Building a hard-working brand

I’ve been having the same conversation a lot lately.

A founder or CEO will say something like: ‘We know we need to work on our brand, but honestly, we’re not sure where to start. And we’re worried about getting it wrong’.

A fair concern. I’ve seen too many businesses rush into rebranding exercises that miss the mark entirely – beautiful logos that say nothing, or messaging that could apply to any business in their sector.

Here’s the thing though. Building an effective brand strategy isn’t about ticking boxes or following a template. It’s about getting clear on who you are and why that matters to the people you’re trying to reach.

Start by looking in the mirror honestly

Before you think about where you want to go, you need to understand where you are. I don't mean conducting a elaborate ‘brand audit’—that sounds more intimidating than it needs to be.

Gather everything you currently use to represent your business. Your website, your LinkedIn posts, that presentation you gave last week, the way your salespeople describe what you do, your marketing materials. All of it.

Try to look at it all with fresh eyes. Ask yourself:

• If you knew nothing about this business, what would you conclude from these materials?
• Does it hang together as coming from the same place?
• Are you telling the same story everywhere, or  different versions?
• What impression of your personality comes through?

More often than not, you’ll discover inconsistencies. That’s normal. And, it’s exactly why this exercise matters — you can’t fix what you haven’t seen.

Know your landscape (but don’t get lost in it)

Of course you need to understand your competitive environment. But I’ve seen businesses become paralysed by competitor analysis, trying to map every possible rival and their positioning.

Here’s a more streamlined approach: identify the three to five businesses you most often get compared to or lose deals to. For each one, dig into:

• What do they say their key differentiators are?
• What do their customers actually say about choosing them?
• Where do they seem strongest? Where do they seem vulnerable?
• What space in the market are they trying to own?

But here’s the crucial bit — spend at least as much time understanding why customers choose you. Look to key moments, not just recent wins. What did those clients say influenced their decision? What problems were they trying to solve that led them to you?

The goal isn’t to find an empty gap to squeeze into. It’s to understand what meaningful difference you can genuinely own.

Define your people and their real needs

Your target audience isn’t ‘small to medium businesses’ or ‘professionals aged 25-45’, or worse ‘Gen Z’. Those demographics tell you almost nothing useful.

Instead, think about this: when someone becomes your ideal client,

what were they struggling with before they found you? What was keeping them awake at night? What would success look like for them?

Try this exercise: describe three of your best clients. Not their company size or industry, but their situation, their challenges, their goals. What do they have in common beyond demographics? What do they care about? What do they fear?

Now you’re getting somewhere.

The uncomfortable truth about differentiation

Everyone wants to be ‘unique’. But uniqueness for its own sake is pointless. I could differentiate myself by wearing a traffic cone as a hat. Unique? Absolutely. Meaningful? Not so much.

Real differentiation — your unique value proposition — comes from being genuinely better at something that matters to your customers. Here’s how to find yours:

What do you do better than anyone else? Not what you claim to do better, but what you actually deliver better. Look at your client feedback, your team’s natural strengths, what you’re known for.

What unique combination of capabilities do you offer? Sometimes it’s not about being the best at one thing, but being the only one who combines certain strengths.

What do you care about that others don’t? Your values often point to differentiation. If you genuinely care about something your competitors treat as secondary, that’s worth exploring.

In my experience, most strong brand strategies don’t invent differentiation—they recognise and then amplify what’s already there.

Purpose: strip away the jargon

I’ll be honest—I’m becoming a little allergic to the word ‘purpose’ in business contexts. It’s been overused and misappropraited to the point of meaninglessness (is that a word?).

But strip away the jargon, and there’s something essential underneath.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Why does your business exist beyond making money?
• What problem do you solve that wouldn’t get solved without you?
• What impact do you have on your clients’ businesses or lives?
• If you disappeared tomorrow, what would your clients miss most?

This isn’t about saving the world (though if you are, brilliant. Call me,). It could be as straightforward as ‘we make complex financial decisions simple’ or ‘we help small businesses compete with enterprise-level technology’.

The key is authenticity. Your people need to believe it. Your customers need to feel it. And it needs to be true.

Your brand personality isn’t a brainstorming exercise

Brand personality workshops can be maddening. Twenty people in a room throwing around words like ‘innovative’ and ‘trustworthy’ and ‘customer-focused’ — words that could describe any business in any sector.

Instead, think about how you actually behave:

• When things go wrong, how do you respond? Are you calm and methodical, or do you roll up your sleeves and dive in?
• When a client asks for something unreasonable, what do you say? Are you direct, diplomatic, educational?
• When you’re explaining your business at an event or dinner party, what words do you naturally use? Are you formal, conversational, technical, storytelling?
• What do clients say about working with you that they don’t say about your competitors?

Your brand personality already exists in how you operate. The work is noticing it, naming it (in words that actually mean something), and then making sure it shows up consistently.

Messaging that cuts through the noise

Here’s what I tell clients about brand messaging: if you can swap your company name for your competitor’s name and the message still works, you’ve got a problem.

Your core messages need to connect your unique strengths to your customers’ specific needs. Try this framework:

Your core brand idea: The central thought that captures what you’ re about. Think of it as your elevator pitch distilled to its essence.

Your key messages: Three to four main points that support your core idea, each addressing a different aspect of what matters to your audience. For example:

• How you solve their primary problem
• Why your approach is different/better
• What success looks like with you
• Why they should trust you to deliver

Test these messages on actual humans outside your business. If they don't immediately understand what you do and why it matters, keep working.

Making it visible and recognisable

Only after you're clear on all of the above should you think about logos and colour palettes and fonts. Visual identity isn't decoration—it’s communication.

Ask yourself:

• What visual style reflects your personality? (Corporate and polished? Approachable and human? Clean and minimal?)
• How can your visuals help communicate your core message?
• What do you need to be recognisable across different contexts—business cards, website, social media, presentations?
• What visual elements could become distinctly yours over time?

Remember: a great visual identity can't rescue a confused brand strategy. But when it reflects clear thinking about who you are, it becomes a powerful asset.

Launch it and live it (this is where most fail)

The most wasteful mistake I see? Businesses that create beautiful brand strategy documents and guidelines and then let them gather dust. Your brand strategy is only as good as your ability to live it. Consistently.

Practically, this means:

• Everyone who interacts with customers needs to understand your core messages
• Your sales conversations should reflect your brand personality
• Your social media, website, and marketing materials should feel like they come from the same place
• Your hiring and culture should align with your stated values

Create simple tools: a one-page summary of your brand strategy, key message templates, tone of voice examples. Make it easy for people to get it right.

When you’re done, it’s the beginning

Brands aren’t built once and then maintained. They evolve with your business, your market, your customers’ changing needs. What is critical is having a strong foundation to evolve from.

The businesses I see struggling aren’t the ones whose strategies or messages have changed – they’re the ones who never properly defined their brand in the first place.

Review your strategy regularly. Is your differentiation still relevant? Are your messages still resonating? Is your personality still authentic to how you actually operate? Adjust as needed, but stay true to your core.

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Building a brand strategy that works isn’t about perfection. It’s about clarity, authenticity, and consistency. Get those right, and you’ll have something far more valuable than a beautiful logo: a business that people understand, remember, and choose.

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by all of this, it’s understandable.

‍There are good reasons to bring in outside help with something this fundamental to your business. But whether you do it yourself or work with someone like me, the investment will pay off.

After all, if ‘your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room’. Wouldn't you rather have some influence over that conversation?

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