Expressing Your Brand

One of the challenges after you’ve locked and loaded your brand strategy is how to—tactically—express it.

So this week on TBOA, Jonathan and I explore using stories, actions and visuals to make your work come alive for your clients:

Getting clear on the experiences and stories that have defined your life and your work (including an exercise to try on your own).

Why you want to suspend judgment around your experiences and instead look for the connecting threads that your clients will value.

Turning your experiences into powerful stories that align with your brand.

Specific actions that allow you to go deeper with clients and prospects and (not coincidentally) sell more great-fit work.

Using strategic graphic design to help translate your brand strategy into visuals (and how to choose a designer that is a good fit for you).

Creating alignment between the experience of working with you and your stories, actions and visuals.

Choosing powerful images that support your message.

Quotables

“Tactics work when they’re attached to strategy.”—RM

“A lot of people—when they hear the word “brand”—think about the visual: a logo, colors, font…but that’s only a third of what we really mean when we talk brand.”—RM

“It’s not a pitch. You’re not trying to impress anyone—you’re trying to find out if the client is a good fit for you.”—JS

“Copying someone else’s visuals makes no sense—it doesn’t pass the sniff test.”—JS