Branding Tips for Holistic Product Companies

Bridget here—grab a pen or notebook, I’m gunna share some of my favorite exercises to help with your product company's messaging and positioning.

P.S. If you want a framework to help you and your team nail down your messaging and positioning for new iterations of your brand/products, click here to learn about Find Your Irresistible. 

Anywho~~

Here are my best tips:

1. What words come to mind when potential customers think of your brand? (ie. candles, organic, design, aesthetic, visibility, publishing, the list goes on and on). We want to make sure we know exactly what we are trying to project through our message and overall brand. For example, when people think of Patagonia, they associate their brand with outdoor clothing and adventure. They made sure that those concepts (or as I like to call them “branding keywords” were easily identifiable in all messaging.)
2. Think about what people are buying into when they purchase your products or services. for instance, when people purchase coffee from a cute instagrammable coffee shop, they aren’t just buying the coffee, but also what it means to be someone who buys coffee from that establishment. Same goes for designer or luxury bags. It’s not just about the bag, but it’s also a status symbol. So when people make a purchase with you, what subliminal message does that purchase put out into the world?
3. This one comes from Marketing God (ok to me he is a marketing genius, haha), Seth Godin. Here’s what he says, “A brand is not a logo. Think about a logo you admire, it will be a brand you admire. A logo is a symbol. A brand is a promise. If Nike opened a hotel, you would know what it looked like, if Hyatt had a brand of sneaker you would have no idea what it would be like. Hyatt has a logo, not a brand.” So again this brings us back to the idea of what are you really selling? You’re selling a belief, a philosophy, a way of doing, being, living. What does your brand represent?
4. This one is the biggest given, but that’s why it’s worth reiterating—know your people. I love Seth Godin’s focus on the “smallest viable market”. So who do you serve? what specific subset of the population are your people? What are they currently experiencing? How would their life/business change after working together/buying your product? What stays the same for them if you don’t work together? What else do they invest in?

We go into these topics with in our simple, Find Your Irresistible framework helping product companies create something memorable and well, irresistible.

Co-Founder Lydia has spearheaded PR campaigns for some of the biggest names in the music industry—James Bay, X Ambassadors, The Beach Boys and more—as well as campaigns for some of your favorite brands like Every Man Jack deodorant. She transposes what she's learned about getting those brands some of the biggest placements of their career through this simple branding framework. See her press placements for clients here.