The Simple Branding Mistake That's Stopping You From Being Great

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An epidemic traces back to one simple branding mistake that costs companies millions.

It’s this: ignoring the role of aspirations in branding.

Do NOT attempt to brand anything unless you realize this: We each aspire to either have something, be rid of something inconvenient or undesirable, be something more, weigh something less, etc.

If we don’t, we’ve given up. (Heck, even someone who’s “given up” will be found holding onto a single strand that “maybe something can change or stop.”)

A Simple Branding Mistake

So when I was approached by a brilliant family forming a new skincare company run by their amazingly educated and intelligent daughter (a Ph.D. in Biology is just the tip of the iceberg), I knew I was looking at something special.

They did too, but they were smart enough to know they needed a proven approach to the brand, starting with the name and then carrying through to the packaging, brand story, and more.

The first aspiration: embracing how our audience wants to look and feel. That resulted in research and the genuine aspiration: 7 Day Glow to provide the first line of skincare that is safe to use seven days a week, yielding a natural glow.

So much of this brand strategy and evolution had to do with aspirations which I cover in today’s One Minute Wednesday:

A Simple Branding Mistake, Part II

Make sure your brand story and language reflects this aspirational tone.

Make sure your brand story reflects this in every nuance.

Here’s the brand story I developed for 7 Day Glow:

You weren’t built in a test tube.

Why should your skin care line be?

You’re life. Not some chemical cocktail.

The premier skin care line committed to not treating you like a lab experiment.

The result is a skin care line that’s native to your biology, notsomething new to your body’s chemistry.

A three-part system so unique, it eliminates the need for complicated and outdated 10-product systems and regimens— meeting your unique and changing skin care needs, moment to moment. This provides an unprecedented simplicity.

Using our three proprietary formulas, you now have a safe daily regimen to nourish, moisturize, maintain with the goal of restoring what’s rightfully yours.

The difference is beauty that’s not enhanced, but restored.

At the end of the day, you’re given back you, your life, your “you-time,” and your beauty. Naturally.

Nature is our laboratory.