Angela Roy is a Lawyer and Management Consultant, who works with small businesses, providing professional services to bring calm back into their business.
Angela approached Hiilite looking for a new logo and website. As with many sole entrepreneurs, Angela was unsure of exactly what she was looking for. Personal branding can be much more than a normal branding exercise, and as Angela discovered, quite emotional.
The branding process starts with the CORE exercise. We use this chance to understand the backstory of a client, development of their business, as well as investigating the specific needs they have. In order to do this, we use 6 different brand attributes to understand the overall feeling of a business and its target audience.
Culture – How would your community describe your company?
Customers – How would you describe your customers?
Voice – How do we, the brand, sound to others?
Feeling Impact – What tangible impact do you have on others?
X-Factor – How are you different from others? What makes you special?
As Angela went through this process, she learned a lot about herself. Personal branding exercises cause many clients to become very introspective as they uncover certain qualities about themselves. Angela began to feel more connected with herself as an entrepreneur throughout the process, which allowed us to have a better understanding of her developing brand.
The tricky part about personal branding is balancing the end result between what customers expect from your brand, as well as what you feel represents yourself. If the entrepreneur does not feel connected with their own brand, it will not translate the passion that person has for their business. On the flip-side however, if the brand does not speak to its target audience, it will miss the mark completely.
Defining your target audience is another part of the CORE Exercise. We help businesses identify their ideal target, right down to the nitty-gritty details. We look at demographics, story, needs and solutions. This process helped lead us to designing different directions for Angela to choose from.
The next step in the branding process was to show Angela the three potential directions we could take her business in. We used stylescapes to visually represent the different brand attributes and allow her to conceptualize the look and feel of her new brand.
Stylescapes
direct / ambitious / confident / empowered / ROI / modern
direct / ambitious / approachable / empowered / ROI / modern
direct / ambitious / confident / liberated / education / modern
The stylescapes provide us with the colour pallette, images, and words to help describe the way the business feels. We use imagery that speaks to our target audience to help build trust in that relationship. Angela initially chose to go with the more modern stylescape, but as we explored her business direction further, we began working a more natural and outdoorsy feel into her design. Angela identified that many of her clients enjoyed the outdoors and that is where they found a source of calm in their lives. Drawing that theme of personal calmness and applying it to the business created a direction that spoke to both Angela and her target audience.
After determining the direction, we spend time creating applications to visually show how the brand will be used. Here is an example of the business cards that we created.
At the end of the process, Angela walked away with a targeted direction for her brand. Consistency is key when it comes to brand recognition and by having her involved in the brand development ensured that she had a full grasp of her brand’s direction. You can check out Angela’s website here: www.angelaroyconsulting.com.
