Handling My Biz| Marketing & Branding 101 Pt. 1

"Describe your company in 15 seconds?"

::crickets::

That's the exact response I had when I was first asked that question back in April while attending an effective communication strategies workshop. 

In only a few words, we were charged with considering what makes our company/service unique and why would someone would choose to work with us over another that offers a similar service.

And I simply drew a blank.

I just couldn't hone in on what made KissyFace Artistry tick. And that was a problem. Sure I love doing makeup for people but it wasn't enough to have support the brand that I envisioned for KissyFace.

Fast forward to October, and I started making it one of my personal missions to get a grasp of how I wanted to define KissyFace from a business perspective. 

The first book I picked up was Rework. Actually it was given to me over the summer, but I didn't get to it till October ::hides face in shame::. lol

It highlighted the fact that the traditional rules to making a business work needs to be thrown out the window and you should go for it. And it made me think of things in a new way, especially in the areas of marketing and branding that I needed to consider.

Here's what  I took away:

If you're successful, people will try to copycat what you do. But to protect yourself form copycats: make you part of the service, inject what's unique about the way you think about what you sell, make it something no one else can offer*

When I read that, it opened up my eyes. I always thought to put KissyFace in the limelight and I'll slink away in the background. But I'm learning that it can't work that way. I'm quirky, loud and energetic and I want that same energy to be apart of KissyFace.. From there, the collabo of KF and BP ( that's me. lol) emerged.  And honestly, it's been making creating KF a lot more fun.

Lucky companies have fans but the most fortunate ones have an audience. An audience returns often to see what you have to say because they're the most receptive potential customers you'll ever have.*

The text goes on to list what it takes to build an audience which were to:

-speak

-write

-blog

-tweet

-make videos

I have the potential to do all those things and I have been but not consistently. That's not fair to me and the potential of what KF can be. So, I'm disciplining my self to do all of the above. it gives me an opportunity to really flesh out what KF can turn out to be through trial and error. And I know in the end it'll pay off. Besides, they're not that hard and I love doing them. It'll  just take a huge helping of discipline. =)

There's a lot more I could share on the book but these two were the most pertinent to marketing and branding KF to me, and I just wanted to share the journey I'm currently taking with KF.

Next Friday, my experience on marketing and branding continues.

And check out the book, it was a really quick read. I read it on the plane ride back from Ireland, which in total took me about four-five hours to read.

Have an amazing weekend!

Much love and many blessings,

B. Pierre

*all the quotes were paraphrased but I wanted to make sure that I appropriately attributed to the source.

FTC disclosure: the book was recommended to me by a friend. I'm not affiliated with 37signals