We’re walking through the process of how to pick your brand’s season so that you can create a consistent and cohesive brand.
I’ve realized that I really like using faux case studies to teach the branding process. So, today, you’re meeting the faux personal brand, Jane Doey and I’m walking you through the process of picking your Brand Season.
Seasonal Brand Theory is the heart and soul of my brand identity process. Before diving into any of the creative work, I always decide what Brand Season my client’s brand aligns with best. I truly believe it’s what helps me create a brand that can feel ‘right’ for my client while also providing an accurate brand experience overall.
Selecting Your Brand Season – Ask the Right Questions
While these are just a few questions we cover in the full branding process, these five are the foundation for helping me identify which Brand Season a client’s brand falls into.
What do you do?
When identifying your brand season, the best place to start is your brand’s elevator pitch. This is the high-level, overarching statement (or two) of what you do and who you serve. Learn more about crafting your own elevator pitch here.
Jane Doey Case Study Example:
Jane Doey is a business coach for artisan makers who want to go from side hustlers to sustainable, thriving, full-time business owners.
What are your brand values?
Your brand’s values are the guiding principles for what makes your brand, your brand. It’s the ‘why’ for what you do and the driving force for what keeps you going. Every business decision can be filtered through the brand values – yea, that’s how important they are.
While the words themselves are important, what’s equally necessary is how you define each word. Not only does this give you further clarity, it also ensures you’re on the same page if you ever bring on team members or want to make your values external facing. Need help with this area? Check out these posts.
Jane Doey Case Study Example:
Fueled by passion. If there’s no passion or excitement, it’s not a good fit.
Kindness always. Lead with kindness because I never know what someone has going on in their life.
Spread joy. Create a joyful environment so anyone who I come in contact with leaves feeling better than before.
Seek out creativity. Approach each situation with an open mind because creative inspiration can happen at any time.
What is the personality of your brand?
Think of your brand like a living, breathing entity that has a personality, just like any other human. When someone comes in contact with your brand at one of the various touchpoints, what is the personality they’re experiencing? Is your brand loud, thoughtful, friendly or serious?
Jane Doey Case Study Example:
The personality of Jane Doey is friendly, helpful, happy and knowledgeable.
When someone experiences your brand, what do you want them to think and feel?
When someone experiences your brand, how do you want them to feel and what do you want them to think? Whether someone comes across your website or sees your pitch in a Facebook group, each and every touch point will elicit a certain feeling and thought – what do you want that to be? Also worth taking into consideration is the personality that you want your brand to have. Just like humans, personalities can have a certain effect on thoughts and feelings, so think about the personality that you want your brand to have and make sure it aligns with what you’re wanting to evoke.
Jane Doey Case Study Example:
When someone experiences the Jane Doey brand, they feel excited, inspired, motivated and happy. They think about the possibilities that are available to them and cannot wait to get to work.
What is your number one brand attribute?
The brand attribute is the number one characteristic or adjective that encompasses how you want your brand to be experienced. So, everything that you create and share should in some way, shape or form embody this attribute.
Jane Doey Case Study Example:
Jane Doey’s number one brand attribute is Joyful
Selecting Your Brand Season – Look at the Words
Once you’ve answered the questions, go back through and write down the words that stand out to you. Because they’re important enough to be included in an answer, they’re important enough to guide the visual direction of your brand.
Jane Doey Case Study Example:
Joyful, excited, inspired, motivated, possibility, friendly, helpful, happy, knowledgeable, kindness, creativity, passion, artisan, makers, sustainable, thriving, inspiration
Identifying Your Brand Season – Aligning with a Primary Season
Now it’s time to pull out the handy dandy Brand Season Word Chart (snag it in the FREE brand resource library!) and see where your words stack up. Sometimes, it’s a clear choice which Brand Season your brand aligns with best. Other times, it’s a tie between two. If you’re struggling between three or all four, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and get more clarity around how you want your brand to be experienced.
Jane Doey Case Study Example:
Based on the chart, the primary Brand Season is Spring. In a close second is Fall.
Identifying Your Brand Season – Deciding Between You or Your Brand
There’s a question that comes up again and again, and I can’t NOT address it: Do I pick what I align with as a person or what I think my brand would align with?
Let’s start with the definition of a brand – it’s how people think, feel and act in relation to your business.
How you influence those actions, thoughts and feelings is through a combination of brand elements that all work together to provide a certain experience. Included in those brand elements is your brand design and your Brand Season plays a big role in the direction of your brand visuals.
So, the question again is: do you answer the Brand Season questions and/or select a certain Brand Season based on who YOU are or who your BRAND is?
My short-ish answer is to bring it back to the brand. And yes, even if you’re like Jane Doey and you operate a personal brand. This might mean that there is some (or a lot) of overlap between how you want your brand to be experienced and how you naturally show up in the world – that’s a-okay. The distinction is though, that you think about your brand as its own entity, with its own personality.
Once you’ve honed in on the primary Brand Season, it’s time to align the brand design to the specific visual attributes. You can read all about that in this post.
The goal of this process is to help you zero in on creating brand visuals that align with how you want your brand to be experienced. There is no right or wrong answer or Brand Season. And, if this method doesn’t resonate with you, that’s okay too! However, if you’re stuck and feel like you’re choosing yet another color scheme or tweaking your fonts again, I’d encourage you to go through this process and see what Brand Season you line up with!
Happy branding!
All my best,
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