Before you can work out how to develop a brand, you first need to think about who that brand is for. Clearly identifying your target audience is an easy step to skip in brand building, but the reality is that different people respond to different tones, aesthetics, and brand personalities. If you start by considering what that audience is looking for, you’ll have much less trouble designing a brand that engages and connects with them.

One simple way to identify your audience is to create buyer personas. A buyer persona is a rough sketch of the typical lead you want to sell to. It should include basics such as age, location, and income as well as more in-depth information like political views, product use cases, and any related brands they buy from. Of course, you’ll naturally learn about your audience over time as you develop the brand and make more sales.

Conduct competitor research to get a better idea of how to cultivate a unique niche. Find a way to match competitors’ strengths while capitalizing on weaknesses like market inefficiencies or underserved sectors.

Examine other areas of competing brands as well, like websites, pricing, and voice. Strong SEO practices can generate steady web traffic through organic search, and competing websites should give you a good idea of which topics to target. You can also use keyword research tools to identify subjects that aren’t being targeted yet by competitors.

A competitor research spreadsheet like the one shown above may help you prioritize your findings. This should provide a clear view of how your company compares to others in the same industry and help you find more effective ways to differentiate your brand from the competition.

Think about where your brand fits in your industry. Start with a single purpose or mission statement communicating what you want the brand to accomplish. This statement will inform other branding activities, so it must align with your business plan and core values.

If you’re having trouble creating a mission statement, try answering a few fundamental questions about your business. For example:

1. Why does your company exist?
2. What problem can your product or service solve?
3. Why should customers buy from you instead of a competitor?
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Remember that a mission statement is intended primarily for internal alignment rather than for audience-facing marketing campaigns. You’ll have time to craft marketing messaging later on, so don’t spend too much time trying to make your mission statement catchy.

For example, Nike’s slogan is “just do it,” but the company’s mission statement is less flashy — “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete.” That purpose helps guide all of the company’s activities from product design and development to marketing and sales.

Personality is one of the most important aspects of your brand. It’s the easiest way to demonstrate that your company is unique, and it’s what will attract the type of customers you want.

The same voice should echo across brand operations — from web copy and social media profiles, to emails and product pages. Whenever a customer interacts with your brand, they should hear the distinct brand voice and see your personality. The voice you choose will depend largely on your audience, mission statement, and industry. For example, Gen Z audiences often use slang, so you might consider integrating that into your brand voice if you want to connect with that type of audience.

Research what personality your target audience is interested in within your field for inspiration. There are five basic brand personalities you can review to help you conceptualize, define, and develop your unique personality.

1. Sincerity
2. Excitement
3. Competence
4. Sophistication
5. Ruggedness

Once you understand your brand’s personality, develop an editorial style guide. Imagine your brand as a real person and speak like you think they would. Decide how formal or informal you want to be, even drilling down to word choice and contraction usage.

For example, Harley-Davidson uses a rugged, adventurous tone that customers have come to identify with their brand.

Stories connect people on a personal level, so using them in your marketing is a great way to appeal to customers. The book Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller provides an outline of what to include in your brand story. It starts with a character — your customer — and a problem. The character meets a guide who gives them a plan and a call to action to help avoid future failure. This simple formula can be used by casting your brand as the guide and your unique value proposition as the plan.

Storytelling is a great supplement to your mission statement. It can explain why your brand exists and its beliefs. Once you’ve established your story, incorporate it into ads and landing pages.

Burt’s Bees introduces their story on the search results page. The copy presumes the customer has the problem of taking care of their skin, but also faces the dilemma of not sacrificing their health with harsh chemicals. The brand then offers the perfect solution — natural products.

Naming your brand is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Most top brand names are either abbreviations or one to two words — memorable and easy to remember.

There are some simple techniques you can use when creating a name for your brand.

Before committing to a particular name, search for the name and similar variants on Google to make sure you won’t face too much competition. Choosing a name that resembles the name of a competitor can pull traffic away from you and send it to them.

A strong slogan is invaluable. It needs to be brief yet descriptive so that it can easily fit in many spaces like your bio on social media, website header, email signature, and more. Your slogan needs to be both concise and easy to remember as well as consistent with the rest of your branding efforts. No matter how catchy and memorable your slogan is, if it clashes with the rest of your branding customers can become confused by the conflict.

Beyond being concise and impactful there is no definitive criteria for creating a slogan, but below are few approaches to help you start.

Unlike a brand name, your slogan can change. As you engage with your target audience, see which approach resonates with them and tweak your slogan. Wendy’s has changed their slogan several times in the decades they’ve been in business. In 1984 they started with “Where’s the beef?” which was a huge success. Next they tried "Give a little nibble,” which ultimately failed and the company pivoted to extolling their use of “never-frozen” patties.

One of the first impressions people will have of your brand is the logo. It’s the face of your brand, so you need to design a good one.

A logo often incorporates a variety of visuals, so there are several points to consider. Your color palette, choice of typography, and imagery are three effective design elements that are involved with logo creation.

Colors used in branding can also convey a specific message. Be mindful of the psychological effects of color when designing your logo and brand. Research color theory to help solidify what you want your brand to represent and how you want it to make people feel.

Choose a font that represents your brand voice and personality well. Fonts communicate tone and brand identity as much as color and images. A bold, wide font implies strength. A serif font is often associated with authority. A script font can let audiences know your brand is more playful.

If you decide to include text in your logo, keep in mind that it needs to be easy to read even when the platform or material forces it to be very small or in simple black and white.

There are a few general types of images generally used for logos. Choose something that aligns with your business and marketing goals.

If you want your brand to be associated with something specific, draw inspiration from a familiar source and make something unique but easily identifiable. Consider the bold, red bullseye that most American shoppers associate with Target. The logo corresponds to the brand on a literal level.

Once you’ve established the foundation of your brand, it’s time to integrate it cohesively throughout your company.

Create a style guide to ensure you have a unified voice and presence across every channel. Outline how you want your brand to sound, look, and feel as a reference. Your brand’s personality should be evident through every social media post, marketing campaign, and the design of your website.

Lenskart has created a customer-centric brand focused on creating engaging experiences both online and in-store. The clean and sophisticated design spans all aspects of the company, from the home try-on boxes to how the products are organized on the shelves. The brand voice is straightforward and mission-driven, using plain language to approach the community and explain benefits. This consistent messaging ensures customers can expect similar experiences no matter what brand platform they’re interacting with.

While brand consistency is critical for long-term stability and engagement, you don’t need to continue with strategies that aren’t working. Sometimes, a rebrand is the most practical solution to continue appealing to your consumers while helping you attract a new audience.

A rebrand can refer to something as simple as a minor logo change to a complete transformation of color scheme, tone of voice, and target demographic. Depending on the goal, something as simple as an adjusted logo font can have a significant impact on your public-facing image.

Rebrands should be carefully tested before being implemented. Start by gathering feedback directly from existing customers to understand how they currently view your brand. Your loyal customers should take priority over potential leads. You can still try to get responses from other groups that resemble the new target audience, but avoid alienating your existing customers since they’re your most valuable audience.

One example of a successful rebrand is Dunkin’. After being known as Dunkin’ Donuts for nearly 70 years, the coffee company got its new name in 2019. This came after more than a decade of using the slogan “America runs on Dunkin’,” which gave the brand ample time to gauge how audiences would react to the shortened name.

After announcing the change in late 2018, Dunkin’ was privately sold at a valuation of $106.50 per share in 2020 — an increase of roughly 50% in just two years. This is just one case study that demonstrates how a seemingly minor branding change can introduce opportunities.