Here’s the scenario: You’re looking to establish a brand for your business or possibly go through a rebrand, and are wondering how to make a lasting impression. Approach the branding process like a job interview by visualizing your brand as a potential candidate.
Keep in mind that your brand is more than your logo – it’s also how you communicate with your audiences and how you interact with them day-by-day. Does your band candidate have an air of subtlety or an outgoing personality? Do they have a polished look, or do they take the casual approach? When looking for the best candidate, it can be overwhelming to make the right choice. We’re here to walk you through the best questions to ask to narrow down your brand’s intent.
Tell Us About Yourself
Picture your brand sitting across the table from you. In this exploratory phase of the branding process, Scout will help you define what they do and who they are through a branding discovery session.
During the discovery session, we dig deep to gain insights that will define your brand the same way a job candidate will create a pitch to sell what they bring to the position. We help verbalize:
- Your brand’s values, mission and vision for the future
- What services or solutions they bring to the table
- The characteristics that make them stand out from the crowd
Defining each of these points early on is important so that your brand candidate has a clear idea of who they are and why others should believe in them and feel confident investing their time and money.
What brought you here today?
You may be engaging with a branding company for a variety of reasons: there may be a renewed mission or vision for the future, a new audience you want to reach, or maybe the look and feel of your brand is outdated. You might just know you need something but need help knowing what that something is. Whatever the reason, we’ll use it to narrow down what you need from the ideal brand candidate.
Where do you see yourself in the next five to ten years?
Interviewers ask this question to gauge goals and if there’s a plan in place to reach them. Go back to the brand candidate example: how would you want someone to answer this question? Are you looking for someone with clearly defined expectations, or someone who can evolve slowly over time?
As we help you lay the groundwork for your brand, we want to help you envision brand-building as an ongoing process while also considering where you want to be in the future. Branding is an intentional practice that involves crafting both short-term and long-term strategies to first reach your target audience then ensure they stick around for the long-haul.
What motivates you?
What is your “why”? As you picture your brand candidate, you probably don’t want to hear a canned response to a question like this. You’re looking for something that feels authentic and unique to the industry you serve.
Communicating your motivator can be difficult. What is the bigger picture idea behind what you do? You may know what you do, but do you know how to communicate that to others through your brand? At Scout, we want to help you see your brand as a strategic asset so that you can move past surface-level thinking and get to the heart of the question. When we help clients understand this concept better, we find more opportunities to reach your target audiences through the most suitable channels.
Are you willing to relocate?
Translate this question to your branding process. With your brand in its current state, are you prepared to adapt – or relocate – to industry changes, new platforms, or a different audience? The ideal brand candidate can see the bigger picture and has a willingness to be flexible.
We recognize many clients may not know where to meet audiences or how to predict their next move. As we take clients through a discovery phase, we bridge that gap with the answers you have and our brand-building experience to find the most effective solutions.
What sets you apart?
We like to call this the only-ness statement. As you consider your brand candidate, identify the attributes that would set them apart from anyone else in the industry. For example, do you offer legal services, or are you the only lawyer in the area specializing in environmental law? Maybe it’s how you deliver a particular service that really makes you one-of-a-kind.
We use this approach to see where a client stands in the landscape of their industry. A successful brand considers internal factors coupled with external factors like competition, advantages, or competing companies who have found industry success.
Are you ready to move forward?
Crafting compelling responses to these “interview questions” is a process that takes time. Not only are you considering what the brand will accomplish immediately, but you also have to be mindful of the lasting impact it will have. Your candidate may not have all the answers right now, but with help from Scout, we can eliminate noise in the branding process and guide you on the right approach to take.
Using creative strategies, problem-solving and collaboration, your brand can be the right candidate for the job.
