Original subtitles

Hi, I'm James.

I happen to be Erika's brother, and I'm

going to jump straight into the class, but

first want to let you know that we

have a worksheet available which will help you

through the steps.

You can download it here.

You can also find it in the course

description.

There's a lot of confusion as to what

a brand is.

Some people think it's a logo and that

good branding means putting your logo in as

many places as possible.

Some people think it's what your website and

marketing materials look like.

This is getting closer, but a brand is

more than all these things.

Your brand is who you are as a

business.

It encompasses what you do, how you do

it, and your business's reason for being.

It is what your business is today, but

it is also what your business aspires to

be.

Branding design, which is what I do, involves

ensuring your logo, website, and marketing materials match

your brand.

If people see a disconnect between your design

materials and who you say you are, you

lose trust.

So the first step is to figure out

what makes your skills and your business special.

Even in an industry like wedding photography, there

are many differences between photographers.

Some specialize in destination weddings, some in elopements,

and they all have their personal styles.

Figuring out your brand will help you find

a place in this ecosystem and also help

you stand out.

Your unique brand will send a message as

to what kinds of projects you are a

good fit for and which you aren't.

You don't want to be seen as a

photographer that can take on any kind of

photography project.

This makes your service feel generic and makes

it more difficult to articulate the value that

you bring.

A brand is important so that you can

clearly communicate why your business exists and what

is different about what you offer.

Once you have this in writing, you have

a reference to check against.

Everything you share with the world related to

your business should match and align with this

brand.

This makes your marketing and communication with clients

more consistent, more memorable, and more compelling.

So how do you figure out what your

brand is?

This part of the work is called brand

strategy.

There are experts who consult on this for

a living, but I believe that photography business

owners can figure it out for themselves as

long as they have a guideline.

There are many ways to express brand strategy,

and different professionals have their own preferred methods.

Here's how I like it organized.

The elements are purpose, positioning, values, personality, and

tagline.

You can use the handy acronym PPPP to

remember this.

Yeah, sorry, I couldn't come up with a

better acronym.

I'm going to go through them one at

a time, but before I do that, I

want to emphasize that the value they bring

is in relation to how much effort you

put into them.

This isn't something you should just hack out

in a half day and then assume it

is checked off your list.

The more research, thought, and soul searching you

put into it, the better.

And revisit your brand strategy often to see

if anything needs to change.

You're allowed to change your mind as the

photography market changes around you.

First, your purpose.

Your purpose is your why.

What is your business's reason for being?

Answering to make money is not a good

answer.

Think about what difference your business makes in

your client's lives.

Your purpose becomes the reason for every action

your brand takes, but it doesn't have to

be shared directly with the public.

It's more of an internal compass that guides

what you do, so it should be pretty

high level and aspirational.

For my business, Adam Studio, the brand purpose

is to create thoughtful and memorable designs that

make our world more beautiful, interesting, and understandable.

For Two Men Studios, their brand purpose is

helping people see the magic and beauty in

their lives.

Dig deep and come up with a purpose

that you can be proud of.

So, the purpose is your why, the positioning

is your what.

What are you offering and how do you

deliver for what needs?

What is the promise you are making to

your clients?

An edited version of your positioning should be

shared with the public on your website and

in your marketing materials.

It may change over time as you adjust

your offerings or think of better ways to

position them.

Your brand positioning should help you focus on

what makes you different than your competitors.

Here's a handy method for figuring it out.

This structure ensures you get all the required

ingredients in there.

In order to fill it in, you need

to know your target customer, what they want

or need, the key benefits of your offering,

and what makes it different.

This will require some thought and probably some

trial and error to get right.

To better demonstrate, I'll show you how I

would fill this in for my business, Adam

Studio.

For forward-thinking organizations that understand the value

of good design, who need their messages communicated

visually in an understandable and distinctive way, our

branding design services elevate, educate, and inspire.

Unlike other design agencies, our branding design services

blend proven processes and creative firepower.

For two-man studios, who wrote a really

long positioning line, but a really good one,

it looks like this.

For couples who value experiences over stuff and

wish to have the feeling of their wedding

experience documented in a way that honors their

unique story, our photography breaks new ground, elevates

the industry, and helps people see the magic

and beauty in their lives.

Unlike other photography teams, we document the whole

story from start to finish with outstanding compositions

and creative lighting and unscripted moments.

Now, Eric and Lenny didn't like that last

part, how it starts with unlike other photography

teams, because they think it sounds arrogant.

That's okay though, because you can rephrase your

sentences so they make more sense and aren't

forced into this precise format.

But the exercise is a great way to

ensure you've thought about who you're offering to,

what your service is, and what makes it

different than your competitors.

We've now covered why your business exists and

what it does.

Your values are how you do it, not

a step-by-step process, but rather three

to four truths about your brand, your philosophy,

and code.

Values are guiding principles that help you make

decisions in order to fulfill your purpose.

What do you stand for?

What guides or motivates you?

What do you wish you could change about

your industry?

It should sound a bit like a manifesto.

For instance, Adam Studio's values are focus on

the purpose, honor the brand, ask more questions,

and design with courage.

Two men's values are honor their story, be

curious, and keep striving.

I think they copied the word honor in

there, but that's okay.

You should also write a short description for

each value, explaining what they mean to you.

These could potentially end up on the about

page of your website.

Next up is personality.

Brand personality is how you would describe your

business if it were a person.

Is it loud or quiet, progressive or traditional,

urban or natural?

I know for a lot of photographers, your

business only has one or two people in

it, so your company's brand may be similar

to your own personality.

This is fine, as long as your traits

are a fit with the rest of your

brand strategy.

For making visual design or writing style decisions,

this step is one of the most important,

so don't skip it.

Start with a long list of items, then

pair them down to the top three to

five.

If you need help on where to start,

the summary sheet has a list of common

personality traits to choose from.

It's important here to use adjectives, not nouns,

not verbs.

The words must be descriptive in nature.

For example, Adam Studio's personality traits are curious,

creative, thoughtful, and courageous.

Two Man's personality traits are honest, competitive, and

relentless.

Once you have these personality traits figured out,

you can refer to them every time you

write or design something new.

This keeps your marketing materials from feeling generic

or mismatched.

Lastly, for the brand keeners out there, here's

a fun bonus challenge.

Figure out your tagline, but you shouldn't tackle

this until you have your other brand strategy

items complete.

A good tagline can really help set the

tone for your brand.

It is an extremely distilled message inspired by

all the other brand strategy work and makes

a great headline on your website and other

marketing materials.

The key is to keep it as short

as possible.

It doesn't have to tell the whole story,

it just has to have the right feeling.

If it has a clever double meaning, even

better.

You might need help from a writer for

this one.

This is a difficult task.

Brands spend a lot of money to get

a good tagline, so don't get frustrated if

you have trouble.

Adam Studio's tagline is design with courage.

It's exactly the same as one of our

values, but it just seemed to work.

So, like I said earlier, photographers can probably

figure this out on their own, but you

should also lean on others in your network.

If you're close with any of your past

clients, it's certainly worth running your brand strategy

by them to see if resonates.

If you know anyone with skills in writing

or business, run it by them over a

coffee and get some feedback.

The more research and thought you put into

this, the more useful it will be.

Take some time to work through your brand

strategy before moving on to the next video,

which is about finding and briefing a designer

to help you bring your visual brand to

life.

Thanks for watching.