Creating a strong brand for your independent business

Putting it all together

Congratulations – you made it.

You put in the hard work necessary to create and build the brand that will drive your independent business to the next level. Well done.

You navigated the entire 8 module course, step by step through the process of building your brand. 

Impressive achievement. In this quick final module, Adam looks at how all the work comes together and shares some thoughts about the future.

Final lesson: Putting it all together

Now you’re ready to unleash this brand and grow your business

I hope you’ve been thinking through how you’ll apply the hard work you’ve done with your staff, physical locations, vehicles, vendors and customers to help make sure the brand comes through.

I’d love to hear from you. Let me know how you found the course, and what you’re planning for your next steps

 

Let’s talk

Here are the modules you’ve just completed, for your reference.

Introduction

Start with a video lesson introducing you to branding and the key concepts we’ll be tackling together. Also, take advantage of Adam’s e-book on brand building for independent businesses like yours.

> Video (7 minutes)
> Book (20+ pages)

What is brand?

You thought it was easy to explain, but now you realize you don’t have a great definition for what–exactly–a brand is or what it does for your business. No worries, in this lesson, brand strategist and author Adam Pierno, will clarify what a brand is and how it will put your business on the trajectory for growth with the customers you want the most.

> Video (30+ minutes)
> Worksheet: Brand description
> Worksheet: Admiration

Audience

Your best customer. Do you know who it is? Do you know everything you need to know about them to serve them so well that your competitors can’t win them away from you? You’re in luck. Pulling insight from his books on brand marketing, Adam introduces concepts to research and understand your audience, so that you can shape your brand to them, specifically.

> Video (23 minutes)
> Worksheet: Best customer
> Video (18 minutes)
> Worksheet: Persona starter
> Sample brand survey
> Sample demographics survey
> Research tool: Tapestry
> Research tool: Census
> Research tool: SparkToro
> Worksheet: Persona 2

Know your competitors

Now that you’ve researched your best customers, you have to dig in to understand what other businesses are trying to win their business or what other companies they may choose in your place. In this lesson, you’ll gain tools on competitor research to assess the full view of your market and prioritize the companies most likely to compete for the customer you’ve selected for your brand.

> Video (24 minutes)
> Resource list: Competitor tools
> Worksheet: Competitors
> Worksheet: Key competitors
> Worksheet: Obstacles

Positioning your brand

What do your best customers think about your brand? What do you want them to think? An amazing thing about the journey you’ve started to build your brand is that you get to choose what you want your best customers think about your business and brand. Positioning is all about assessing what your best customers think about their other options, and finding a space that only you can fill, in their minds. 

> Video (23 minutes)
> Worksheet: Perceptual maps
> Video (20 minutes)

Documenting your brand

Now that you’ve researched your audience, competitors and the market you’re in, you have to free all of the information you have gathered so that you can share it with other members of your company. Employees, partners, key vendors will all need to understand what your brand is about, so they can execute and make sure they deliver on the promise you’re making.

> Video (30+ minutes)
> Worksheet: Brand wheel
> Video (14 minutes)
> Worksheet: Brand pillars
> Worksheet: Stand against

Proposition

It’s time to write the promise we’re making to your best customers. This is the brand proposition. What promise can you make and keep, that none of our competitors can claim? We build on the research and documentation you’ve completed to nail down the proposition that will propel your brand forward. 

> Video (26 minutes)
> Worksheet: Proposition

Brand experience

Now that you’ve done the first pass at crafting your brand, we look at how people take in and experience brands. What impacts their perception and how can you maximize key encounters to reinforce your brand proposition? This is the beginning for you of moving your brand from “the page” to the real world.

> Video (24 minutes)
> Worksheet: Brand experience

Your instructor and coach.

This course was developed and is taught by Adam Pierno, award-winning brand marketer and author. He’s worked with brands you know, like Bona, Domino’s, Dunkin’, Mercedes-Benz, Pocky, State Farm and Verizon, for more than 20 years. His books on brand and marketing strategy are taught at ad agencies, universities and Fortune 500 companies to make marketing simpler to understand and execute.

Have questions?

All of the brand expertise, none of the hassles

If you’ve worked with advertising and brand agencies, you know how much work falls on you and how much it all costs. Brand positioning can cost thousands or more. This course gives you the same tools for a fraction of that investment. With no sacrifice to your results.

This course is based on Adam’s book, Specific. It’s a straight-forward method to build your brand by putting your customers first.