You have set up a business that is profitable, growing and attracting new clients, and is fulfilling the ever-complex requirements of your existing ones.

That’s brilliant, for now. However, to really grow a company that reflects your values, retains and grows your client base and drives your vision and purpose, you need a brand.

But what is a brand and why is a brand important?

Think of your brand as the personality of your business. Your brand expresses your business’s values, principles and its voice. It embraces who you are and what your business stands for, incorporating how you write, the social media you share, the colours you use on your website or typeface you choose and the tone in which you communicate with your clients. It is everything that shapes your clients’ perception of you.

It sounds like a lot because it is. But developing your brand is achievable, and now is the time to do it. Let us help you start the process.

Your brand is your most important asset: it is what sets you apart from your competitors and shows your clients who you are.

Your brand:

• Encourages relationships with your clients;
• Promotes recognition;
• Builds an emotional connection;
• Tells your story;
• Shows your clients what makes you unique;
• Builds confidence in your product and service;
• Influences company culture;
• Attracts talented employees;
• Helps you and your employees align focus and direction.

But there is more to creating a brand than having a fancy logo and knowing your brand colours. A brand encompasses so many aspects; the visual elements are certainly one part of the package, but the promise, the mission, the voice and vision are the other pieces of the brand jigsaw.

Always remember, your branding will influence how you are perceived in the marketplace. Presenting a cohesive, unique and relevant brand identity can set you apart from your competitors, and, as a result, demonstrate the value of your products and services.

So, how do you start designing your brand?

Let us guide you step-by-step through this process, so you can start to reap the benefits of having a brand identity.

Step one: how to define your audience

The first, and arguably most important, step to building a brand is to define your audience. 

As an independent advice practice, you may have a “typical” client, or you might have a diverse range of clients. Who would you consider your average client to be? Consider their age, gender and location and then move deeper into their lifestyle and behavioural characteristics. Your typical client might be a:

• Family business;
• Millennial;
• High net worth individual;
• Business owner or employee in a specific industry (perhaps building, manufacturing, law, retail);
• Family with children;
• Single, professional woman;
• Doctor or medical professional.

It is impossible to target the whole market, so identify who you are best placed to serve. We know it can be difficult to determine a niche, but targeting one group is the best way to distinguish yourself from the multitude of other advisers available, who offer a huge array of services to a wide range of clients. Work out the group you are best suited to service and focus on that.

Benefits of targeting a defined market

By targeting the specifics of a defined market you will encounter – and learn to find the best solutions for – specific issues unique to that market. This, in turn, becomes specialist advice, which other advisers may not be able to offer and will set you apart from your competitors.

Word of mouth referrals thrive among niche demographics, where similar people spend time together. While you might think a smaller focus means a limited client base, the opposite could be true: you may find yourself being the go-to for independent investment advice for an entire company or a network of friends in the same industry.

Don’t be scared of determining your target market!

Step two: how to determine what your business stands for and create its mission statement

It may seem daunting to have to write a mission statement for your company, but knowing your company’s objectives and how you wish to be perceived in the market is key to developing your brand. 

Vanguard's mission statement, for example, reads:

Our core purpose is simple—to take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.

In order to further nail down your mission statement, consider the question: what do our clients want me to help them with?

One of the most famous quotes in marketing comes from Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt. He stated: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want to buy a quarter-inch hole!”

People buy the drill because it makes the hole they need, not because it’s a drill. Emphasising the benefit of the service is more effective at selling it than promoting its features.

With this in mind, to emphasise the benefit of using your services, you might state that contracting with your firm for all aspects of your clients’ investment planning is so straightforward and easy, that it has freed up more time for them to enjoy their hobbies and take holidays. These benefits of increased time for themselves and the ease of the client journey may appeal more (and therefore may potentially attract more new clients) than a conversation about expected annual returns or specific funds would.

The benefits to mention could include, for example:

• Attainment of financial goals through saving and spending behaviour;
• Financial peace of mind through trust in the adviser and greater confidence in investing;
• More time to enjoy life rather than planning their finances;
• Long-term planning for retirement and for bequests.

What are my competitors’ mission statements, and what are their key offerings?

To know where you stand in your marketplace, you need to be aware of your competition. Knowing how you fare will enable you to improve your offering to ensure you are the most appealing option in your field.

Are your competitors:

• Offering a personalised customer service?
• Offering more financial services than your company? For example, charitable planning or estate planning?
• Giving complete transparency over their service, quarterly breakdowns and a one-click structure to view their portfolio?

Build where your competitors stumble. Develop your business strategy with those expert insights into your competition. What are they doing and how can you do it better?

Know your business’s strengths and promote them. What do you do better than others? Do you provide a more personal service? Are you skilled in certain sectors? Is your customer service second to none? What is your USP?

Once you have defined your mission statement you can work on building your brand strategy.

Think business, brand and behaviour.

Good brand strategies build good businesses: look at companies like Amazon or Vanguard. The alignment of business, brand and behaviour works at any scale. To achieve this, all aspects of your business— from back-office operations to customer services to client-focused financial advisers— should reflect the values and messaging of your brand. This includes not just what your business says, but also what it does.

By aligning business, brand and behaviours in a well-considered and strategic way, you can build a powerful brand that drives long-term growth, loyalty and success.

In our 'Building a brand' video, Ian Henderson, CEO of award-winning communications agency, AML Group, discusses the value of branding, and especially the importance of aligning your brand, your business and your behaviours.

Step three: how to communicate your brand to the market in a distinctive way

The word "distinctive" is defined in the Collins English Dictionary as: “having a special quality or feature which makes it easily recognisable and different from other things of the same type.”

Having a distinctive brand will set you apart from others and make you memorable in a crowded market. But how do you achieve this?

1. Design a distinctive logo or symbol for your company;

2. Produce a memorable tagline;

3. Use uniform brand colours and fonts;

4. Consider your brand’s use of imagery and ensure it is consistent with relation to layout and style.

Setting brand guidelines will enable your staff to follow the company’s brand consistently and, at the same time, ensure that clients have a unified experience. 

In the brand guide, include direction on:

• Company fonts;
• Company colours;
• Tone of voice;
• Use of logo (i.e. placement on the page, ideal size etc.);
• Use of company strapline.

Know your company’s tone of voice

The chances are you already have specific fonts and colours for your company. Engaging with a designer can help to finalise the specifics of these (see step four). A brand's tone of voice, however, is not always fully considered, but as it is the way in which you communicate and connect with your clients and audience, it is of huge importance and not to be underestimated. Tone of voice incorporates word choice, communication style and emotional tone. It helps businesses differentiate themselves from the competition and communicate their brand values to their audience.

It is easy to fall into the trap of adopting a tone of voice that someone in your industry should use. In fact, using a tone that conveys empathy, to reassure and support your client, could, in many cases, be more effective in building a bond than using the formal tone which you might expect from the financial services industry. Adopting a warm, understanding tone, for example, could enable you to develop a stronger relationship with your clients, which in turn may lead to a trusting, long-term client relationship.

If your target client base is millennials, for example, then adapting your tone of voice to something very familiar and laid back may enable you to interact with this group in the most comfortable, and therefore effective, way. Think about who your target audience is and work out what sort of tone would provide the best connection with that demographic, whilst always providing clarity and accuracy. Whatever tone you think is appropriate, make sure you are consistent across all your employees and across your marketing materials.

There are many sorts of tone of voice and companies will often use more than one which they will then blend into their unique brand voice. Consider the following tone of voice options:

• Formal;
• Funny;
• Colloquial;
• Empathetic;
• Optimistic;
• Strong and powerful.

Step four: how to pull it all together

We have covered so much material in this unit so far, but when time is limited it is helpful to know the quickest way to achieve a result.

Make your company’s brand identity distinctive

Think of any major brand and more often than not their distinctive logo will spring to mind: Nike’s swoosh; the smile and A-Z image of Amazon; or the yellow and blue boldness of Ikea. Each of these brands would be fully recognisable without their company name on the logo; the font, the colour and the design is enough for your memory to recall exactly which company’s logo it is.

With this in mind, think about your company’s brand identity. Are the colours used consistently and are they memorable? Is the logo distinctive? Does it conjure up the feel of your organisation just in the shape or design? Do you have a strapline that you use for marketing purposes? It is worth discussing all these elements with your designer so you have a brand identity with which you can identify. And once you do, you need to use it consistently and widely, across all client-facing and in-house material.

Maintain consistency

Creating a brand message and style that is consistent, visible and dependable doesn’t happen by chance, so your team will require guidelines and training to ensure uniformity across your staff. 

The value of presenting all your marketing efforts with a similar message, voice, style, colour and logo cannot be underestimated. The consistency that enables your brand to be recognisable will make it stand out from the crowd and will encourage trust and loyalty from your clients. Being consistent shows your clients that you are authentic in your vision and mission.

Employ or contract with a designer and copywriter

Your strength is financial advice and consultancy; you are not expected to be a designer and copywriter too, so use professionals for these tasks.

Don’t underestimate the importance of a good copywriter. A copywriter should be able to reflect the core values of your company, create a lasting impression on the reader and eventually drive them to engage in the action you want them to. They will use language that is clear and concise and reflects your brand through tone and language choice.

But this cannot happen without your input.

When engaging with your copywriter, it is so important to create a clear brief, to include:

• Requirements: what do you actually need? Is it sales literature, social media posts or website copy? Work out what you want before you engage with external contractors.
• Purpose: what do you want to achieve from this in the short/long term? How will you measure its effectiveness?
• Target audience: who are you trying to reach? What are the characteristics of your target audience?
• Benefits: what is the most important benefit from your offering that you think will appeal to your target audience. What is the second most important?
• Tone of voice: do you have a style guide and, if so, share this with the designer and copywriter. If not, what sort of tone would you like your content to have? Conversational? Formal? Friendly?
• Content: what is it that you want to be communicated? You may have a complete picture, or you may just have some initial thoughts.
• Estimate/ Budget: before beginning any work it is a good idea to provide a budget and agree any terms and conditions.
• Timing: what timescale are you working to? Agree first action dates and share any schedule you might have.

Your designer, too, cannot be expected to produce the result you are looking for without detailed information about your company, your vision and your wishes.

A sample brief for your designer should include:

• Objectives and goals for the new design: what are you hoping to achieve from the design and who are you hoping to attract?
• Overall style and look: is there anything you had in mind that you could share with the designer? Can they work with an existing design and improve it? Are there any colours or fonts you particularly like or use already?
• Information about your values: your designer may be able to incorporate these within their work.
• Budget and schedule: before beginning any work, provide a budget and timeline and agree any terms and conditions.
• Target audience: who is your target audience? What defines them?
• Scope of the project: will there be further work to be undertaken later – for example, after designing a logo, will you require your website to be refreshed or marketing materials for conferences to be produced?
• Any absolute no’s: if there is anything you really do not like or want the designer to include, let them know!

Conclusion

There are many facets of branding which we have discussed in this article, but the basic takeaways are straightforward:

• There is more to branding than just a new logo and a colour scheme;
• Your branding will influence how you are perceived in the marketplace;
• Branding can influence many areas of your business, from the types of clients you attract to the employees who want to work for you;
• Branding can determine how you communicate with your future clients;

Whilst it can take a little time to determine your brand, your mission statement and the other elements involved in the creation of these, the investment of time and money is worth it.

Determine your brand and be the story you want to tell.

Action points

To make theory become a reality, here is a short summary of the steps you need to undertake to determine your brand identity. We know that each of these actions will take time, so don’t feel like you must complete them all in one sitting.

Now you have absorbed the how’s and whys of branding, you may find our Social Media article an interesting read. 

Investment risk information

The value of investments, and the income from them, may fall or rise and investors may get back less than they invested.

Important information

This article is directed at professional investors and should not be distributed to, or relied upon by retail investors.

This article is designed for use by, and is directed only at persons resident in the UK.

The information contained in this article is not to be regarded as an offer to buy or sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy or sell securities in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation is against the law, or to anyone to whom it is unlawful to make such an offer or solicitation, or if the person making the offer or solicitation is not qualified to do so.  The information in this document does not constitute legal, tax, or investment advice. You must not, therefore, rely on the content of this article when making any investment decisions.

The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell investments.

Issued by Vanguard Asset Management, Limited which is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority.

© 2024 Vanguard Asset Management, Limited. All rights reserved.