How to communicate your brand story
A guide to finding your USP as an architect or designer
The architecture and design industry is a crowded market, so it is important to communicate your brand story to set your business apart from your competitors and reach your target audiences. But how do you find your USP and tell people who you are and what you stand for?
Craft your brand narrative
The first step in crafting your story is to consider your business purpose, values and mission. Why did you launch your business originally and what is the product or service that your business provides? For instance, perhaps you are an interior designer specialising in the residential market with a focus on sustainable design solutions. In this case, your sustainability credentials and expertise in the residential market should form a key part of your brand narrative.
Distil this into a sentence to sum up why your business exists. What gets you out of bed in the morning? What’s driving you? This is your brand purpose. You can build on this statement to add in your values, such as your focus on providing excellent customer service and your signature aesthetic. This copy will form a basis for your brand narrative and can be developed into longer-form brand messaging that tells your audience who you are, what you offer, why you launched your business and how you can help them.
Remember - when writing your brand narrative, keep it simple and be authentic! It’s ok to put yourself out there and be honest about why you started this journey. For example, if you created a luxury fabrics business because you were influenced by your late grandmother who used to have all kinds of bold prints around her home, then tell people about it.
Define your USP
Your unique selling point is what differentiates you from your competitors. Understand what sets you apart by analysing your competitors’ businesses and understanding what they offer and how they work.
Once you have identified your USP, you can create content that highlights your strengths, expertise and experience within your brand narrative. Do this in a way that appeals to and resonates with your target audience as well as outlining what differentiates you from your competitors - this will help you to build a connection with them.
Examples might be:
“We are a RIBA award-winning architecture practice for sustainably-designed architecture in semi-rural UK locations”
or
“We are the first net-zero chair designer in Europe with a B Corp accreditation and a fully circular production process”
Consider and understand your target audience
Identifying and understanding your target audience is key to communicating your brand story. It is likely that you already have a pretty good idea of who your established audience is, but this may evolve over time, or you may want to expand your customer base and reach new audiences.
For instance, if you’re a product designer broadening your offering, you may be creating a new collection to appeal to a new audience. In this case, it can be helpful to create audience profiles to understand exactly who you are targeting or aiming to target.
Audience profiles are fictional personas that can be helpful in understanding your broader customer base. For instance, as an architecture practice, you may have three key target audiences; private clients, property developers and interior designers. Craft a persona for each of these audiences, imagining how they might live, and work and what they need from their architect. This will position you to tell your brand story in a way that responds to their needs.
How to tell your brand story
Once you have taken the time to understand your brand purpose, USP and target audiences and have crafted a brand narrative, the next step is to develop a marketing strategy to effectively communicate your brand story to relevant audiences. There are many tools and platforms you can use to do this including your digital marketing assets such as your website, your newsletter, your social media platforms; your visual identity; your brand assets and via earned and paid media. Ensure that your tone of voice and brand narrative is consistent throughout all of these but you can adapt them slightly for different purposes. For example, on social media, you may use a slightly more informal tone than when drafting copy for an press advertising campaign.
Using your brand story to enhance your communications
Crafting a compelling brand narrative and effectively communicating it to your target audiences is important for architects and designers to be able to stand out in a crowded market. You have the opportunity to differentiate yourself and ensure you have an interesting story to tell to both your audiences and to press too. Publications are always looking for new and innovative stories to share and if someone can offer something new and stand-out, they are much more likely to get picked up by editors for a feature. It can also spark debate, discussion and community engagement on social media too and allow you to bring new clients to your business.
Being confident in your offer can also help when you are pitching for business too. A unique style or approach, a specific specialism or expertise can set you apart and make you appeal to your potential client.
Getting this right is the key to success across all strands of your business and the foundation of all your marketing activity.
If you need help crafting a brand narrative and reaching your target audience, then get in touch. We’d love to help tell your story.
