Ever wonder why an individual chooses a certain brand over another similar brand, like Target over Walmart, Coke over Pepsi, or vice versa? Effective branding is usually the culprit. Branding is a term that gets bandied about everywhere in business although many do not have full comprehension of what it means or how it can influence human behavior. To pull back the smoke and mirror curtain, all branding boils down to getting super clear on the business’s “what,” “how,” and “why” – in other words, brand identity, brand personality, and brand story. Authenticity, consistency, and connection on an emotional level with the target perfect potential client (Make sure to read March’s installment of “Owner’s Manual” for the full description.) should be the goal when creating the spa’s unique brand.
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BRAND IDENTITY
Most people, when thinking about branding, only focus on the brand identity, or all the visual aspects of the brand. This includes the logo, colors, fonts, images, packaging, and product design. All of these elements are important but will fall flat if they are not chosen with the spa’s “why” in mind. The brand identity should not be a collection of the owner’s favorite colors, fonts, and images, but it should reflect the needs of the perfect potential client. There is a fair amount of psychology that goes into every decision made about the brand identity. For this reason, working with a branding consultant or agency can really help a spa convey the right nonverbal message through its brand identity. Consistency across all of a brand’s marketing materials, including its website, social media profiles, packaging, and advertising, is vital. This will help clients easily recognize and remember a brand, hopefully to help create an emotional connection.
BRAND PERSONALITY
Whether it’s quirky, playful, friendly, or luxurious, the brand personality should shine through all the verbiage, tone, and culture of the business. Congruency needs to be maintained between the brand identity and brand personality for the brand to resonate with the intended perfect potential client. If the logo and brand colors evoke a sense of high-end luxury but the language used on several of the marketing channels is lacking proper grammar or contains malaprops, the brand could come across as inauthentic. Just like people, brands can be multifaceted, but those facets need to be complementary and consistent throughout the brand identity and personality.
BRAND STORY
With Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle in mind, the brand identity is the business’s “what,” the brand personality is the “how,” and the brand story is the all-important, “why.” A brand story is a powerful, emotion-driven way to convey the business’s “why” to attract perfect potential clients magnetically. To write a compelling brand story, there are five key steps to follow.
- Understand the brand identity. Know the history, values, perfect potential client, and how that sets the brand apart from competitors.
- Identify the brand personality. Determine how the brand should be perceived by the perfect potential client.
- Define the brand mission. Describe the purpose of the brand and what it aims to achieve.
- Create a brand hero and story. Think about the business’s perfect potential client’s challenges and needs. How does the brand change the hero’s life? What does the envisioned future look like with the business’s solution? What unique solution can the business deliver that no one else can?
- Keep it consistent. Ensure that the brand story is consistent across all marketing and communication channels.
Brand stories do not need to be complicated, but they do need to be captivating. When thinking about powerful brand stories, a few come to mind, like Spanx and It Cosmetics. Sara Blakely fortuitously created Spanx by trying to look her best in a pair of white pants. Blakely hated the look of seamed control top pantyhose, so she set out on a several-year journey to support women by helping them look better in their clothes. Jamie Kern Lima struggled with facial redness and patchy eyebrows while working as a television news anchor. The lack of options to feel beautiful in her own skin led her to create It Cosmetics to help everyone embrace their beauty. Both are simple examples of the compelling “why” of each billion-dollar brand.
Having a coherent brand identity, brand personality, and brand story will be another point of difference for a spa business to stand out to their perfect potential client. The only way to build ride or die brand loyalty is to connect with the perfect potential client in a visceral manner through telling an authentic story that speaks to their emotions.
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Melissa Allen has lived many lives as a dance teacher, biologist, and marketing director before becoming a successful aesthetician and spa owner. All of these former positions help color her opinions, actions, and style. Allen’s career in aesthetics has also been far-reaching; she has been an aesthetician in the back of a salon, a solo aesthetician, a spa owner with several employees, and a global brand consultant. Allen has experienced many of the paths of aesthetics and is open, honest, and willing to share her adventures. As her time in the treatment room comes to an end, she is focusing on mentoring and guiding the next generation of thinking skin care professionals and spa owners.
