Creating a Brand Identity

Tags: Real Estate, renting, buying, selling, real estate tips, residential, rent, Ontario, tenant, moving, Newmarket, York Region, first time home buyers, knowledgebrkr, add value to your home, home sales, brand, brand identity, creating a brand identity, branding,

4 minute read

This week on the Knowledge Broker Podcast we enthusiastically talked about brand identity, a pinnacle element in every company. In our first episode, we briefly spoke about the name Knowledge Broker and our logo and how those two play an important role in building our identity. Today we are diving deeper into curating our business identity and our personal brand identity. Here are some of the highlights of our discussion.

Check out the audio to the podcast below for more details.

What Is Brand Identity?

First is to define brand identity. Josh and I describe it as marketing to your audience with values and images that represent you. Whether business or personal, your brand is everything. How people think about you creates or diminishes your perspective value. It is vital to remember that whether you are six months into a business or six years, that you constantly check to make sure your brand still communicates your original values.

What Do Your Colours Represent?

Development of our logo and name became a vital part of the creation of KB even if only in subconscious thought. I pointed out this week that our colour and shapes reveal a lot about our company. Blue, for example, is one of the most universally appealing colours. It can appear trustworthy and stable. Yellow exhibits happiness.

When picking the colours for KB, Josh said that he liked the colour blue because it also tied into our brokerage’s logo, Coldwell Banker Real Estate. During the creation, he wasn’t aware of the greater power behind the colour. Breaking down our logo, even more, the light bulb is circular in shape and circles can suggest unity or community. The straight lines that build our house represent strength. Our logo therefore not only represents trust and happiness but also community and strength.

I urge everyone who is listening, reading or watching to take a second to google what your colours and shapes represent and identify if your logo is working with you or against you. You might be reaching the wrong demographic by having a green logo versus a purple. It could be just that simple.

What Is Unique About Your Company?

At Knowledge Broker, our client process is everything. We are constantly enhancing our process every day so that it suits the needs of our adapting clientele. During my research, I found three fantastic questions that I want our viewers to ask themselves regarding branding. Here goes. What are three words you want your consumer to use to describe you? If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would they have? How do you differentiate yourself from your competition? Take a minute to answer these three questions and write down your answers. Then in a year, answer them again and see if they still match or if they have changed. Change is inevitable but your values should not

What Is Your Personal Brand Identity?

Finally, we wanted to pinpoint our personal brand identities. Josh identifies himself as a put-together, professional businessman who can relax while making the most of his downtime. My personal identity is an honest, motivated, down to earth, and confident young woman. Josh and I both discuss our identities and the persona we wish to give off.

A very important secondary point that I made was how social media has enabled, a second identity. Social media has made it easier for others to identify what your brand identity is. Find a random personal page and skim through it. What are three things you can take away from them? What are some of their highlights? Are there any repeating factors? Now look at your own account and ask those same questions. Is it the way you want people to think of you?

The truth about social media is that it follows us around. Your future employers and clients can make a quick google search and view your digital footprint very easily. They can see your brand identity on every web page that pulls your name. They can see photos that are tied to your account and name. These contribute to your personal brand, for good and bad.

How To Boost Your Brand Identity?

Create visual continuity

Higher quality images will attract more attention versus blurry or dull pictures. Think about downloading an app like Planoly to plan how your streams will look. You want unity with everything you post. Creating a colour scheme, only use certain fonts or create a method of sharing information will make you unique and stand out.

Post Frequently

Schedule a post or topic once a week, every week. Then find another and another. Consistency is important with your followers because certain content might be attracted then to your page in the first place. Create a marketing calendar to keep you on track of what you need to post and when.

Position Yourself as an Educator

You have a skill or quality that people want. Leverage that as part of your identity. Use it to attract new clientele and impress current clients.

Promote Colleagues in Your Community

As Josh mentions in the podcast, Knowledge Broker does a lot of charity work and brings awareness to problems. We can only grow as a community by supporting fellow game-changers. Shout out people in your community who wow you.

Create a clear message

In 10 words or less, explain your companies positioning. This message needs to be communicated in everything you post, share or comment on. If you find positioning hard, consider a brainstorming session with colleagues to narrow down exactly what you and your business offers. It is important that your brand speaks volumes about you. Check-in every few months to make sure your brand is still on track. If you make any changes to your social media platforms, ask if your target audience would like it or if you are appealing to a new audience?

That was it for this week’s podcast. Just as a reminder, our weekly podcast comes out every Tuesday on Podbean, Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcast. As always you can email me at trish@knowledgebroker.ca with your comments and ideas.

Our job at Knowledge Broker is to cultivate an open source of information. Knowledge is power and creates experts and understanding. Do you want the power? Connect with us here on our website or on social media at “@knowledgebrkr”.

“My knowledge becomes your asset and my hard work is your vehicle to success.”

JOSHUA CAMPBELL (@knowledgebrkr)
Real Estate Broker
Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Centre, Brokerage
www.KnowledgeBroker.ca
249 Avenue Road • Newmarket, ON L3Y 1N8
Phone 289.231.0001