype, it can create a clear and consistent brand identity that resonates with customers and stakeholders. This can make it easier for them to understand what the brand stands for and what it offers. They tap into universal themes and values Brand archetypes are based on universal themes and values that are familiar to people across cultures and generations. By tapping into these archetypes, brands can create an emotional connection with customers and stakeholders, making their message more relatable. They help differentiate a brand from its competitors By using a specific archetype, a brand can differentiate itself from its competitors and stand out in a crowded marketplace. This can help customers and stakeholders remember the brand and build a long-term relationship with it. They provide a framework for storytelling Brand archetypes provide a framework for storytelling that can help brands create a compelling narrative that resonates with customers and stakeholders. This can help to create a deeper emotional connection with customers and stakeholders and make the brand more memorable. They provide guidance for marketing and branding decisions By using an archetype as a guide, brands can make marketing and branding decisions more easily and consistently. This can save time and resources and help to create a more cohesive brand image. Overall, brand archetypes are effective in marketing because they help brands create a clear and consistent identity that resonates with their target audience and sets them apart from their competitors. Black Brand Archetypes (of the African Diaspora) Brands/People Who Want to: Leave a Legacy | Be Remembered The Outlaw The Outlaws - think Missy Elliott, Lil Naz X, or Stacey Abrams. As an Outlaw brand, you desire liberation. Also known as the activist, gambler, maverick, or reformer. Outlaw brands look to shake things up by doing things differently. No one is going to put them in a box or make them obey the social systems in place that would make many feel like conforming is the best way to exist. Appeal to this archetype by letting them know that you share the same view on life. Show them that the revolution shall not be televised but that there is one happening. Promise: Revolution Goal: Change systems that are not working Values: Liberation, Change, Justice, Independence, Freedom, Autonomy Fears: Conformity, Complacency, Dependence, Servitude, Obedience Voice: Disruptive, Combative, Rebellious, Headstrong Strategy: Disrupt the status quo Motto: "Break the rules, create your own path." The motto, "break the rules, create your own path," encourages customers to embrace their individuality and reject the norms of society while also suggesting that the brand itself is doing the same thing. It's a powerful statement that can resonate with people who are looking for something different and unconventional in their lives. The Magician The Magicians - think Disney Imagineer, Lanny Smoot, Dasia Taylor, or Arlyne Simon. As a Magician brand, you also provide transformations. Also known as the alchemist, engineer, innovator, or scientist. Magician brands make what seems to be impossible possible. These brands use a depth of information that others typically do not know to lead in creating transformations. They have a vision for what they want to see, and they go forth to make it a reality. Appeal to the Magician by inviting them along the journey of transformation or by creating a magical moment for them. Promise: Transformation Goal: Make dreams come true Values: Transformation, Oneness, Curiosity, Manifesting, Magical Moments, Self-Preservation Fears: Consequences, Stagnation, Uncertainty, Ignorance Voice: Reassuring, Encouraging, Hopeful, Mystical, Informed Strategy: Create a unique vision Motto: "Transform your world with our magic." The motto, "transform your world with our magic," for the Magician archetype is about creating something new and exciting that can change people's lives. This motto captures that spirit. It suggests that the brand has the power to transform people's worlds and create something magical and amazing. By using this motto, a Magician brand can tap into the emotions and aspirations of its customers and inspire them to take action and make a change in their lives. The Hero The Heroes - think Mohammad Ali, John Lewis, or Nanisca of the Women King, played by Viola Davis. As a Hero brand, you inspire others to feel empowered and to succeed, rising to one's ambitions. Also known as the athlete, liberator, rescuer, or warrior. Most Hero brands embody the principle, "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," in the words of Mohammad Ali. To do so takes a level of focus and level-headedness to be precise in the actions one needs to take to move forward. A Hero brand, deep down, really just wants to save the day because it believes it can. Appeal to the Hero brand by making others feel like they can be a Hero, too. One who stands up for what's right and takes challenges head-on. Promise: Triumph Goal: Improve the world Values: Mastery, Courage, Strength, Stamina, Goodness, Redemption, Transformation Fears: Incompetence, Cowardice, Downfall, Incapability Voice: Honest, Candid, Brave, Gutsy Strategy: Be motivational and strong-willed Motto: "Empower your inner hero." The motto, "empower your inner hero," taps into the heroic qualities of the archetype, calling customers to be a hero themselves. It focuses on empowering the hero within them. The motto suggests that the brand's products or services have the power to unlock the customer's inner hero and help them achieve their goals and dreams. It can be very effective in appealing to customers who may feel overwhelmed or uncertain about their ability to be heroic. People Who Want to: Provide Structure The Caregiver The Caregivers - think Iyana Vanzant, Supernanny Deborah Tillman, or JoMarie Payton as Harriet on Family Matters, the TV show. As a Caregiver brand, you help those in need in a motherly way. Also known as the angel, guardian, healer, or samaritan. The Caregiver brand is out to care for and protect others. Healthcare professionals and nonprofits often fall under the Caregiver archetype. Appeal to this personality by making customers feel cared for, protected, and safe. Promise: Empathy Goal: To help others Values: Compassion, Empathy, Gratitude, Service, Support, Self-Care, Kindness Fears: Neglect, Blame, Helplessness, Anguish Voice: Supportive, Caring, Warm, Protective Strategy: Serve others Motto: "Empathy is a superpower." The motto, "empathy is a superpower," emphasizes the importance of empathy and compassion in the Caregiver archetype. It suggests that the brand's products or services are designed to provide care that is deeply personal and empathetic, focused on the needs of the individual as well as the practicalities of the situation. It also implies that the brand understands the power of empathy and is dedicated to infusing that spirit into every aspect of its caregiving services. The Creator The Creators - think Daymond John, Dr. Dre, or Maya Angelou. As a Creator brand, you provide the tools for others to express themselves in a creative way. Also known as the artist, entrepreneur, storyteller, or visionary. The Creator archetype creates what is new or reimagines what is there, often capitalizing on opportunities to express themselves. Appeal to the Creator personality by giving them the tools or skills to create something unique too. Promise: Imagination Goal: Turn ideas into reality Values: Self-expression, Imagination, Out-of-the-box Thinking, Originality, Creativity Fears: Stagnation, Duplication, Familiarity Voice: Daring, Provocative, Inspirational Strategy: Use creativity to solve problems Motto: "Bring your vision to life." The motto, "bring your vision to life," speaks to the creative and innovative qualities of the Creator archetype, which is all about bringing something new and exciting into the world. The motto suggests that the brand's products or services are designed to help customers bring their own visions and ideas to life. It positions the brand as a partner in the creative process, providing the tools and resources that customers need to make their dreams a reality. The Ruler The Rulers - think Beyonce, Ketanji Brown Jackson, or James Avery as Phil on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. As a Ruler brand, you lead with authority and give others a sense of power as well. Also known as the ambassador, judge, patriarch, or sovereign. The Ruler reigns supreme in their own domain. They can even be a little intimidating. Money, power, or respect are most important to ruler brands. Appeal to this personality with the promise of money, power, or respect with a tone of superiority. Think luxury or high-quality. Promise: Success Goal: Bring order to chaos Values: Rank, Tradition, Stability, Nobility, Benevolence, Power, Prosperity, Status, Success, Control, Achievement Fears: Failure, Poverty, Insignificance Voice: Refined, Articulate, Commanding Strategy: Use influence and authority Motto: "Lead with confidence, shape your world." The motto, "lead with confidence, shape your world," speaks to the leadership qualities of the Ruler archetype, which is all about taking charge and shaping the world around you. The mantra suggests that the brand's products or services can help customers become more confident and effective leaders, enabling them to take control of their lives and make a positive impact on the world. It positions the brand as a source of authority and expertise, providing customers with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed. The mantra also implies that the brand values competence and excellence and encourages customers to strive for success in their personal and professional lives. People Who Want to: Explore Spirituality | Seek Paradise | Obtain True Freedom The Innocent The Innocents - think Halle Bailey, Skai Jackson, or Dominique Thorne (Marvel's Ironheart). As an Innocent brand, you are linked to safety, positivity, and happiness, lacking ill-will towards others. Also known as the child, dreamer, idealist, or muse. The Innocent brand archetype is that of any child. Adults who read this may be turned off at the idea that they are childlike when they should not be insulted. What this personality type is really alluding to is that if you are Innocent you have a positive personality and present a positive outlook on life despite how hard life can be. This is not to say you do not have bad days. You are just more likely to be emotionally regulated or well into your healing journey. This personality wishes no ill will on others and can enjoy the little things in life. It is a personality type we should all aspire to embody most of our days. Appeal to this personality by being positive, optimistic, encouraging, open, and honest. Promise: Happiness Goal: To be happy Values: Purity, Wholesomeness, Honesty, Optimism, Simplicity, Positivity, Happiness, Authenticity, Sincerity, Fears: Negativity, Deceit, Anguish, Depravity Strategy: Do the right things Voice: Optimistic, Honest, Humble Motto: "Experience the pure joy of life." This motto embodies the optimistic and joyful qualities of the Innocent archetype, which is all about finding happiness and contentment in the simple things in life. The motto suggests that the brand's products or services can bring customers a sense of joy and innocence, allowing them to experience the world with a childlike wonder and appreciation. It positions the brand as a source of purity and simplicity, focused on bringing happiness and positivity into customers' lives. The mantra also implies that the brand understands the joys of life and is dedicated to helping its customers experience them to the fullest. The Sage The Sages - think Erykah Badu, Morgan Freeman, or Cornel West. As a Sage brand, you provide knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Also known as the detective, mentor, shaman, or translator. Sage brands are educators, truth-seekers, and philosophers. These brands focus on understanding the world to share what they've learned with others. With the "truth" being hard for people to hear and subjective, sage brands find themselves challenged, even with the truth being undeniable. Appeal to the Sage personality by stating the facts and providing data or supporting evidence. Sage personalities like information just as much as the Sage brand. Typically educated, a Sage brand should never dumb down its content for its readers or viewers. Promise: Truth Goal: Understand the world Values: Wisdom, Intelligence, Truth, Clarity, Expertise, Information, Cognitive Fulfillment, Learning, Personal Growth, Social Change Fears: Ignorance, Powerlessness, Misinformation, Inaccuracy Voice: Assured, Guiding, Knowledgeable Strategy: Become well informed Motto: "Expand your mind, transform your world." The motto, "expand your mind, transform your world," speaks to the transformative power of knowledge and also suggests that the brand's products or services can help customers expand their minds and gain new insights. It positions the brand as a source of wisdom and enlightenment, focused on helping customers transform their lives and the world around them. It also implies that the brand understands the importance of knowledge and is dedicated to helping its customers gain the understanding they need to make a positive impact on the world. The Explorer The Explorers - think Mae Carol Jamison, Jennifer Lewis, or Oprah Winfrey. As a Ruler brand, you challenge the confines of modern life to explore the depths of one's soul or the outdoors. Also known as the adventurer, generalist, pioneer, or seeker. The Explorer brand can be one that connects to the pleasures of being out in nature or on the road. But it can also be a brand that has decided to take the road less traveled. Appeal to this personality by helping the Explorer take roads that are less traveled, such as going down the path of entrepreneurship, self-discovery, or outdoor adventures, for example. Promise: Freedom Goal: Experience a fulfilling life Values: Adventure, Exploration, Self-Discovery, Independence, Freedom, Bravery Fears: Confinement, Entrapment, Immobility, Incarceration Voice: Exciting, Fearless, Daring Strategy: Take the road less traveled Motto: "Unleash your inner adventurer." The motto, "unleash your inner adventurer," encourages customers to tap into their sense of adventure and explore the world around them. It also suggests that the brand's products or services can help customers unleash their inner Explorer, enabling them to discover new experiences, cultures, and perspectives. The motto positions the brand as a partner in adventure, inspiring customers to take risks and pursue their passions. People Who Want to: Pursue Connection The Lover The Lovers - think Rihanna, Toni Braxton, or Tank. As the Lover brand, you appeal to the desire for sensual pleasure, closeness, love, and affection. Also known as the hedonist, companion, matchmaker, or romantic. Your entire playlist of sexy songs is all for the Lover in you. Outside of the love ballads, the Lover brand promotes love, desire, intimacy, sensuality, attention, and indulgence on multiple levels, not just physically. Appeal to the Lover by presenting them with ways to increase their appeal, by helping to make them feel wanted, or by helping them to indulge in things that make them feel pampered or treated. Promise: Connection Goal: To be desired Values: Love, Affection, Indulgence, Sensuality, Appreciation, Beauty, Closeness, Intimacy Fears: Loneliness, Isolation, Rejection, Invisibility Voice: Soothing, Sensual, Empathetic Strategy: Become more appealing/attractive Motto: "Indulge in the pleasure of love." The motto, "indulge in the pleasures of love," embodies the passionate and sensual qualities of the Lover archetype, which is all about connecting with others on a deep and emotional level. When applied to a brand, the motto suggests that the brand's products or services can help customers experience the pleasures of love, enabling them to connect with others in a meaningful and fulfilling way. It positions the brand as a source of romance and intimacy, focused on helping customers create deeper and more meaningful connections with the people they love. The Everyman/Everywoman The Everymen/ Everywomen - think Charlamagne tha God, Samuel L. Jackson, or Roxane Gay. As the Everyman/woman brand, you create a welcoming atmosphere driven by equality and inclusion. Also known as the citizen, networker, servant, or advocate. The Everyman/woman brand wants everyone to feel like they belong in some way. This personality ranges from those who want social change for others to feel like they are equal or belong to those who just want to feel like they belong. This is a brand looking out for the everyday person. Appeal to this personality by sharing your values. The key is just to deliver your message in the most down-to-earth way. Promise: Belonging Goal: To belong Values: Faithfulness, Support, Equality, Inclusion, Fellowship, Togetherness, Respect, Fairness Fears: Exclusion, Isolation, Hostility, Disassociation Voice: Friendly, Authentic, Passionate Strategy: Blend in, fit in Motto: "Real solutions for real people." The motto, "real solutions for real people," embodies the down-to-earth and practical qualities of the Everyman archetype, which is all about connecting with people on a relatable and familiar level. The motto suggests that the brand's products or services are designed to solve real problems for real people, addressing the everyday challenges and concerns that people face. It positions the brand as a source of practicality and usefulness, focused on providing customers with practical solutions that they can rely on. The motto also implies that the brand understands the needs of everyday people and is dedicated to helping them overcome their everyday challenges. The Jokester The Jokesters - think Janelle James, Kevin Hart, or Niecy Nash. As a Jokester brand, you promote good times, ready to bring levity to life. Also known as the clown, entertainer, provocateur, or shapeshifter. Some people are just really good at making other people laugh. Observative, Jokesters know how to bring levity to aspects of human life. They are all about having a good time and not taking life too seriously. Appeal to this personality by connecting with others through laughter and joy. Promise: Fun Goal: Make people laugh Values: Humor, Fun, Laughter, Togetherness, Originality, Self-Expression, Play Fears: Boredom, Gloom, Negativity, Sadness Voice: Fun, Playful, Optimistic Strategy: Have fun and be playful Motto: "Laugh more, live more." The motto, "laugh more, live more," embodies the playful and humorous qualities of the Jokester archetype, which is all about bringing joy and laughter to the world. The motto suggests that the brand's products or services can help customers experience more laughter and joy in their lives, enabling them to enjoy life to the fullest. It positions the brand as a source of fun and entertainment, focused on providing customers with experiences that are enjoyable and lighthearted. Incorporating Brand Archetypes Into Your Marketing By selecting one, at most, two brand archetypes that best match your brand goals, values, and mission, you can create a brand story that aligns with the values and themes of the archetype. The personality of the archetype can then be applied to visual and verbal branding and used for marketing campaigns. The key is to be consistent, as incorporating brand archetypes into marketing can help a brand create a more effective and memorable brand identity that resonates with its target audience. Ready to give your brand a heart and soul, let's get started!

It’s important not to confuse the terms branding and marketing. They are both strategic activities that will determine the success of your business, and it’s crucial to understand the difference between them. Branding and marketing are equally important, but think of them this way: You can’t market your brand if you haven’t first created a brand. Therefore, branding comes before marketing. In a nutshell, branding is who you are—and marketing is how you build brand awareness. What Is a Brand Identity? A brand identity is created through the development of a brand strategy that defines the look, feel, and personality of your brand identity, as well as your brand position. You need all to create a brand identity. You also need to be clear about your brand architecture, which will also help to determine the best brand identity for your company. Supported by a complete and compelling narrative on what you are offering, why you are offering it, and where it all leads, your brand identity should always take shape, informed by more than whims and gut feelings. Your brand identity includes its visual representation via branding elements such as your logo, fonts, and color palette. However, it’s also very much about the overall experience you want to provide your target audience. What they feel is just as important as what they see. Successful branding is about being memorable, meaningful, likable, and unique while connecting with your target audience and inspiring customer retention. Why You Need Branding Suppose you don’t have a brand identity. In that case, you lose a wonderful opportunity to connect with your target audience on a deeper, semiotic level. A brand identity enhances the reason for anyone to choose your business over other companies offering the same products or services. People need emotional and rational reasons for paying attention to you, so the way your branding makes them feel is what will attract them first. Only then will they be able to take notice of the utility value of your products or services. What Is Marketing? Marketing is the practice of promoting your products or services and involves employing specific and proactive strategies to reach members of your target audience with persuasive brand-based messages to grow your business. Different forms of marketing include direct mail, public relations, out-of-home, stealth, and social media marketing, to name a few. How Branding and Marketing Overlap While brand development and branding should come before devising marketing strategies, the two share the goal of making your business successful. Think of branding as the author and marketing as the publisher. Your marketing efforts should build brand awareness, increase sales, and help build brand equity. The goal of your branding strategy should be to set the stage for building brand equity while increasing brand likability and trust, with trust being key to selling any offer. Therefore, it’s not a question of branding vs. marketing but rather how the cornerstones of branding inform marketing. Marketing Campaigns May Be Short-Term, But Brand Building Is Long-term Some of your marketing campaigns will be expected to deliver on short-term goals. For example, ads related to holiday seasons are a great way to capture attention and spike your sales around Valentine’s Day, Easter, or Christmas. However, what your brand stands for doesn’t change unless the business strategy changes—whether it’s the holiday season or not. For example, your new customer might have found you through an advertising campaign, but they need a reason to trust you. Branding should carry the weight of building a connection with customers and conveying a compelling story that connects your value to their values. Marketing should grab your audience’s attention, and branding should keep it. Branding and Marketing: Final Thoughts Again, it’s not about branding vs. marketing because they aren’t competing with each other. Instead, the main difference between them is that branding answers the questions “who” and “why,” and marketing answers the question “how”—different but equally necessary answers.

Brands/People Who Want to: Leave a Legacy | Be Remembered Think Disney Imagineer, Lanny Smoot, Dasia Taylor, or Arlyne Simon (from left to right) What is a Brand Archetype? A brand archetype is best described as “a standardized model of a personality or behavior, often used in marketing, storytelling, psychology, and philosophy,” according to The Dictionary of Brand by Marty Neumeier. Some of the most successful and recognizable brands adopt traits of one of the brand archetypes shared by their target audience, allowing them to create branding that connects to their followers on a subconscious level. The Magician Archetype Think Disney Imagineer Lanny Smoot, Dasia Taylor, or Arlyne Simon. The Magician Archetype is about transformation, making dreams a reality, and changing what is to what could be. Also known as the alchemist, engineer, innovator, or scientist, making what seems to be impossible possible. These brands use a depth of information that others typically do not know to lead in creating these transformations, too. They have a vision for what they want to see, and they go forth to make it a reality and seem to always have another solution in their hat that can leave others amazed and wondering how they accomplished their goal. It is also common for them to have a spiritual or psychological element. They strive to expand the collective consciousness by understanding how the universe works and not being confined to one belief. Some common characteristics of this archetype are: • Having a desire to know how the laws of reality work. • Transforming dreams into reality. • Developing a vision and living in it. • Being driven and motivated to accomplish their goals. • Finding creative solutions. • Dreamy and captivating. While they have the following values, voice, and fears: Values Transformation, oneness, curiosity, manifesting, magical moments, self-preservation Voice Reassuring, encouraging, hopeful, mystical, informed Fears Consequences, stagnation, uncertainty, ignorance A brand that embodies the Magician archetype often has a large and strong network where they form strong relationships with others. They have this innate ability to channel energy and contain a power that promises change. They often present out-of-the-box ideas that can be intimidating to those who are risk-averse. Trusting the process of the Magician can be scary, but they rarely lack ideas and creative solutions for any problem. The Magician Archetype in Practice Brands that embody the Magician Archetype are typically charismatic, compelling, and show others the ability to stand out. These brands tend to offer or promote transformation and magical wonder through their product or service. Their marketing can be rather grand and larger than life, which reflects this mystical feeling. Disney, Dyson, Ted X, and Polaroid are all examples of brands that exhibit the Magician archetype. Disney is one of the most notable brands that fall under the Magician Archetype. They have created a sense of making your dreams come true like no other. There is a promise to make everyone’s dreams come true and find magic in the ordinary. This can create a sense of enchantment and wonder that leaves their audience enamored by the brand itself and all its offerings. Activating the Magician Archetype If you resonate with the Magician, it is important to understand how to utilize, enhance and hone this energy. It’s important to constantly educate how you provide transformational experiences for your clients. Use your voice to express what makes you great at what you do. Express to your audience that you are going to fulfill the promise of your brand and provide them with an unforgettable experience or product. Something that will truly add to their lives. The Magician Archetype in Branding Appeal to the Magician by inviting them along the journey of transformation or by creating a magical moment for them. When considering how to visually express the Magician’s energy within your branding, be mindful of your color palates and imagery. Mystical and invigorating colors like hues of purple, green, blue, and gold combined with chromes or metallics can add that hint of magic. Cursives, storybook-esque, or modern serif fonts are all wonderful types to consider for your brand. Resources Bolton, Melissa. “The Magician Brand Archetype.” Creative Market, 2022, https://creativemarket.com/MelissaBolton/collections/1473339/The-Magician-Brand Archetype. Accessed 2022. Schultz, Sara. “The Magician Brand Archetype.” Hey Sara Schultz, 2022, https://heysaraschultz.com/blog/magician-brand-archetype. Accessed 2022. Mark, Margaret, and Carol S. Pearson. The Hero and the Outlaw: Harnessing the Power of Archetypes to Create a Winning Brand. McGraw-Hill, 2002. Pages 140-151.

It seems so common that the first day of school in New York City is always a chilly one. It certainly was brisk on my first day of middle school. I remember walking up two flights of stone steps onto a concrete path. The path felt long, but eventually, led to two double doors with wide metal handles that felt like they had soaked up all the cold air. Pushing past a second set of heavy metal doors painted in burgundy, my eyes looked up to see a quote above the security desk that stated, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This quote is the words of Benjamin Franklin. Many of my high school teachers often mentioned this quote before the start of class and even made the students reluctantly repeat it. It is no wonder why the words still stick with me today. When creating strategies for your brand, you should also take this quote to heart. Entrepreneurship is a journey. Without a plan, like that of a business, brand, or content strategy, your chances of business failure simply increase. According to Wikipedia, a strategy “involves setting goals and priorities, determining actions to achieve your goals, and mobilizing resources to execute actions.” For your brand, you will need multiple strategies to move it forward in the right direction. Below are three strategies that all growing brands should have: Your Business Strategy A business strategy is part of a business plan, informed by your business model. According to the Houston Chronicle, a business model is a “business’s rationale and plan for making a profit.” The business model answers the question, how do you plan to make money? A few example business models include the following truncated list from Nerd Wallet and Inc Magazine: Subscription model Bundling model Freemium model with upgrades Product-to-service model Leasing model BOGO (buy one get or give one) model Franchise model Distribution model Manufacturer model Retailer model Services operating model Advertiser model Product pricing model Tiered pricing model Percent of transaction model You’ll want to compliment the model you’ve selected with information on two of the five P’s of marketing—product and price. What are you offering, and for how much money? Now that you know how you will make money, you need to create a plan that supports how you will make money with the business model you’ve selected. It is one thing to say you will make money selling subscriptions, but how? Your business plan outlines what you will do to make this business model work for you. More specifically, a business plan is a document that details 1-3 big SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound) goals for your business. Now, I know what you’re thinking. I’m not trying to make a long business plan that will just be a file on my computer that I’ll forget about. But what if I told you that your thoughts about the need for a business plan may be all wrong? What if I told you that it should be the basis for your brand and marketing? Well, that is exactly what it is for when done properly. Just like your brand and marketing strategy, brand and market research are needed to determine if you have a viable business idea. Conducting research will also help you determine if you are targeting a big enough market to meet your financial goals and the consumer(s) who would most benefit from your services. Here is a real-world example of the thought process for goals, objectives, strategy, and tactics that can be applied to developing goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics for your business. What do I ultimately want to achieve? Goal: Lose 30 pounds (You can track against this as a key performance indicator.) To reach this goal, I will need to... Objective: Cut calories by 20% daily (You can track against this as a key performance indicator.) To do this, I will need to... Strategy: Buy a food scale What will you do with it? Tactics: I will track my calories against my resting calories daily to ensure a 20% deficit. (You can track this as a key performance indicator.) Whose’s going to do this? Who: Me! Who else? Cost? Expense: $20—$10 for the scale and $10 for Cronometer to track my calories You can also work backward from your tasklist, usually just tactics. For example: Who is doing to do this work that needs to be done? Who: My VA and me What will this person do? Tactic: Create 50 Instagram posts weekly. (You can track against this as a key performance indicator.) What type of activity is this? Strategy: Social media marketing Why am I using it? Objective: I want to increase my fan base by 10% by the end of the year. (You can track against this as a key performance indicator.) Why am I doing this? Goal: To sell $100,000 in services. (You can track against this as a key performance indicator.) Cost? Expense: $20—$10 for the scale and $10 for Cronometer to track my calories As a paragraph, you would say for this last example: My big goal is to sell $100,000 in services by increasing my fan base by 10% by the end of the year using social media marketing. For this strategy to work for me, one of the things I will do is delegate the creation of 50 social media posts weekly to my VA. The above statement gives you the other three parts of the 5Ps of marketing—promotion, place, and people. Together, the 5Ps are product, price, promotion, place, and people. Note: Although a business strategy implies one strategy, you should have 3-5 business strategies that make up your business strategy. In essence, Your business model and plan illustrate a clear set of plans for how your business will contend in your market against competitors with your products or services. You’ve likely seen other sources for this information say that a business model, plan, and strategy are all part of a business strategy, but this is the appropriate breakdown. Also part of your business plan and strategy are statements that need upfront clarification. Your business plan should also include a mission and vision statement. However, these are not the same as the ones you often see on websites for brands. These are internal mission and vision statements. An internal vision statement focuses strictly on the vision for the growth of your business. The complementary internal mission statement states how you plan to achieve this internal vision statement. On the other hand, an external vision statement considers your target market and the lofty future you want to create for them, and the external mission statement states how you plan to achieve your external vision statement. Lastly, whose is your target audience(s)? You need to be clear about this. It can’t be everybody, ever. You don’t get along with everyone in the world, so how could your brand? Your focus should be on determining who you are trying to serve and understanding who they are on a very personal level. You need in-depth information on your target audience(s) for messaging, branding, and marketing. Your Brand Strategy A brand strategy is a plan for building your brand before introducing it to your core target audience. It consists of a customer persona, brand personality, verbal identity, and visual identity. This strategy gives rise to your brand personality, colors, typography, voice, and more. The brand strategy also supports your business strategy and informs your marketing strategies, including your content marketing strategy. A customer persona details your primary customer’s demographics, demographics, psychographics, attitudes, and behaviors. You want to be able to articulate clearly who your brand exists for. A brand's verbal identity consists of a brand's purpose statement, vision statement, mission statement, value statements, value proposition, and brand mantra. It also consists of your brand’s brand promise, positioning statement, slogan, tagline, messaging pillars, brand benefits, elevator pitch, and boilerplate text. A brand’s visual identity, including your logo, is informed by your brand positioning statement and brand personality. This means that your logo should not be created until you are clear about both your position and personality. Here’s the thing. You don’t want your target audience to feel like you have multiple personalities. If we’ve learned anything from Marvel’s Moon Knight, having multiple personalities is not a desired trait. It is a mental health illness. Don’t give your brand a mental health illness. Although all parts of a brand’s verbal identity are important, I must also stress the importance of having values. Values are also important to nail down within your brand strategy, as people will connect your values to their values. Highly underrated, values influence thoughts, and thoughts influence behaviors. Try this exercise. Write down your top 10 values. Of those top 10, what are your top 3-5? Those 3-5 are your core values. However, as easy as it is to select words off a list and call it a day, please look up the words you’ve selected. You’d be surprised to learn that some words don’t mean what you think they mean—something I often tell marketing students. With this said, your values list should be instrumental to how you do business. It should also impact hiring decisions when you are looking for assistance with the needs of your business. Lastly, for the aspects of brand strategy that may be giving you the most pause, a brand personality is a brand archetype, and there are 12 brand archetypes. The brand archetypes can also give you insight into the values your brand should communicate. They are as follows: Black Brand Archetypes (of the African Diaspora) People Who Want to: Leave a Legacy | Be Remembered The Outlaw - think Missy Elliot, Lil Naz X, or Stacey Abrams. As an Outlaw brand, you desire liberation. Also known as the activist, gambler, maverick, or reformer. Values: Liberation, change, righteousness, independence. The Magician - think Disney Imagineer, Lanny Smoot, Dasia Taylor, or Arlyne Simon. As a Magician brand, you also provide transformations. Also known as the alchemist, engineer, innovator, or scientist. Values: transformation, oneness, curiosity, manifesting, magical moments, self-preservation The Hero - think Mohammad Ali, John Lewis, or Nanisca of the Women King. As a Hero brand, you inspire others to feel empowered and to succeed, rising to one's ambitions. Also known as the athlete, liberator, rescuer, or warrior. Values: mastery, courage, strength, stamina, goodness, redemption, transformation People Who Want to: Provide Structure The Caregiver - think Iyana Vanzant, Supernanny Jo Frost, or JoMarie Payton. As a Caregiver brand, you help those in need in a motherly way. Also known as the angel, guardian, healer, or samaritan. Values: compassion, empathy, gratitude, service, support, helping others, self-care The Creator - think Daymond John, Dr. Dre, or Maya Angelou. As a Creator brand, you provide the tools for others to express themselves in a creative way. Also known as the artist, entrepreneur, storyteller, or visionary. Values: self-expression, imagination, out-of-box thinking, originality, creation The Ruler - think Beyonce, Ketanji Brown Jackson, or James Avery. As a Ruler brand, you lead with authority and give others a sense of power as well. Also known as the ambassador, judge, patriarch, or sovereign. Values: rank, tradition, stability, nobility, benevolence, power, prosperity, status, success People Who Want to: Explore Spirituality | Seek Paradise | Obtain True Freedom The Innocent - think Halle Bailey, Skai Jackson, or Dominique Thorne (Ironheart). As an Innocent brand, you are linked to safety, positivity, and happiness, lacking ill-will towards others. Also known as the child, dreamer, idealist, or muse. Values: purity, wholesomeness, honesty, optimism, simplicity, positivity, happiness The Sage - think Erykah Badu, Morgan Freeman, or Cornel West. As a Sage brand, you provide knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Also known as the detective, mentor, shaman, or translator. Values: wisdom, intelligence, truth, clarity, expertise, information, cognitive fulfillment The Explorer - think Will Smith, Jennifer Lewis, or Oprah Winfrey. As a Ruler brand, you challenge the confines of modern life to explore the depths of one's soul or the outdoors. Also known as the adventurer, generalist, pioneer, or seeker. Values: adventure, exploration, self-discovery, discovery, independence, freedom, bravery People Who Want to: Pursue Connection The Lover - think Rihanna, Toni Braxton, or Tank. As the Lover brand, you appeal to the desire for sensual pleasure, closeness, love, and affection. Also known as the hedonist, companion, matchmaker, or romantic. Values: love, affection, indulgence, sensuality, appreciation, beauty, closeness, intimacy The Everyman - think Charlamagne tha God, Samuel L. Jackson, or Roxane Gay. As the Everyman brand, you create a welcoming atmosphere, driven by equality and inclusion. Also known as the citizen, networker, servant, or advocate. Values: faithfulness, support, equality, inclusion, fellowship, togetherness, respect, fairness The Jokester - think Janelle James, Kevin Hart, or Niecy Nash. As a Jokester brand, you promote good times, ready to bring levity to life. Also known as the clown, entertainer, provocateur, or shapeshifter. Values: humor, fun, laughter, togetherness, originality, freedom of expression, play Your goal should be to identify a brand personality that most resonates with you personally because you desire to work with people like you or select an archetype that most of your target audience aligns with. Again, remember to choose 1 (70% of your personality) or 2 (30% of your personality) brand archetypes or one of their sub-brand archetypes (i.e., the provocateur or advocate). Just like you aren’t running around saying it’s your zodiac season (Capricorn season is the best season!) for your moon sign, you wouldn’t do it for your secondary brand archetype. Your Content Strategy With your verbal identity and visual identity, you can plan the delivery of your content with a content strategy. A content strategy is not content marketing, content writing, or content marketing strategy. Rather, a content strategy is a document that defines the game plan for the content your audience would want to engage with. A successful strategy should answer the following questions: How will you craft your content and amplify it publicly? Who will be responsible? How will you measure the marketing of your content? These questions must be answered as part of a content strategy. They are tied to the stages of your customer’s journey and the messaging pillars from your verbal identity. These messaging pillars will act as your content pillars. Content pillars are key topics or themes around which you can structure your content. This approach ensures that your content strategy and messaging strategy are interconnected and linked to your one core value proposition. You will also need to document the following: How you will interact with influencers based on your content pillars How you will engage your target audience What your call to action (CTA) should be Where should your CTA be placed What will your content formats be Where will your content be shared As part of your content strategy, you should also develop an editorial calendar. The last step in your content strategy is planning and measurement, which involves the creation of an editorial calendar. Your calendar should note the following: The key message the content supports Media formats Locations for publishing Collaborative influencers Any other information you feel is important to track Review your content strategy monthly or quarterly. Your editorial calendar is an aid to help measure your content marketing efforts and can assist you in determining where your content strategy may need a few tweaks. A well-documented content strategy not only statistically leads to better content marketing results, but also creates a more robust and streamlined content consumption experience for your target audience. A great streamlined experience has a greater chance of sparking a deeper interest in your brand while making content marketing less stressful for you. Putting It All Together As you can see, to create synergy within your company, you must have strategies in place for your business that flow with each other, informing each other. When you skip steps, you take chances with the success of your brand when you really want to succeed. It is a form of self-sabotage. Instead, do best by you and your business by investing in the development of strategies, plans, and processes that will level your business up to the big brands you love most. Essentially, all three strategies dictate where your brand is going, how it will show up, and how it will reach people with its presence. It’s like getting ready for a networking party. First, you need to know where you are going. Then, depending on the party, you will decide what to wear that gives the best impression of your personality. Lastly, you want to have a game plan for who you want to speak to at the event when you get there, and a way for them hit you up if they want to continue to build a relationship with you. Learn more about brand strategy today:

In today's tech world, potential customers may scour many websites to research a service they're thinking of using before making an actual purchase. Then they continue to conduct research even after making a purchase, resulting in fewer and fewer customers remaining loyal to one specific brand. Why Loyal Customers Are the Most Profitable Repeat customers cost less to market to, spend more, and buy more frequently. Yet, only 27% of initial sales turn into second sales of a product or service. Therefore, it would seem obvious that companies need to invest in building brand loyalty to improve the perception of their brand among current and potential customers. For example, a potential consumer may not remember the brand name of a service they looked into long ago. So brand marketing needs to be done in the right way so that members of a target audience can subconsciously connect with your brand when they see any of its brand elements (i.e., logo) and revisit your site. Here are six tips to help turn your casual target audience member into an entrenched fan who knows your brand name by heart, remembers your brand personality, logo, and what you're all about, and keeps coming back for more. 1. Engage With Your Confirmed Customer Don't sit back and rest on your laurels because you have a base of people who have benefitted from your services. Connect with these valuable customers and work to create a sense of community and belonging. Build brand loyalty by sharing your brand's exciting new developments and important news and opinions to keep this audience engaged and enthusiastic. Use social media to inform your potential customers of new trends, special promotions, and the next steps for your brand. Make it feel like a friendly conversation—definitely don't go the hard sell route! You can also use social media engagement to listen as well as communicate. You'll discover what your best customers love about your service(s) and what they'd change if they could—then you can change it to improve the overall perception of your brand for the better. Finally, an old-school tip that still works. Send your customers simple thank you notes. For example, a Happy Birthday or Happy Holidays message will go a long way. Remember, people want to feel that you care about them outside of business transactions, and they will share their good feelings with others for positive word-of-mouth marketing. 2. Recognize Your Customers' Needs and What Makes Them Tick Many businesses fail because of churn. Therefore, it follows that the fastest-growing companies have the lowest churn. A constant flow of customers or donors out of your back door will kill your business or nonprofit! One way to cut down on churn is to use your customer behavior data to foreshadow what your consumers are likely to want and then offer it. This strategy is another way to generate word-of-mouth marketing that will improve the perception of your brand. 3. Brand Marketing: Make Sure Your Brand Stays Consistent Consistency is a crucial factor in building customer loyalty. Your brand needs to look and feel the same to consumers each time they interact with it. Therefore, brand elements, such as a brand's logo, name, and colors, should be consistent everywhere your brand is present. A great way to ensure brand consistency is by developing a Brand Book that provides guardrails for how your brand presents itself to the public to influence how consumers will perceive your brand. Use a Logo that Would Resonate With Your Audience The colors you choose represent your brand's personality and provide a visual expression of the feeling, mood, or role your brand is trying to elicit. Choose a color palette informed by a brand strategy with this in mind to improve the perception of your brand and build brand loyalty. Example: The color red prompts viewers to feel active, emotional, and passionate about a brand. Comparatively, blue signifies a brand personality of trust, comfort, and confidence. Example: Apple is quite consistent with its use of white throughout its entire brand palette to evoke simplicity, cleanliness, and elegance. You can also think of the white as a blank canvas to be creative, as Apple embodies the Creator brand archetype and is perceived as a brand for those who want to create. Have Apple's products become symbols of advanced technology and luxury that enables creativity solely because of its brand-building color choice? No. But the fact that all of Apple's products look like something out of a Stanley Kubrick movie makes sense in terms of their brand's essence, so it's definitely helping. Think about what you want your brand to convey—spark a response, calm anxiety, portray simplicity, etc. 4. Focus on What Your Brand Does Best Build brand loyalty by getting your target audience to identify with your brand's core values and mission. Here's how people see you: What You Do and Why Is Who You Are. The more specific you can be about your brand's message, the more your audience can understand what you can offer them. You may be forced to pick the one thing you are the best at, but that's the story you should stick to. Wait, you say, surely offering more products, services, or even identities, would endear my brand to more people? But in reality, the more niche you are, the more affection you will trigger in people who like you because they can more clearly see themselves in your brand. If you try to please everyone, you end up making no impression whatsoever. Example Nike produces different kinds of sportswear and sporting gear—yoga pants, tube socks, water bottles, and dumbbells. But close your eyes and think Nike, and you may only think of hero shots of athletes—Nike IS a Hero brand. What kind of brand are you? 5. Use Influencers to Promote Your Brand One of the ways to build brand loyalty is by having celebrities promote your product or service. However, celebrities are expensive and could actually end up tarnishing your brand's reputation by doing something unethical. For instance, Lance Armstrong's association with Nike made the company look great when he was consistently winning the Tour de France, but his doping scandal tarnished the brand. Consumers increasingly find recommendations from customers the most reliable form of testimonial. So look for online influencers who have a close relationship with your brand. A platform like julius with HPR allows brands to identify influencers who communicate with their audience demographics. Offer your customers fifteen minutes of fame by sharing a post they wrote or retweeting them to create a buzz around your brand. 6. Make Sure Your Customer Service Is Top Notch One of the main reasons for losing customers or not gaining any new ones is poor customer service. You should ensure your customer service is impeccable, particularly on social media channels where customers expect quick responses. Remember, whatever you are selling, you are a service business, and your reputation needs to precede you. Brand Loyalty: Final Thoughts In an otherwise cold and technical world, people are constantly searching for a sense of human interaction and emotion. When building brand loyalty by improving how your brand is perceived, make sure you're investing in understanding your target audience, including your customers, personally, gaining their trust by making good on your brand promises for positive word of mouth and good feelings about your brand. This will help to ensure that your base of loyal customers and fans keeps growing. If you need help improving the perception of your brand to build brand loyalty (and equity), VCM Strategies is standing by to help you.

Brand strategists are thinkers who dive deeply into their client’s business, product or service, to examine its composition, audience, and competitive landscape and develop a plan for best positioning that entity for success that aligns with its goals. Brand Strategists must rely on a diverse and expanding set of skills and approaches to meet the many brand challenges they might face in today’s marketplace. Brand strategists use a number of tools to develop these solutions. If you are potentially in the market for brand strategy services, it’s important to know about the work brand strategists do and the skills and tools they use to do it. Before we look at the tools, we should think about the disciplines touched by brand strategists. Many of these are learned in contexts outside of any brand strategy training. The disciplines required include research, writing, interviewing skills, and project management. A brand strategist can use several tools ranging from traditional and low-tech to digital, high-tech-based tools. Because the brand strategy field is still expanding, there are no shortage of tools. New ones are being created every day. Even within this very general list, there are specific, proprietary tools that are not mentioned. I’ve broken these down into 4 categories that reflect the overarching categories describing how a brand strategist might use these tools. These categories are research/measurement, organization, communication/collaboration, and creation/presentation. There is definitely overlap and tools that can be utilized in more than one category. Strategists have to collect and collate lots of information… RESEARCH & MEASUREMENT Brand Strategists are responsible for the collection and processing of lots of data and information. These are some of the tools they might use to observe, extract and assess information included in the brand strategy development process. Questions: Interviews, Surveys, Polls, Focus Groups Observation (Ethnography) Data (Primary and Secondary) DemographicsPsychographics Website Analytics Social Media Metrics ORGANIZATION Brand Strategists don’t just collect and process data. They have to organize and structure the data so that conclusions may be drawn and insights may be formed. These are some of the tools used for organizing and framing data to be observed, analyzed, and framed for brand decision-making. Customer Journey Maps White Boards Mind Maps Lists Mood Boards Brand Matrix Notebooks, Journals COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION Brand Strategists often work in teams or as part of teams, so they need to share information and insights efficiently and effectively. To that end, they use a number of traditional and digital tools to communicate the insights they have gathered and the directions they have chosen. Collaborative Project/Team Management Tools (SaaS) Presentation Tools Storytelling Creative Briefs CREATION & PRESENTATION Brand Strategists sometimes take what they have discovered and developed, translate them into more visual communication forms or frameworks that illustrate their ideas, and then use tools to create and convey concepts in ways others may use and understand. Design Software Diagrams Sketchbooks & Notepads Mockups Slide Decks Brand GuidelinesHere are some of those tools. Many of these tools apply to other dimensions of the brand-building process beyond the brand strategy development phase, such as the creative design phase or brand management phase. Every strategist has a system for actually producing the brand plans they come up with. Fortunately, there is a lot of sharing within the community. I’m part of a robust Facebook group for practicing and aspiring brand strategists, and there is a ton of engagement and sharing there. It’s not a new field, but there is newfound energy around and focus on it. So why does all this matter? Having walked through the skills and tools brand strategists use (which you should be on the lookout for as a potential client of a brand strategist), we’ll next consider the benefits to you of working with a professional brand strategist. This is article was made possible by Reggie Holmes, Principal and Creative Director of Enthuse Creative. The original post can be found here.

A communications-based audit assesses the state of your brand and the messaging from it. To conduct your audit, you want to examine your target audience selection, competitive landscape, internal brand, internal messages, and external communications. Mindset for a Brand Audit To do this audit well, you must let go of what you already know and step into this process with an open mind. Don’t be so emotionally attached to what you have in place that you are unwilling to explore the possibilities of optimizing what you have now. Review Your Target Audience Not to overlook your years of operation, if you have been operating your business or organization for six months to a year and have an ideal consumer and subsequent target audience in mind when creating communications for your business or organization, is your target audience still the same, or has it changed? If it has evolved, have you conducted new target market research to learn about your new target audience’s wants, needs, attitudes, behaviors, hobbies, and communication preferences? If not, it is time to conduct this research to inform your brand and business direction. If possible, go beyond just conducting desk research and reach out to past, current, and prospective consumers to ask questions you would like answers to about your brand. For example, ten questions you can ask, preferably over the phone, would be the following: Interview Questions How old are you? When considering using a service like mine, what makes you say yes to working together? When considering using a service like mine, what problem(s) are you looking to solve? If you wanted to look for a service like mine, what would you do first to find someone like me? What do you do in your free time? Before learning about my business, were you going to attempt to handle your issue independently? If not, who were you thinking of turning to for help? What are your most pressing service needs? Review Your Competitive Landscape These questions perfectly lead us to continue this article with a discussion about your competitors. Are you clear about who you are competing with these days? You could be competing with businesses similar to yours or an indirect competitor, which could even be the same type of person you are trying to help. However, regarding direct competitors, you may find many. Just look at 3 to 10 for this exercise to understand your competitive landscape. Considering this tidbit, put some time aside to check out your competitive landscape every 3 to 6 months. Once you’ve identified your initial set of competitors, look at areas of your business and theirs for similarities, given your competitor isn’t your consumer base, to see if you are meeting standard consumer expectations for your industry. For example, if the majority of those in your industry have a mobile application, you may want to think about creating one as well. Also, look at areas of your business where you are different and double down on them to establish your competitive edge. This observation will help you stand out from your competition. Essentially, look at your competition from inspiration. Be inspired, and don’t plagiarize. Review Your Internal Brand Pillars With a better understanding of your target market and competitive landscape, it is time for you to look at your internal brand. Your internal brand consists of your brand vision, mission, values, and mantra. Your brand vision statement expresses how you want your brand to impact the world. Your mission statement conveys how you plan to achieve your vision using the resources, skills, and tools at your disposal. Values guide your brand behaviors. And your brand mantra encapsulates the core objective of your business. Without internal brand clarity, you risk building a brand that does not support your business goals and objectives. Reviewing your internal brand ensures that your brand’s direction still makes sense and aligns with what you are still doing and accomplishing. Then you must ask yourself whether your internal brand statements are meaningful to your stakeholders and target audience, especially if any of the above has changed for your business. Review Your Internal Communications Another aspect of your brand to be reviewed should be your internal communications. For example, if you are working with a team, are you reinforcing your internal brand through your messaging? Does your team know your internal brand pillars and how they should impact the way they operate? If not, think about how you can institutionalize your internal brand and even hire based on your brand values. Review Your Brand Personality Now that you’ve made it this far into your brand audit, what is your brand’s personality? There are 12 brand archetypes. Is your brand archetype still serving you well? Is it attracting the type of consumers you were hoping it would? If not, it may be time to consider another personality type for your business, especially if your target audience has changed. For example, suppose your demographic target’s income level has changed. In this case, you may want to appeal more to those who have money and power like the Ruler Archetype or shift to a personality that supports price-conscious consumers like the Everyman Archetype. Since the archetype/personality of your brand largely influences your brand’s tone of voice, colors, and typography, be sure to review the alignment of these brand elements with your brand personality as well, even if your brand personality hasn’t changed. It is easy for any business to start strong with expressing their brand personality through their messaging and then fail to be vigilant about sticking to the strategy over time to remain on-brand. Review Your External Communications But do not stop with the review of your brand personality. Instead, look over past and current content (website, emails, posts, etc.) and visuals through the lens of your brand personality and update your content where needed to ensure consistency too. Then, review your content and visuals, thinking about whether the jobs you are doing for others are still the same and if the emotional rewards make sense. Consistency builds trust, and trust will result in profits. Given this, try to select and stick with one brand personality unless you must make changes due to a drastic shift in your business model or who you are serving. Lastly, what is your brand position and story? Both are a culmination of your internal brand pillars, target audience profile, key messages, areas where you stand out from your competition, and the most relevant functional and emotional value you can offer to your target audience. With a full audit of your brand, you can then make a list of things to start, stop, or continue to do, with a timeline for implementing them.

How you can execute a competitive audit after establishing a frame of reference. Do you honestly know what your ideal consumer would like to accomplish by working with you? You offer services as a business or organization, talking to your consumer base often, but have you ever asked a member of your target audience what they are trying to achieve in their life by seeking your help? Did you know that asking questions like these could be one of the best ways to establish your competitive advantage? You may think you are competing directly with other businesses or organizations similar to yours, but what were your consumers’ actual full list of considerations. You can determine this by asking members of your target audience directly. For example, as a brand strategist, a potential client could decide to take no action, get the help of a friend or family member, do it themselves, or hire my competition. In this case, the options are rather limited because both marketing experience and expertise should inform brand strategy development. Service businesses and organizations often consist of people or teams with a skill set they have been honing or refining for years. Your ideal consumer may be lucky enough to have things work out in their favor by doing things themselves, let’s say. But you know, and I know, that anyone doing what you do themselves is likely to be “asking for trouble” that they aren’t even aware of yet. For another ‘frame of reference’ example, let’s consider a consumer’s workaround for, let’s say, hiring a licensed therapist? Do nothing Talk to friends or family members Go to teletherapy via an online app Seek help from a religious institution Indulge in things that keep one numb to the help they need Hire a direct competitor Meditate The key to doing this exercise well is not to assume you know the answers. Instead, you must seek the answers from outside of you or your business—10+ people. Now, if you are hesitating to move forward with this exercise because you lack consumers, find members of your target audience “in the wild” to ask for informational interviews. And if your service is something you know your family members and friends would use, ask them. Just be sure to ask them within the context of your price point. For example, “Hey Olivia! If you want to do business with an accountant, but they were out of your budget... What would you consider doing instead? Is there any other service you would use to take the place of this service? What would make you want to still work with this business if they were more expensive than you would have liked?” All this is to say that you must know your real competition to position your brand correctly in your consumer’s minds. Therefore, you want an ideal frame of reference that comes from “the horse’s mouth” so that you can make educated marketing decisions. Understanding your ‘frame of reference’ will also allow you to state how you are genuinely different from your “competition” and grow that difference over time to outshine alternatives to your service(s). If you determine that your competition are more direct competitors, continue reading. How To Do A Direct Competitor Analysis First things first, a competitor analysis is an umbrella term for the process of researching and analyzing competitors similar to you in size and scope. You may even look at businesses trailing right behind you as competitors. If a company is bigger in size and scope, look to them as companies you aspire to reach the scale of if you do. Aspirational companies are great for seeing how you can maneuver to achieve a similar level of success for your business or organization. Circling back to analyzing your direct competitors, start looking for businesses that offer the same services you provide to the same audience you do. Just look at 5 to 10 companies like yours. And if you have a brick-and-mortar service business, you can find your competition by Googling keyword phrases related to your business by mentioning your business’s location. Still, only look at 5 to 10 businesses like yours. Analyzing Your Findings You may find that many of your competitors kind of look similar. The truth is, most companies have not uncovered their uncommon denominator. And at the start of your business, you may look to be doing the same things as the competition you have discovered. But this does not mean you give up trying to establish a competitive advantage. It would be best if you still collected research on your competition to learn about their offers, key messaging, personality, color schemes, tone of voice, and services. While studying your competition, ask yourself: Whom are they targeting? What are they offering to them? How do they promise to make their lives easier? What are they missing that you can leverage? Few businesses take the time to research these things or ask themselves these questions to find ways to stand out. Instead, many companies look to leaders and copy them. However, your goal should be to find ways to stand out from your competition with a brand strategy that zigs when everyone zagged as it relates to your brand’s presence and messaging. Considerations Given Your Business Strategy As for your services, I will assume you’ve either decided to become a one-trick pony or a jack of all trades. So, it is up to you to determine if you fall short of those who have chosen the same business strategy as you based on your business strategy. The more niche your business, the easier this exercise will be. However, if you find that you are competing with thousands of other companies given your service and audience, you haven’t niched down enough. And if you are living with FOMO, you never will. There’s your ideal consumer, and then there is your addressable market, so don’t be afraid to niche down as long as a decent market is available. You don’t need a million people to win at business. I bet all you are hoping for is just an extra 10-20 this year. Your Key Takeaway First, understand the frame of reference for your business. Then, if you need to, check out your direct competitors. In any event, it doesn’t hurt to do both. This article was written by Vanessa Matthew and Erica Koina

Written Vanessa Matthew with research conducted by Erica Koina As a child, I loved the book The Beast in My Bathtub. I remember it vividly and smile warmly at the cover every time I see it. The main character, a little boy named Lewis, was afraid of bath time. He told his parents of the beast in his bathtub, but they didn’t believe him, so he faced his fear alone. As an adult, I see how wrong this was now because it forced him to lie, but he made peace with his fears by the end of the story. According to Harvard Business, stories are one of the most powerful means to influence, teach, and inspire — forging connections among people and between people and ideas. For example, a brand story, part of brand messaging, can influence, teach, inspire, and align your brand with stakeholder values to connect your brand to how people see themselves. Therefore, don’t make it about you to positively impact your audience with your story. Instead, make it about the primary target audience you look to bond with and help. Your marketing will leave a favorable impression on your audience by approaching story development this way. Strategies To Tell Your Brand Story So, when building your brand story around your audience, you should first understand your audience’s life, what they feel, and who they are. Your audience wants to feel connected to the brands they engage, and part of being able to do so is in their ability to resonate with your brand. Therefore, you want to use your brand story to give your audience a chance to see what their life can be like by working with you. After you understand your audience’s life, put yourself in their shoes. Ask yourself what do they want, need, and why. From this perspective, you will understand their challenges and how your company can solve them. Brand Clarity Improves Brand Storytelling To leverage brand storytelling, once you understand your audience’s challenges and journey, you can find ways to weave in how your brand can help them reach their goals. But, for this to work, you must have a clear message. Without clarity, you lose the opportunity to show your audience why your story should matter to them. Therefore, it is vitally important to create your brand story with the challenges that stop your ideal consumer from achieving the success they desire in mind. Comprehending such challenges will help you empathize with your target audience and their everyday struggles. Your compassion will also help them to resonate with your brand. With your consumer as the hero of the story, you can show a tangible transition of their problem and the solution that your company could provide through them. One company that has done well at making its consumers the hero of its story is Warby Parker. How Warby Parker Used Brand Storytelling According to Emma Bullen, author of the article, 11 of the Best Brand Story Examples, Warby Parker had a campaign called “How Warby Parker Glasses Are Made.” For this campaign, Warby Parker focused on making people care about why they exist by making the consumer instrumental to the message. Just check out this video to see how.

About Vanessa Matthew: Vanessa Matthew is a New York-based entrepreneur with a wealth of experience in brand building, marketing, and communications. As Founder and CEO of marketing consultancy Brazen Marketer (now VCM Strategies), she helps businesses big and small with marketing strategy, website design, content production, and more. Her background includes roles as Marketing Manager for the Harlem Commonwealth Council, Senior Market Research Analyst at PR agency Ketchum, and Associate Director of Development and Communications for Animal Care Centers of NYC. Ms. Matthew attended Tufts University for her undergrad, earning a bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2005. In 2018, she graduated summa cum laude from the Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) program at West Virginia University. She is also certified by New York University in Media Management. Interview Questions [MastersinCommunications.com] May we please have a brief description of your educational and professional background? [Vanessa Matthew] After throwing my graduation cap into the air, and celebrating a job well done at Tufts University, I was off to surgery. As much as I was trying to avoid it, I had to have reconstructive surgery on one of my feet. Six months bed rest with a broken foot sure gives you plenty of time to think about what you want to do with the rest of your life. I remember scouring over job sites to see what career paths interested me the most. I may have been a political science major, but I did not see myself as a politician at the time. I stumbled upon the title ‘Chief Marketing Officer’ while conducting Internet searches. My mouth dropped open as the position sounded like a dream job. But, when looking at the qualifications, my heart sank. I didn’t have a degree in marketing, journalism, or communications. Young, and scared of rejection, I looked for jobs with similar responsibilities. Director of Development stuck out to me. It was marketing for nonprofits. I don’t remember why, but I was confident the barrier to entry would be low. The Mount Hope Housing Company (MHHC) welcomed me with open arms. At MHHC, I learn everything from marketing and fundraising to events and grant writing. Over time, I went up in job titles at other places of employment to become a Senior Development and Communications Officer, Assistant Development and Communications Director, and Acting Development and Communications Director. But, who knew that I was before my time. No one else I spoke to viewed fundraising and marketing as two sides of the same coin in 2006. Years later, some people still don’t. This disconnect, mainly due to jargon, resulted in unimaginable career obstacles. Namely, the lack of the word ‘marketing’ in my job titles mattered more to most than my achievements. I was determined to overcome this by seeking a formal education in marketing. I started with a certificate in Media Management from New York University. This certificate helped a bit, but the issue with the word ‘marketing’ not being in my title still existed. Sadly, my youthful looks were not working in my favor either. I needed a program that prioritized a practical education over a theoretical one. WVU provided the precise type of education I was looking for. Time went by, and then one day, I got a call about a market research position. The position had ‘marketing’ in the title, and it was in an area of marketing I wanted to understand better. Sadly, I had to take a deep pay cut, but what else was I to do? I took the position and explored grad school options at the same time. However, the job became demanding very quickly, and I decided not to go to grad school at the time. I was also afraid to take on grad school debt. I wanted to make sure that any school debt would be worth the investment. When I was ready for grad school, my school selection came down to New York University or West Virginia University. I chose West Virginia University’s Master’s in Integrated Marketing Communication program. [MastersinCommunications.com] Why did you decide to pursue a master’s degree in communication, and why did you ultimately choose the online Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) program at West Virginia University? [Vanessa Matthew] After a few talks with marketing and human resource directors, I finally decided to go to grad school. According to them, my accomplishments as a self-taught marketer were not enough. Not for me at least. I needed the academic credentials to back up my achievements. This was even after becoming the head of marketing for a nonprofit. I remember thinking, let me just get this degree so no one can use me not having one against me. I also wondered what I had missed not pursuing a marketing-related degree at Tufts. So, not only was I hoping this degree would open doors for me, but that it would take my marketing to the next level. I needed a program that prioritized a practical education over a theoretical one. WVU provided the precise type of education I was looking for. Now, I am the owner of the marketing consultancy, VCM Strategies. VCM Strategies focuses on brand building and design for real estate developers and nonprofits, although many small businesses also request my services. [MastersinCommunications.com] How is WVU’s IMC program structured, and what concepts did the program emphasize? What skills and strategies did you learn in your classes, and how did you apply them to course assignments? While the head of a marketing department, I knew I did not have the time to attend classes in person. This program is 100 percent online and provided the flexibility I needed for my schedule. But, flexibility does not mean easy – far from it. Lengthy papers were due weekly. And, class discussion posts were mini-research papers. These assignments are due 4-5 times per week, if you want a 4.0 GPA. Personally, I did not want to give up too many summers, so I took my classes straight through. Having a plan for the classes I wanted to attend before the start of the program helped immensely. I was able to attend the courses I wanted, and in the order I wanted to take them. For most courses, students finish with a blueprint for a piece of marketing strategy… I found these blueprints, along with course lessons, immediately applicable to work. Besides their focus on marketing, I liked course finals the most. For most courses, students finish with a blueprint for a piece of marketing strategy. For example, the final for the social media marketing class is a social media marketing plan. A plan, if done well, one could look back on to develop social media marketing plans for other brands in the future. I found these blueprints, along with course lessons, immediately applicable to work. As for WVU’s online platform, the courses were not pre-recorded or live. They were all in writing. Assignments and lessons were delivered in writing. Discussions with teachers and classmates were also in writing. [MastersinCommunications.com] Could you please describe your experience completing your capstone project? What communication issue or challenge did it address, and what were your primary deliverables (i.e. communications plan, tutorial, video, visual marketing materials, etc.)? What advice do you have for students in terms of successfully completing their project? [Vanessa Matthew] The capstone project was the best class I could have ever taken. The capstone sets the stage for about every marketing client project I have taken on as a consultant. You end the class with a thorough marketing communications plan/proposal for a brand. From learning MROI to brand concept statements and executions, the capstone is challenging. But the professor eased some of the stress. I took the capstone with David Marold who I was able to call for help during “office” hours. My capstone project advice would be to start the market research component early. Research informs all parts of marketing. Reach out to the organization that will be the focus of your capstone for the contacts you need to speak to as soon as you start the class. You will be in a better position for your capstone the sooner you garner insights from your focus group. I would also conduct phone interviews for more qualitative data if you can. For my capstone, I created a marketing proposal for the lending institution, the Harlem Entrepreneurial Fund (HEF). HEF wants to brand itself separate from its parent company. Now, HEF is my consulting client, and I am using the plan created during the program to help them with branding. [MastersinCommunications.com] What key takeaways, experiences, or connections from WVU’s Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) program have you found to be the most helpful for you in your career path? [Vanessa Matthew] I know this is cliché to say, but all the courses I took are proving to be helpful in my current career path. The classes I took included Audience Insights (Ethnography), Brand Equity Management, Campaigns, Creative Strategy and Execution, Emerging Media and Market, Entrepreneurship, IMC, Market Research and Analysis, Social Media Marketing, and Visual Information Design. The only class I haven’t needed to look back on for my current work would be Direct Marketing. I know this is cliché to say, but all the courses I took are proving to be helpful in my current career path. The classes I took included Audience Insights (Ethnography), Brand Equity Management, Campaigns, Creative Strategy and Execution, Emerging Media and Market, Entrepreneurship, IMC, Market Research and Analysis, Social Media Marketing, and Visual Information Design. WVU definitely prepared me with the latest developments in marketing communications. But, the tech is always changing, and anyone in marketing must be a lifelong learner to remain ahead. The key is to focus on marketing core principles – know your customers, find out where they are, and speak to them authentically. [MastersinCommunications.com] What advice would you give students just starting the online IMC program at West Virginia University? More broadly, what advice would you give students who are either considering or starting a master’s in communication program, whether it be at WVU or another university? [Vanessa Matthew] Please do not take the online program lightly or think that it will be easier because it is online. You have to be on top of managing your time. And, to maintain a 4.0 GPA, you have to put in real work and create thoughtful research papers and response posts. For any master’s in communication program, I would definitely encourage you to take classes in market research. Do not skip this class. Again, market research is the foundation of marketing insights, strategies, and creative. Thank you, Ms. Matthew, for your excellent insights on West Virginia University’s Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications program! Original Post: https://www.mastersincommunications.com/student-interviews/west-virginia-university/vanessa-matthew

Every service business or organization should be able to state who its primary target audience is. If you are unclear about the main group of people you want to serve, you need to figure this out. To gain clarity, you must start with a clear understanding of your ideal consumer — client, customer, or supporter. Your ideal consumer will be part of your primary target audience. Just one person who checks off all the boxes, making them the perfect consumer for you. Your target audience would be a group of people your ideal consumer socially identifies with who shares similar characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors with your ideal consumer. By understanding your ideal consumer and their attitudes and behaviors, you will be better equipped to make informed brand and content development decisions to appeal to them. Could you have more than one target audience? Yes. But you can’t serve multiple audiences until you clearly understand the makeup of each audience, how you can reach them, and the brand experiences you want them to have. At the same time, this does not mean that you target everyone. If you must target more than one audience, try to stick with 3 to 5 for your business or organization. Narrowing your focus will focus your business efforts on who needs you most. To confirm whether the primary target audience you’ve selected is the right fit for you, you must conduct target audience research. Conducting target audience research means collecting and analyzing demographic, psychographic, and behavioral information on the target audience of your ideal consumer. We’ll start with demographics. According to Merriam Webster, demographics consist of statistical characteristics of human populations, such as age, race, gender, age, household income, educational level, marital status, political affiliation, and occupation, to name a few. When conducting research, I pay special attention to age. This is because ages link to generations, and a wealth of generational research can provide insights into some of the psychographic and behavioral data most common to people within any particular generation. According to the dictionary, psychographics is the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, lifestyle, beliefs, values, and other psychological criteria, especially in brand and market research. Collecting this type of information from primary or secondary research can provide critical insights into what matters to your primary target audience to inform marketing. We want to go beneath the surface as to what makes members of your primary target audience tick. Conducting primary research would mean collecting this information from members of your target audience via a survey, focus group, or individual interviews. Conducting secondary research means using existing research and data from credible sources to learn more about your target audience. Ideally, it would be best to use both research strategies for a more comprehensive picture of your ideal consumer. As a brand strategist, I lean away from surveys and more towards collecting qualitative data. As a result, you will find more critical attitudinal and behavioral insights needed to create a brand strategy and strategic messaging within qualitative data. Once you’ve collected all the information you need, it is then time to take a step back and ask yourself if the profile of the target audience you want to serve is at the stage in their life that most aligns with the services you are offering, from career to home life. For example, do their values align with your brand values? Would their buying habits, advertising attitudes, and communication preferences work for you? If not, you may want to rethink who you want to target and why because your goal should be to communicate with your target audience in the most relevant, relatable way through messages and visuals, which cannot happen if you two aren’t on the same page. If you see alignment and your target audience’s profile excites you, then you are good to go. First, you can create a target audience persona — a robust profile of the person you want to help informed by the target audience research you’ve collected. Then, craft all your marketing materials and content for this persona. This approach is the best way to give your target audience the right messaging signals to increase their chances of doing business with you.

For nearly a decade, I worked for nonprofits because I deeply believe in the positive impact of nonprofit organizations on communities and the world. They are the epitome of what it means to be a purpose-driven brand focused on human-to-human marketing. And just like any other business, nonprofits must be clear about who they are serving and how best to reach them. Here is a story about how not knowing your target audience can go wrong when you are a nonprofit organization trying to fundraise to support your mission. Let us say you are running an annual appeal. You have thought everything through, from having a clean mailing list to selecting the most compelling content and creative to raise fundraising dollars. The only thing missing is data beyond gender detailing the demographics of each of your supporters, and you think, ‘this is fine, it won’t be that bad.’ Under immense pressure to fundraise now, you don’t do any further research on the donors and supporters you have on your list. Instead, you mail the annual appeal to thousands with your fingers crossed. Then you learn that you’ve spent way more money on the annual appeal mailing than you’ve fundraised from it, as responses to the mailing come back to the office with hand-written notes instead of checks or money. On the ask and ask matrix, you learn that most of the donors and supporters mailed to were older adults who found the font on the annual appeal too small. They did not donate because they struggled to read the font! Not only is this a true story, but a great case for investing in target audience research. Not only would research have been a great idea to increase fundraising dollars, but the research would’ve been able to drive better marketing efforts for the development department in the future. A nonprofit could also conduct more than target audience research, but quantitative and qualitative research to learn from supporters how to better support them. Qualitative research asks respondents open-ended questions that provide insight into problems or help develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative research is also used to uncover trends in thoughts and opinions and dive deep into problems. Conversely, quantitative research provides you with numerical data and is used to quantify attitudes, behaviors, opinions, and other variables from your audience. It’s great for collecting objective information, usually through a survey, as few variables impact this type of data since it derives from close-ended questions. Therefore, it is best to pair quantitative research with qualitative research. What you learn from both should help you improve your nonprofit’s marketing and communications efforts based on the response you receive from your supporters. There’s always room for improvement, so use research to create or improve your nonprofit’s services. Also, people are rarely unwilling to say how you can help them better support your nonprofit organization’s mission and vision if they truly want to help. So, allow your supporters to pleasantly surprise you. Let them provide you will critical insights to move your mission forward while improving your relationship with them.