To define your company brand, you must know who are you at your core. What do you better than your competitors? How are you different?
What Is Your Company Brand?
Companies small and large need clarity about (1) the value of their offerings in the market, (2) the target audience for their offerings, and (3) their offering details in order to identify the most strategic way to position those offerings in internal and external communications.
By internal communications, I mean the people who work for you and with you. Ideally, you should all be waving the same flag and singing the same tune. By external communications, I mean everybody else — suspects, prospects, customers, and raving fans. Even your mother.
To clarify, branding is about way more than color, design, logos, and font selection. Branding is who you are at your core. It’s what you do, why you do it, how you do it, and who you do it for. Branding is the way you talk about yourself and, more importantly, the way you talk about the things that matter to your target audience. It’s what you do and do not stand for.
How to Define Your Company Brand
Start by nailing down your value proposition, target audience, and offering details.
Value Proposition
Your value proposition is a clear, short, easy-to-understand statement that gets your internal team and your prospects, clients, and raving fans all on the same page. It accelerates target audience awareness and buy-in. Your value proposition analysis can include the following:
- Company vision, mission, and values
- Elevator pitch
- Key differentiators that clarify your competitive advantage
- Competitor positioning
- SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
Target Audience
If you speak to everyone, you end up speaking to no one. Your target audience analysis identifies the ideal buyers of your products or services. (Note: Keep in mind you may have multiple target audiences.) Key elements of your target audience analysis can include the following:
- Ideal industries, verticals, and customers
- Snapshot of your next best client
- Buyer demographics, geographic location, needs, goals, pain points, and buying criteria
- Strategies for communicating with your target audiences
Offering Details
Offering details include clear, compelling content about your offerings that helps promote the value those offerings provide to your target audience. Key elements of your offering details can include the following:
- Descriptions that capture all significant aspects of your offerings
- Offering features, benefits, and outcomes
- Market opportunities and market insights
- Key offering buzzwords and and other language that your audience understands
- Customer testimonials, press, and other evidence that your audience values your offerings
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