Discover how Q Branch helps you move from confused to having a clear path forward.
Do you know what branding really is?
When I started out on my journey as a coach I had no idea about branding, or how you show up to your audience. I just thought it was a logo and some colours (not very specific colours at that) and show up as me. Job done!
So, I found a web developer who was recommended to me and had a vague idea of what I wanted my website to look like, based on other coaching websites I liked. I paid £50 for a logo which was based on a sculpture I had bought, and some colours inspired by my holiday and off we went.
Every day I posted; I used whichever colour I felt like that day. Every word I wrote I chose a font which I felt connected to on that day. It was all based on ADHD whim and feelings. And boy did that make it tough when I woke up in the morning and couldn’t make those decisions. Because I also liked to create and post on the day (still do if I’m honest) and that would add extra time, extra process. It was a bit all over the place.
And messaging, well, what’s that? I was saying what I wanted to say because I thought it was important to say it. But there was no strategy to it at all.
My poor web developer, who was a very nice man and good at creating functional websites, was probably banging his head off a wall waiting for content to arrive and for me to know what I wanted to say.
It was shortly after this, the website had been alive for around 6 months, that I met Matt (if you don’t know that story, go and check out our Q Branch Story). After a few months, Matt looked at my presence online and said, “shall we just start again?”.
Yes Please!
How to start a re-brand
Now, Matt has always been a creative. He is also technically brilliant combining both those skills into lighting design. He had run his own business for 25 years as a designer and had started to build a name in the corporate branding world with his lighting abilities. But he was also at the start of his brand strategy journey. He had been doing a lot of it subconsciously for years but now he was learning from some of the best in the business. I had also done some “marketing” programs to the tune of thousands of pounds to learn how to connect with an audience. I was still struggling with this element, but Matt took to it like James Bond to a shaken Martini.
Matt set about creating my visual brand. He sent me lots of logos to choose from and I immediately said, “what about the J in the circle?”. Now this wasn’t one of the logo choices, it was what he intended to use as a favicon (I didn’t know what that was either). With a sigh he agreed that it looked good, and all his other hard work was never going to see a webpage or article. The fact I still love it is a total fluke. There wasn’t a lot of thought behind it really and this happens sometimes.
I thought “branding job done!”. I have a logo!
Nope, wrong!
Matt would call me over the next few weeks and months to ask why I had used a certain font, or background colour. My answer was “because I like it”. I still hadn’t grasped the next level in brand.
How important is consistency in brand?
Consistency has been the bane of my life forever. I start something, feel very enthusiastic, then I get bored. I think I enjoy something and then I don’t. I get fired up to write daily posts, articles, weekly emails. Then I stop.
Does this sound familiar?
This is all brand too. I had no idea.
At this point we were still using similar pale colours to how I started, I was beginning to understand the colour and font thing (with the odd slip up), but I still wasn’t really connecting the dots of brand.
What was missing?
Clarity.
How to create Brand Clarity.
I still wasn’t sure who my audience was and what I wanted anything to say, look or be like.
I decided to let Matt take over. He just did it. Here’s your brand Jenny, use these colours, these fonts, this sizing, here’s your strategy. Post here, here and here.
This may sound wonderful, and for me it was, but remember, by this time Matt knew my business and me inside out. He spent every day building this knowledge so he could just do that.
You don’t often get that insight into clients who call you specifically to work on their brand. The inner workings of the business and individual are not immediately apparent. We can make assumptions, but they aren’t always correct.
We knew we had to address this issue with our clients. We had a few that just wanted us to create a logo and a website (and sometimes not even the logo part) but the disconnection with the brand was so apparent, Matt decided it was a route he was no longer willing to take. He knew there were more important, deeper connections to make.
This is when he devised the “Clarity Roadmap”. And it is genius.
Our first one he asked me to go with him. I of course said yes, anything to help the process, and I could be learning on the way too.
We had no idea how the first day was going to go or how my role was going to be included but by the end of the day, we got in the car, looked at each other and grinned. It was epic! We worked brilliantly as a team, getting to the bottom of many issues there and then because I could notice what was being misunderstood or miscommunicated.
Every time we have done a Clarity Roadmap workshop, we have been amazed at the impact it has had. The clarity not only we have gained, but the client too.
I know now that if we had done this with my brand at the beginning, it would have saved a year or 2 of experimenting. Those years were valuable to us because we learned so much but, as a business, many people don’t have the time for that sort of learning, and it will never be useful to them.
When Matt asked if I wanted to join him full time in our own business and we eventually launched Q Branch, we did things differently. It wasn’t just a logo based on fluke. It wasn’t just a set of fonts and colours based on flight of fancy. It was a strategic approach. And because we also wanted to dig deep and not waste time, we invested in our own Brand Master to guide us.
What a journey it has been. From erratic stab in the dark posts to a well thought out process that aligns with our values, beliefs and needs of us and our clients.
If you feel you are stabbing in the dark, have found the courses you have been on to only help to a point and are sick of wasting time on something that is not your zone of genius, book a first date, it's on us!
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Jenny Jarvis
Founding Partner of Q Branch, Jenny is a highly trained and experienced Human Transformation Specialist, Coach and NLP Practitioner who is passionate about positive relationships and giving founders and leaders the BOLD Confidence and tools it takes to build BOLD Brands and Cultures. She is also an inspiring keynote speaker and lover of french wine and cheese.
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