What words sum up your brand?

Take any branding quiz under the sun and you will find the question “What words would you want someone to use when they sum up your brand?” In fact, I have this question on my own branding questionnaire. I recognize that coming up with these words is not an easy task, which begs the question, how do you come up with these words, and why do they really matter?

Core values of your brand

Core values of your brand gets down to the nitty gritty; the heart of what you do and who you want to help in a couple of words. For instance, the core value for my brand is:

Home

If I were to break down what it is that makes me and my brand tick, it is that I want to create online homes for creatives, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. Home is the core of what I see as the ultimate goal for my clients.

Your core value words should sum up the heart of your brand’s story. It has the starring role in your brand’s story. The following words are just the supporting characters to accentuate it. Without a solid understanding of what your core message and your core goal is, your brand will never truly feel authentic.

Physical aesthetics

The physical aesthetics of your brand are going to be much easier to sum up in a few words than the core values, but they are also the easiest to go overboard with. You want the physical aesthetics of your brand to not only line up with your core values, but with your ideal clients. Think of the physical aesthetics as broad brush strokes in painting the picture of your brand than minute details. Words like:

Bright, modern, feminine

Can be interpreted in a dozen different ways depending on the core values and the emotional feelings that you want to evoke in your brand. By choosing these broad brush stroke kind of words, we are also leaving room for your brand to grow without leaving these concepts behind as it does.

Emotional feelings

These are the feelings that you want to evoke in your readers, potential and current clients, and anyone who has contact with your brand. These words do more than just describe what the physical design of your logo looks like, they express the emotion behind it. They bring the human element into a digital design. Often times, the first interaction you have with potential clients is not going to be with you personally. It will be with your website or your social media. If your brand does not make people feel something, they will never remember you.

Therefore, these words are not about you at all, but about your clients. What words do you want THEM to use when they think of your brand? Words like

Energetic, lively, warm, cozy

describe the reaction you want them to have. These are words that you want to have a lasting impact when a potential client comes across a post of yours or when they think about working with you.

When you find words that describe these three aspects of your brand, it will help you author a beautiful brand story that connects with your client on a heart level. It will help you find the clients and collaborators that make your heart sing to work with, and it will help weed out the outliers because you will be able to recognize when their goals match with yours.