A big part of branding is taking a stand. What will your business stand for? What are its values?
Whether you are planning a social media campaign, or building a website, your values need to come first. More important than the color or font, what you stand for causes people to gather around you (or be repelled).
You don’t want a vanilla business.
What is vanilla in the ice cream world? It’s safe. Boring. Insignificant. How about Moose Tracks? Now that is something different. You either love it or hate it. Cookie dough is the same. It’s not for everyone, which is what makes it special.
Most highly success small businesses find themselves a common core of three to five main topics. These are what they stand for.
For example, in our other business we primarily talk about self-sufficiency, preparedness, and family. These are the basics of our core values.
When you settle on a topic, you naturally will become the expert of that topic. Same goes for core beliefs and values. When you only spend your time talking about your core ideas, you naturally become the expert in those areas. And people will see that.
Your followers will come more naturally when they know what you stand for. And they will be 100 times more loyal.
If you don’t have a core set of values that you are standing behind, you need to figure them out. Review everything you have done with your business lately. Are there key topics that you always talk about? Whatever you are talking about it becomes your core.
It’s time to take a stand and choose a core. Because once you have that, everything else becomes easy.
Remember, vanilla is only good on top of fresh apple pie.