A Brand of One


Book Description

This workbook will guide you on the journey of building a genuine personal brand that moves audiences. It includes exercises, templates, and helpful advice to navigate everything from shaping a personal brand story, to designing symbols that represent you in the marketplace. Among many others, you'll find a month's worth of personal brand journal pages, a worksheet to create your manifesto, and a complete personal branding plan. Branding yourself and your dream can be a form of therapy. This hyper-digital world of ours has a funny way of amplifying mistakes. Accentuating faults. Introducing doubt. Without strong convictions and self-esteem, our lives can slowly turn into a "me too" song where all we are trying to do every morning is keep up, comply, and fit in. Branding is a cure against all of that.




Company of One


Book Description

What if the real key to a richer and more fulfilling career was not to create and scale a new start-up, but rather, to be able to work for yourself, determine your own hours, and become a (highly profitable) and sustainable company of one? Suppose the better--and smarter--solution is simply to remain small? This book explains how to do just that. Company of One is a refreshingly new approach centered on staying small and avoiding growth, for any size business. Not as a freelancer who only gets paid on a per piece basis, and not as an entrepreneurial start-up that wants to scale as soon as possible, but as a small business that is deliberately committed to staying that way. By staying small, one can have freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life, and avoid the headaches that result from dealing with employees, long meetings, or worrying about expansion. Company of One introduces this unique business strategy and explains how to make it work for you, including how to generate cash flow on an ongoing basis. Paul Jarvis left the corporate world when he realized that working in a high-pressure, high profile world was not his idea of success. Instead, he now works for himself out of his home on a small, lush island off of Vancouver, and lives a much more rewarding and productive life. He no longer has to contend with an environment that constantly demands more productivity, more output, and more growth. In Company of One, Jarvis explains how you can find the right pathway to do the same, including planning how to set up your shop, determining your desired revenues, dealing with unexpected crises, keeping your key clients happy, and of course, doing all of this on your own.




Obsessed


Book Description

The 2020 Porchlight Marketing & Sales Book of the Year The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler, the branding and marketing company for startups and new ventures, explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. We're in the midst of a startup revolution, with new brands popping up every day, taking over our Instagram feeds and vying for our affection. Every category is up for grabs, and traditional brands are seeing their businesses erode as hundreds of small companies encroach on their territory, each hoping to become the next runaway success. But it's not enough to have a great idea, or a cool logo. Emily Heyward founded Red Antler, the Brooklyn based brand and marketing company, to help entrepreneurs embed brand as a driver of business success from the beginning. In Obsessed, Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day. She takes you behind the scenes of the creation of some of today's hottest new brands, showing you: • How Casper was able to upend the mattress industry by building a beloved brand where none had existed before • How the dating app Hinge won a fanatical user base and great word-of-mouth with the promise that the app was "designed to be deleted" • Why luggage startup Away, now valued at $1.4 billion, could build their brand around love of travel by launching with just one product--a hard-shell carry-on suitcase--rather than a whole range of luggage offerings. Whether you're starting a new business, launching a new product line, or looking to refresh a brand for a new generation of customers, Obsessed shows you why the old rules of brand-building no longer apply, and what really works for today's customers.




The Brand Strategy Canvas


Book Description

Launching a startup is now easier than ever before. Building a lasting brand, however, remains a mystery for even the savviest of founders. An impactful, recognizable brand is perhaps a company’s most valuable intellectual property. And any strong brand starts with a strategy. The Brand Strategy Canvas has arrived to coach you beyond buzzword-laden tips and tricks, and instead offers you thorough, practical techniques to jump-start your strategy creation process. Author Patrick Woods distills fundamental questions to guide your strategy into a revolutionary single-page tool known as the titular Brand Strategy Canvas. The book takes you through each of the simple yet thought-provoking questions of the tool to develop your strategy, including considering audience insight, assessing benefits, creating a positioning statement, and identifying key messages. You will explore real-world case studies along the way and build a message map that ensures your organization drives home a consistent, clear, and authentic message to your target audience. No matter where you are in the business creation process, The Brand Strategy Canvas is the tool you need to build a brand from scratch that you can enthusiastically and effectively implement in real time. This book provides value to team members in companies of all sizes and stages, and is fit for any level of professional wanting to kickstart their entrepreneurial goals. A brand created today must be built for all of tomorrow’s possibilities, and The Brand Strategy Canvas is the book you will want by your side. What You Will Learn Examine the key differences between strategy and executionUnderstand how you can avoid brand debtCraft meaningful messages with the Features>Benefits ContinuumDevelop a positioning statement that differentiates from the competition and inspires your marketingDiscover your distinctive brand personality and how it impacts your marketing Equip your team with guidance and inspiration to ensure consistent and inspiring voice and personality throughout all your messaging Who This Book Is For This book is for startup founders who are looking for tools to help them build a brand their team can actually implement. This book will also resonate with and provide value to team members in tech companies of all sizes and stages.




Aaker on Branding


Book Description

"Aaker on Branding" presents in a compact form the twenty essential principles of branding that will lead to the creation of strong brands. Culled from the six David Aaker brand books and related publications, these principles provide the broad understanding of brands, brand strategy, brand portfolios, and brand building that all business, marketing, and brand strategists should know. "Aaker on Branding" is a source for how you create and maintain strong brands and synergetic brand portfolios. It provides a checklist of strategies, perspectives, tools, and concepts that represents not only what you should know but also what action options should be on the table. When followed, these principles will lead to strong, enduring brands that both support business strategies going forward and create coherent and effective brand families. Those now interested in and involved with branding are faced with information overload, not only from the Aaker books but from others as well. It is hard to know what to read and which elements to adapt. There are a lot of good ideas out there but also some that are inferior, need updating, or are subject to being misinterpreted and misapplied. And there are some ideas that, while plausible, are simply wrong if not dangerous especially if taken literally. "Aaker on Branding"offers a sense of topic priorities and a roadmap to David Aaker's books, thinking, and contributions. As it structures the larger literature of the brand field, it also advances the theory of branding and the practice of brand management and, by extension, the practice of business management.




Building a StoryBrand


Book Description

More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times best-selling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions. If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue. In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers. The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you: The seven universal story points all humans respond to; The real reason customers make purchases; How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.




ZAG


Book Description

"When everybody zigs, zag," says Marty Neumeier in this fresh view of brand strategy. ZAG follows the ultra-clear "whiteboard overview" style of the author’s first book, THE BRAND GAP, but drills deeper into the question of how brands can harness the power of differentiation. The author argues that in an extremely cluttered marketplace, traditional differentiation is no longer enough—today companies need “radical differentiation” to create lasting value for their shareholders and customers. In an entertaining 3-hour read you’ll learn: - why me-too brands are doomed to fail - how to "read" customer feedback on new products and messages - the 17 steps for designing “difference” into your brand - how to turn your brand’s “onliness” into a “trueline” to drive synergy - the secrets of naming products, services, and companies - the four deadly dangers faced by brand portfolios - how to “stretch” your brand without breaking it - how to succeed at all three stages of the competition cycle From the back cover: In an age of me-too products and instant communications, keeping up with the competition is no longer a winning strategy. Today you have to out-position, out-maneuver, and out-design the competition. The new rule? When everybody zigs, zag. In his first book, THE BRAND GAP, Neumeier showed companies how to bridge the distance between business strategy and design. In ZAG, he illustrates the number-one strategy of high-performance brands—radical differentiation. ZAG is an AIGA Design Press book, published under Peachpit's New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA. For a quick peek inside ZAG, go to www.zagbook.com.




My Bold, Inspiring and Powerful Brand Manifesto


Book Description

You've created a product that you're passionate about. Maybe that product is a service. Maybe it's a cause. Maybe that product is you. Ever found it hard to explain to others what you're all about—to convince them to be a part of your team, to buy from you, to partner up?Ever felt that out of the 7 billion+ brands on this earth, none can shake the world exactly like yours--- but somehow you just can't pass on that feeling to anyone else?Wonder. Stories. Joy. Others. Helping. Optimism. Lifestyle. Quality. Solving. Passion. Faith. Energy. This is what we're made of.What is your brand made of? What is it that moves your soul and business? Because let me tell you something: there's a high chance that is exactly what will move others too. Sharing your story doesn't have to be painful, and starting today, it won't. We will embark on the adventure of building a bold, inspiring and powerful brand manifesto—a roadmap that will draw buyers, employees, investors and everyone else right into your brand story.




The Human Centered Brand


Book Description

Promote your business with clarity, ease, and authenticity. The Human Centered Brand is a practical branding guide for service based businesses and creatives, that helps you grow meaningful relationships with your clients and your audience. If you're a writer, marketing consultant, creative agency owner, lawyer, illustrator, designer, developer, psychotherapist, personal trainer, dentist, painter, musician, bookkeeper, or other type of service business owner, the methods described in this book will assist you in expressing yourself naturally and creating a resonant, remarkable, and sustainable brand. Read this book to learn: Why conventional branding approaches don't work for service based businesses. How to identify your core values and use them in your business and marketing decisions. Different ways you can make your business unique among all the competition. How to express yourself verbally through your website, emails, articles, videos, talks, podcasts... What makes your "ideal clients" truly ideal, and how to connect with real people who appreciate you as you are. How to craft an effective tagline. What are the most important elements of a visual brand identity, and how to use them to design your own brand. How to craft an exceptional client experience and impress your clients with your professionalism. How your brand relates to your business model, pricing, company culture, fashion style, and social impact. Whether you're a complete beginner or have lots of experience with marketing and design, you'll get new insights about your own brand, and fresh ideas you'll want to implement right away. The companion workbook, checklists, templates, and other bonuses ensure that you not only learn new information, but create a custom brand strategy on your own. Learn more at humancenteredbrand.com




Self Marketing Power


Book Description

Self Marketing Power is a book about business, career and life success. It's perfect for anyone who wants to boost revenue, start a business, close more deals or move up the corporate ladder.Through fascinating examples and entertaining stories, you will learn how to:Build a personal brand and promote it to your personal target audience Think like a politician in order to get ahead in business Establish name recognition and become a "celebrity" inside your sphere of interest Get real results from your networking efforts Exploit your current job for self marketing benefits Become a superstar in your profession Develop an expertise and become a sought-after speaker, consultant and source for news stories