Branding

Blog Post by: Megan Marrs is an entrepreneur, consultant and owner of Marrs Media Group, a branding and strategic marketing company located in Valparaiso, Indiana. She is also a contributing writer for The Daily Muse

1. Determine Your Emotional Appeal

For starters, think broadly about your personality and how it affects the experience someone will have with you. Are you insanely organized? Do people love working with you for your killer sense of humor?

Make a list of words that best describe these features of your personality. These words are known as emotional modifiers. Hint: They can be as simple as Disney’s “fun.”

Questions to Consider:

• How do I make people feel?

• How do people benefit by working with me?

• What words do others use to describe me?

2. Determine Your Description

Your next step is coming up with a descriptive modifier that brings clarity to the emotional modifier, identifying what or who your brand is for. In Disney’s case, it’s “family.” In Nike’s mantra, “authentic athletic performance,” “authentic” is the emotional appeal, while “athletic” tells you what the brand is for. As an individual, yours might be an industry (“healthcare” or “education”), or it might be a tangible skill (“creative” or “strategic”).

Questions to Consider:

• What field or industry am I in (or do I want to be in)?

• What are the words I would use to describe my work?

• Who is my target audience?

3. Determine Your Function

Lastly, write down what, exactly, you do (or will do). It might be something that directly relates to your career: writing, graphic design, or financial planning, for example. Or, it might be something more broad, like Disney’s “entertainment.” Are you a manager, a creator, an organizer? A connector of people?

Questions to Consider:

• What service do I have to offer people?

• What do I do that makes me stand out from everyone else?

4. Put it All Together

Finally, look at your three lists of words, and see how you can combine them into a short sentence or phrase—no more than five words. Your brand mantra should communicate clearly who you are, it should be simple and memorable, and it should feel inspiring to you. You might be a “dependable, strategic planner” or “a creative professional connector.” Or, your mantra might be something like, “motivating others to do their best.”

This article was originally posted on The Daily Muse.