How to build brand pillars for your business

Brands are seen everywhere, within every industry. A brand represents the emotional and logical associations that you make with a certain company, product or service. The interesting thing about branding is that it reflects internal and personal interpretations, which may differ between people and cultures.

Creating brand pillars is one way to design a brand for your small business that customers will react to positively.

What are brand pillars?

Brand pillars are the most important values and characteristics of your small business that you want to communicate in your branding. Focus on the things that are most important to your business’ image and values. For example, “Creativity” may be more important to your business than “Strategic Partnerships.” And don’t worry – not including “Strategic Partnerships” doesn’t mean you don’t care about the community. It just means it’s less critical to your image than other things.

When planning your small business’ marketing strategy, identify your brand pillars very early in the process, and empower all your employees to keep your brand pillars in mind with everything they do for your small business. You don’t have to expressly outline your brand pillars word-for-word in your marketing, but use them to guide your actions. If one of your brand pillars is “Community Involvement,” for example, you probably will want to partner with local associations to sponsor events. This consistency and dedication will help maintain a positive association in the mind of your customer.