A Branding Expert Shares The 4 Things That Can Strengthen Your Brand

The words “look and feel” have probably come up in conversation as you navigate how to best brand your business or startup. What you actually understand those words to mean is instrumental to how you approach creating the visual footprint for your business. 

Jennifer Zepeda is the founder of Project Creativa, a branding agency that helps women elevate their brands and tell impactful visual stories. Zepeda credits her own Latinx upbringing with giving her the motivation to pursue this career. 

“I come from a first generation Latino household where all I saw was the hustle of entrepreneurship,” explains Zepeda. “I came to love everything behind building a brand, its mission, its values and growing a customer base from what I saw my parents do with their own small Latino candy store.” 

Now Zepeda helps women, across various industries, channel their brand’s personality, while also helping them avoid common branding missteps. 

“I was ultimately inspired to build my own digital design agency after finding a love for helping build up creative multicultural women, all with their own unique purpose and goals, and following their success as they take on a tough but rewarding journey as an entrepreneur,” shares Zepeda. “I stay inspired by women who instead of working for ‘the man’ are opening up the landscape for more women to build their ideas and challenge stereotypes of women leaders in business.” 

Below Zepeda shares 4 things you should keep in mind as you work to elevate your branding. 

The more background you can give the better

Telling your branding expert that you’re open to anything is a misstep you want to avoid, according to Zepeda. 

“When building a brand it is crucial for an entrepreneur to solidify their purpose, vision, mission and values in order for them to have a branding design that aligns with the preferences, passions and needs of their ideal clients,” shares Zepeda. “When clients have their mission and values solidified it is easier for a designer to understand their purpose and vision. If they don’t have these concepts figured out, it can spiral into endless concepts and revisions.” 

Personality match your brand

Thinking about your brand as having its own personality and what that personality will convey to your ideal market is key. 

“When developing a brand identity for the first time, you are essentially designing the personality of your brand,” explains Zepeda. “It is key to distinguish what personality it is that will attract not only your target demographic in terms of age, income and lifestyle but that which will speak to the problems you are providing a solution to. Ask yourself what are the desires and goals your potential client has that your product or service will allow them to achieve or resolve.” 

Think about the experience not just the end result 

Yes, you want to convert your customer or community member, but making sure they understand your why through every step of the way is as important.

“Working specifically with women owned service based businesses, what has been effective in allowing them to elevate their brand has been designing a personal brand that creates an experience for their client,” adds Zepeda. “By creating a branding design that is strategic and intentional allows for people to feel connected to the person they are buying a service from. Ultimately, by putting a face on the brand, making it relatable and humanizing the service allows entrepreneurs to not just build a client list but build relationships, credibility and an authentic experience. In the end, people want to buy from real people.” 

Invest in branding from the get 

Being conscious of money is important while you’re building up your dream business, but making the right investments is too. 

For Zepeda that means making sure you’re investing in branding early on, “I don’t recommend building a business and then branding it months later. Your branding design is essential from the very beginning of your business development. It is what greets your potential customers as they first come in contact with your brand and is what wraps up the experience they have overall with your brand.”