It’s been lovely weather all week, so naturally the one day we decided to meet some friends for lunch and head to the beach it was overcast and windy. This did not stop us from enjoying ourselves! My daughter built a sandcastle and we searched the beach for shells to decorate it with, sticks to make bridges on the moat and a flag to stick in the top of it.
Building a sandcastle.
What you need:
A bucket
A spade
A beach
What you do:
1. Go to the part of the beach where the sand is wet so it all sticks together
2. Use the spade to fill the bucket with sand
3. Flatten the sand into the bucket by bashing it with the spade
4. Turn the bucket upside down
5. Hit the base of the bucket with the spade
6. Carefully lift the bucket from the sand and hopefully you’ll have a perfectly formed castle
7. Search the beach for shells and decorate your castle with them
8. Dig a moat around your castle
9. If you’re really close to the sea you can dig a trench from the moat to the sea, alternatively, fill the moat with water using your bucket
How to build a brand using the sandcastle technique:
1. Find the right sort of sand: Work out who your target audience is
2. Fill your bucket: Find out as much about your target audience as you can
3. Cram your bucket: Think about your business and work out your brand values, aims, personality, vision – add as much information to your bucket as possible so you’ve got everything you need
4. Turn your bucket: Get those thoughts out on paper, think about your business, scribble, doodle, make a mess, do diagrams, consider colours and fonts and images that represent your business. Make a vision board. Draw more. Do whatever it takes. Listen to the same song over and over again because it helps you concentrate. Come up with lots of ideas. Develop those ideas. Turn all of those thoughts into three ideas that you really like. Choose one.
5. Hit the bucket: Finalise the logo. Make sure it’s drawn exactly the way it should be in exactly the right colours with exactly the right font.
6. Reveal the castle: Think carefully about the rest of your brand. You should have been considering this whilst coming up with the logo. Decide which colours you’re going to use, which fonts, decide on placement and the type of imagery you’re going to use and make all of this into a useful guide that you can refer to again and again to ensure that your brand is always consistent.
7. Decorate: Design leaflets and social media images and a website – whatever you’re going to need – and make sure that they are inline with the guide you’ve created and communicate your message well.
8. Protect your castle: You might get a trademark, you might simply make sure that all your employees are up to speed on maintaining the image of your business. Do whatever it takes to make sure that all that time and effort isn’t wasted.
9. Go to sea: Show everyone your new image. Go out there and get known. Spread the word on social media, send out emails, attend trade shows and networking events, speak on the radio, fill your blog, hand out business cards and leaflets, call people up – let everyone know about your business and use your business image to convey what it is you do in the best possible way to exactly the right people.