Log In It's time to think about your brand 🎨
This week, we’re moving from the financial brain to the creative brain! We’re talking about bringing our businesses to life through branding and marketing.
In advance of our session, please download your workbook and complete the pre-work assignment, including watching videos featuring founders from the Buy Women Built community. Please set some time aside for this and come prepared to the live session ready to share your reflections and outputs 💪
Your pre-work assignment
- Complete the reflection exercise 💭
- Watch the videos below where 5 amazing founders from the Buy Women Built community talk about how they approached developing their brands ⬇️
- Capture your thoughts in your workbook
Kate Prince, Founder of Ancient & Brave
When Kate learned about collagen and the impact of it, she knew she could do it better than the brands in the market. She wanted a brand people would want on their kitchen counters and visualised what it would look like. Kate suggests looking at brands you love, even if they’re not in the same industry as you. What inspiration can you take from their values, imagery, logos etc.?
Vanita Parti, Founder of Blink Brow Bar
For Vanita, everything started with the idea and the customer. She then thought of the brand name and put the visual identity together to suit that customer. Who’s your customer? What visuals would appeal to them and match the feeling you’re trying to evoke with your brand?
Joanna Jensen, Founder Childs Farm
Joanna kept her key brand principles in mind when creating her brand: natural, sustainable, suitable for sensitive and exzema prone skin. In order to advertise they were suitable for sensitive and exzema prone skin, Joanna needed to do a clinical safety study and a user trial. Think about your brand principles and how you can communicate that with your customers. What would give them the reassurance that your product can do what you’re saying it does?
A top tip from Joanna is to see how your products look on shelves. She went into stores, put her products on the shelves and took pictures. As well as sharing this with retailers, it showed what parts of the label weren’t standing out as much as she wanted them to.
Rene Macdonald, Founder of Lisou
When deciding her brand positioning, Rene knew she didn’t want to be a fast fashion brand. She wanted sustainability, colour, prints, something true to her East African heritage, and something different to other African brands. Think about your brand – what do you want to stand out? Look at your competitors – what can they not do? As smaller brands, you’re able to be more flexible and do things the bigger ones can’t!
Katie Lopes, Founder of Stripe and Stare
Katie saw a gap in the market – there was no one doing what she wanted, which was comfortable underwear that looked great and fun. Katie’s advice is to focus on what makes you different to others in the market? Make that your focus and stay focused as you develop your product range.