BRANDING 101: Your Unique Persona

Everything that moves in or out of your business is a form of communication with the world.

You email prospects, you send a product to a customer, you liaise with suppliers and you have a perceived business persona.

Whether this persona is a receptive one or not, is another story altogether.

Your business persona can be congruent and consistent or it can be a fumbling spaghetti storm.

Take two seconds to picture your business if it was a living breathing person.

Is it a quaffed and refined David Beckham type?

A rugged yet engaging Idris Elba?

Or is it a frazzled one-sock wearing mess with shirt buttons misaligned.

No offence to the people out there wearing one sock to halve their laundry, but you could probably do with a rethink of how you are projecting your persona.

In the world of business, the way you are perceived can be the difference between you developing an understanding with your target market or simply being another web page.

Granted, this is not as simple as a new logo, but it’s a great start.

The simple foundation of having a strong brand persona is understanding who you are and why you’re doing it rather than manipulating your potential buyers.

You might not want to be a prestigious handsome type, as that doesn’t suit your business.

If you run an online costume-for-hire service, you might want your persona to be a lovable and endearing source of reliable warm-hearted fun like a Danny DeVito.

The point is, be true to who and what you want to be.

Again, picture your business as a person.

How do they act?

Are they approaching their prospective customers and public preaching the value of their products and services or is your persona confident and self-aware in how they appear to others?

The truth is, people gravitate towards stability, whether it be stability of character in our loved ones or stability of income or stability in the brands of soap we buy.

Why?

Because we know what to expect when it comes to the things that matter most.

And let me tell you, there’s not much more powerful for your brand persona than being staunch and confident on a consistent basis.

An example?

Nike is routinely lauded as one of the premier brands and for good reason, they understand what continuity of their persona offer their customers.

Nike cuts the fat and offers a brand persona synonymous with performance, resilience, endurance and does so through their many motifs to enhance this persona.

From the “Just Do it” moniker to their advertisement artwork in black and grey, and their use of the most decorated basketballer of all time in Michael Jordan, Nike has made a foundation for their persona and gone so far as to actually become it.

Michael Jordan was a very logical choice for Nike as he embodies their persona, and delivers the core values of their character to such a degree all their marketing requires is Jordan in a neutral pose wearing their patented Nike tick.

Nike has successfully taken their hypothetical avatar and embodied it within their star athlete to elevate themselves into a pop culture phenomenon, beyond their simple beginnings as a sports apparel brand.

Need proof of this?

You’ll see a Nike tick on the shirts, shoes and shorts of people who haven’t kicked a ball or run a 100m in their lives because they want to be perceived as Nike’s business persona.

Your persona is what you stand for, how you do it, and how you can keep your word to create a stable and

So, some take away keys you can implement right now.

Find out who you are and why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Find out who you want to be and how you want your business to be perceived.

Take a real person and use them a muse that you want to be your brands persona.

Emulate this in your business’ immediate interactions with the world through branding (logo, website, copywriting,). This will set a precedent of character within your business that can trickle into the consciousness of employees, customers and partners. Pretty much anyone who directly interacts with your business.

This is especially important online, as first impressions may be the only one you have with someone and browsers always judge a book by its cover.  

Have an idea of your unique brand persona or have one that works for you?
Let us know in comments.