“Building your brand,” has become a catch phrase in the marketing world. But what is a brand? Is it a logo, an identity, a product? For PartySlate CEO and Co-Founder Julie Roth Novack, the answer is more complex. “A brand is a person’s perception or gut feeling about a product, service, experience, or organization,” Julie shares.
On Tuesday, June 23, Julie hosted a digital event with Guerdy Abraira, the Founder of Guerdy Design, to shed light on the importance of building a strong, inclusive brand — and how PartySlate can help. Together, they outlined four steps that any event professional or venue can take to create successful branding: creating your brand strategy, inclusivity planning, defining your personal brand, and forming a strong digital brand.
When it comes to creating a brand strategy for your business, there are five important elements to consider. First, what is the purpose of your particular business? Next, consider your values, how you want to be perceived by consumers, and how you can position yourself to appeal to clients. Lastly, it’s essential to consider your business identity and how your brand appears to others.
Creating a brand guide will help you maintain accountability and consistency. A brand guide includes everything from a mission statement to style guide. Write key messaging for each target audience and make sure to leverage this branding for content creation across all channels.
During the creation of a cohesive brand vision, mission, and guide is the time to consider how you will encourage diversity and inclusivity. According to an Accenture survey, “70% of Millennials are more likely to choose one brand over another if that brand demonstrates inclusion and diversity.” When it comes to creating an inclusive brand, it’s important to be authentic. This authenticity occurs by integrating inclusivity into every aspect of your brand strategy, from purpose to positioning. Short term efforts to create a more inclusive brand must go hand-in-hand with long-term plans. Both Guerdy Design and PartySlate went on to share specific steps they are taking to create more inclusive branding.
Personal branding is another essential component of building a strong brand. Your personal brand is how you position yourself as an authority and differentiate your expertise. The five C’s — care, company, connect, content, and curate — will help you identify your own personal brand. Establish a “personal board of directors” — people you can trust to tell you the truth — who can let you know if your messaging doesn’t match your reality
Once you’ve firmly established your internal branding guidelines, creating a communication plan should include digital branding. Digital branding is how you establish and implement your brand across relevant digital marketing channels. Because it may take seven or more digital touch points before a consumer chooses to contact you, it’s essential that all of your digital marketing channels work together to build your brand. When it comes to optimizing your digital footprint, look to your website SEO, social media, digital network, and third-party platforms (like PartySlate).
PartySlate is here to help you showcase your brand and celebrate your work. In addition to utilizing your profile page for consumer outreach, the placement of your brand within PartySlate’s inspiration marketing strategy guarantees that you will connect with party hosts at the critical points in their planning process. Moreover, PartySlate allows you to leverage your network of event partners to build your brand.
Julie concludes with a detailed brand-building action plan that you can utilize to create a stronger, more inclusive brand. If you are interested in receiving a PartySlate sample brand guide, please email us at digitalevents@partyslate.com.
You can watch the full digital event recording below, or open the recording with YouTube.