Defining What’s Essential to Your Brand

 
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If I were to ask you, “What is essential in your life?” - what would you say?

Without hesitation, you would probably be able to list off 2-3 things. You might say your significant other or children; or maybe it has to do with your lifestyle, like living in a sunny place or certain kinds of food.

Essential, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “of the utmost importance: basic, indispensable, necessary.”

But as you can imagine, the answers depends on the criteria and the context.
The answer to “what’s essential” is different for every aspect of your life.

Imagine what is the “utmost importance” for each of these facets:

  • Personal life

  • Your work

  • Your business 

  • Your child’s education

  • Your health

These all rightfully deserve very different answers.
The easiest ones to define, are likely the personal side of your life. As humans, we’re generally quick to identify what matters to us personally.

On the other hand, defining what is essential for your brand, becomes challenging.
Do how do you define what’s essential to your brand? Where do you even start?

While there are no one-size-fits-all answer, the key is to create hierarchy within the values, attributes and influences that define and shape your business. By honing in on the most important, and thus essential elements of your business, you will encourage smoother daily operations, and better alignment during challenging times.

Ask yourself:

  • Does this element differentiate our brand?

  • Can our brand be defined without this element?

  • Does this element play a crucial role in why our customers purchase our products?

Defining what’s essential to your brand is uniquely different for every business. What’s essential for one brand - is not necessarily essential for another. 

By focusing on what’s essential, you have added benefits of reducing redundancies, increasing efficiency, and removing obstacles that get in the way of you connecting with your customer.

If you haven’t already, check out my 6 Principles of an Essential Brand, where I share the primary tenets Essential Brands abide by.

 
c okubo