June 18, 2025 • 21 mins
#005 Branding for candle businesses goes far beyond a logo—it encompasses how customers feel from the moment they discover your brand to when they light your candle. We break down seven essential steps to build a memorable, consistent candle brand that stands out in today's crowded marketplace.
• Define your why—this becomes the foundation of your business and the beacon that attracts the right customers
• Know your target customer beyond demographics by focusing on their mindset and the problems your candles solve
• Craft a unique selling proposition (USP) that clearly communicates what makes your candles different
• Share your brand story to connect emotionally with customers and make them want to support your mission
• Create consistent visual branding including logo, colors, typography, packaging, and photography
• Define your brand voice and ensure consistent tone across all platforms and customer touchpoints
• Design a memorable customer experience from unboxing to follow-up communications
Take at least one of these branding elements and improve it this week. If you want the full branding workshop and worksheet, find it inside the Inner Circle at candlebusinesspro.com/membership.
WHEN YOU'RE READY
📬 Free Candle Business Supply List
***
CONNECT
***
SHOW LOVE
💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
***
SPONSORS & DEALS
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Branding isn't just your logo.
It's how your candle businessmakes people feel, from the
moment they land on your websiteto the second they light one of
your candles.
In this episode, I'm walkingyou through the seven steps
every candle brand should taketo build something memorable,
consistent and clear, so thatyour candle brand will stick out
in a crowded market, troutedMarket.
(00:29):
So, like us, many of you mostlikely, when you first started
on this journey, wanted to comeup with a name for your candles
and wanted to start working on alogo for your candles.
And that's all very exciting todo.
It's part of the fun and Ihighly encourage all of you to
have fun with that.
But that's not your brand.
(00:51):
That's not your branding.
Your brand is going to be muchmore than just your logo.
So we're going to dive into theseven steps that we actually
break down inside of a workshop,inside of the inner circle, but
we're going to cover theseseven steps to branding here in
this episode today.
So hopefully, after thisepisode, you can reevaluate,
take a look at your business andsee if you have all of these
(01:16):
covered.
We want to put a vision in ourcustomers' minds about our
candle business that is beyondjust seeing a logo.
It's how do our products makethem feel?
What do they think about us?
Is it the way we are doingthings in the community?
(01:39):
Is it the way we have fantasticdeals on our website every
month?
Is it that we are supportingnonprofits?
What is it we want customers tothink about when they think
about our business?
That's your branding, thecommunication that we have with
them, the emails, the copy onour websites, the product
(02:01):
descriptions, our social mediaposts.
These are all important factorswhen it comes to your branding,
and the reason why branding isso important is because branding
is how we communicate with ourideal target audience.
So in previous episodes, we'vetalked about defining what our
(02:22):
niche is and figuring out whoour target audience is.
Once we know those things, oncewe have those figured out, once
we've decided those, we thenmake our branding all about that
person the things that they aregoing to like to see, the sense
that they're going to like tosmell, the way we package our
candles.
It's all about that customer.
(02:43):
So we're going to break downseven steps to doing that.
So let's get started, all right.
So step number one you got todefine your why.
Why did you start your candlebusiness.
What change or feeling do youwant to create for others?
Here's a tip for you your whybecomes the foundation of your
(03:08):
candle business.
So you have to understand thewhy so that you can relate that
to your customers and yourcustomers will then be able to
find you.
What is your purpose?
What is your why?
What is it that you want to putout into the world?
That is like a light, that islike your beacon that will
(03:29):
attract people towards you isgoing to be your why.
Your why should be shared withyour customers with every
opportunity that you get on yourwebsite.
You should have an about asection and your why should be
there.
It should explain, of course,you know who you are.
Section and your why should bethere.
It should explain, of course,you know who you are, but why
are you selling these candles?
(03:49):
So your why is really important.
Number two know your targetcustomer.
Describe who your candles arefor.
That's not just demographics,but also their mindset.
So what problems are yourcandles going to solve?
Is it stress relief?
Is it gifting?
(04:09):
Is it just creating ambiance?
Right, gifting is a fantasticproblem to solve, but it's not
as easy as oh yeah, people arejust going to buy these for
other people.
Well, there's price points thatcome into that, right, or what
we spend on gifts.
So if you're going to be agifting targeted brand, then you
have to think about it as who'sgoing to be buying these.
(04:31):
Who are they gifting it to?
What are they going to bespending on candles?
What occasions are they giftingthis for?
Someone's not going to buy acandle for $100 and gift it.
The same way.
They're going to buy a candlefor a hundred dollars and gift
it the same way.
They're going to buy a candlefor five dollars and gift it.
Keep that in mind that there aregoing to be limitations upper
and lower of gifting candles,stress relief candles what's
(04:55):
going to make your candle astress relief candle?
Is it because your whole brandis about self-care, relaxation,
finding a moment of having spaceto yourself?
What is it that you are solvingwith your candle?
So think about that and thinkabout how that is going to
(05:15):
relate to your target customer,because the problem that you're
solving pulls in your targetcustomer.
Now you don't have to go sodeep with it.
Your candles can just be verycheeky.
Fun little raunchy sayings onthe front of them, right?
We see them all over Etsy theirpersonalized candles that are
just kind of fun, right, and soit can be very lighthearted, and
(05:37):
your candles are just to givepeople a laugh, a sense of
excitement in their life byhaving this candle that says
something snarky on the front ofthat, right, and that's a
perfect gifting candle.
And your customer isn'tnecessarily the person receiving
the candle.
Your target customer is theperson that's buying that for
(05:58):
someone else, right?
So think about it that waythere.
So it doesn't have to be superdeep, but you do need to know
who your customer is going to bethat is buying that candle, all
right.
So number three is crafting yourunique selling proposition,
your USP, unique sellingproposition.
What's going to make yourcandles different?
(06:18):
Is it the ingredients?
Is it because of your mission?
Is it your packaging?
Is it just your voice and howyou're communicating with your
customers?
This is why you have to defineyour niche very clearly.
So in other episodes we'vetalked about defining your niche
, and if you define your nicheas a travel-inspired candle, the
(06:42):
way you're going to build yourbrand for that with your USP,
your ingredients, your mission,your packaging, your voice, is
going to be different than ifyou are making candles in a
sports related theme or in amystical related theme?
Right, because these niches aredifferent than your unique
(07:03):
selling proposition is going tobe different.
Here would be an example thatsomeone might have uh, for their
candles Instead of just we sellcandles, it's we make nature
inspired candles for mindfulmoms.
Okay, so it's very differentthere.
So keep that in mind that youhave to have a unique selling
proposition, for that's thereason I'm buying that candle
(07:27):
over that candle.
And number four is you've got toshare your brand story.
So this is part of your, whythis is part of your unique
selling proposition.
You've got to share yourbrand's story.
Talk about why your journeymatters.
Share that with your customers.
Make them want to support you,not just to buy from you, to
(07:50):
actually support you and supportthe mission of your candle
brand.
Is it because you'reeco-friendly?
Is it because they're smallbatch and they're handmade?
Are you a veteran-ownedbusiness?
Are you an an LGBTQ ownedbusiness?
Why are people going to want tosupport you and your mission?
And again, you can't pleaseeveryone.
You can't.
(08:10):
When you try to please everyone, then no one feels like, oh,
that's my, those are my people,those are my candles.
I have to support that brand.
That's the only kind of candlesI want to burn in my house,
like.
That's the kind of customer wewant.
We want those customers thatsay we love buying your candles,
we love supporting you.
(08:30):
You're the only candle brand weeven talk about to other people
.
That's what you want.
So you've got to share yourstory so that you can connect
and find your people.
People are going to buy the whymore than they're going to buy
the candle, so just keep that inmind.
Okay, so now number five.
Now this is the visual brandingsfor your candle business.
These are the things that wetypically think about when we're
(08:54):
asking or talking aboutbranding.
So let's go through a few ofthese.
Logo Are you going to betext-based or are you going to
be an icon based?
For us, we're a combination ofboth.
We have the icon is alighthouse with the water
underneath it and the beaconshining on the top, and then we
have our wordmark, which is justGarcin and Beacon Candle
Company.
We will use them together, butwe'll also use them separately.
(09:14):
We will use the wordmark inmany places as well, so what I
would recommend is keeping itvery clean and flexible.
I wouldn't add too much color toit.
Have a color, have a couplecolors.
I have seen people that havelike a logo, that it looks like
it's like glitter or somethingright, or it's a font that
they're using.
(09:35):
I would be really cautiousabout that because it's not
going to be as versatile.
You may be able to put it onyour website just fine.
It might be hard to print, puton a label, it might be hard to
put on packaging and things likethat, or to get a box created.
So I'd recommend really tryingto keep it clean and flexible
With our logo.
We want to make sure that theycan see it, even if it's really
(09:56):
small.
So zoom out on your logo justas much as you're going to zoom
in to make sure that it's goingto work in all different places.
The next thing with your brandvisuals is going to be your
color palette.
What feelings do your brandcolors evoke?
What is that feeling that comesout when people see that?
Do you want to have boldstatement colors?
Do you want to have the black,the white, the gray scales?
(10:19):
Do you want to go with softpastels, more of a calming
feeling?
What colors are going torepresent your brand?
Think about it not only in thisinitial collection that you may
be coming up with, but also asyour brand expands.
Are you going to be able tokind of stay on brand with your
coloring?
Of course you can always changeup your colors as you grow, but
(10:41):
trying to have consistency isgoing to be key, especially for
those that are first startingout.
We've stuck with the same.
It's a little off black, littlegray scale and then white
version of our logos.
We've had those since day oneand those have done us pretty
well, and then we can use thepops of color around that.
So with your color palette, I'drecommend three.
You can have a couple morealternative colors, but try not
(11:04):
to overcomplicate it.
Try to make it recognizable sothat when someone sees those
colors they know it's tied toyour brand.
The next thing is going to beyour topography.
Choose one or two fonts thatmatch your style at a maximum.
I will often see labeling wherepeople will have all different
(11:26):
fonts, from their logo font tothe scent name font, to the
other descriptors like the scentnotes, and they're all
different fonts.
I'm kind of old school.
I learned many, many, manyyears ago in branding to stick
to a two font maximum.
Only have two fonts, becauseyour eyes start to go in
(11:47):
different places with thesedifferent fonts.
So we have our main fonts thatwe use for our titles and then
we have our secondary font thatwe use on the rest of our labels
.
It's the same thing on ourwebsite.
If you're on our website, youwill see we have a header font
and then we have just like ourtext font is what I call it for
(12:09):
the rest of the writing that wehave throughout our website, and
then it's all going to beconsistent.
Don't switch it up too often.
Again, I'm under the old schoolbelief of a two font maximum.
The next thing we're going totalk about is the packaging.
This is all still part of yourvisual branding.
Your packaging is going to besomething that you want to be
recognized for your jars, yourlids, your labels, the box they
(12:33):
all need to be cohesive so thatthey're telling the same story.
So all of our labels lookrelatively similar to each other
.
They are going to be differentscents, but the labels
themselves, the images and theelements within that label all
really come together as acohesive brand.
(12:55):
And then when we put those inboxes on some of our candles,
that box is also going to needto be cohesive as well.
Okay, and the last thing underthe visual branding is your
photography.
Do you want your photography tobe light and airy and
minimalistic, or do you want tohave that moody and that luxe
feel?
Or possibly you just want thatclean and bright?
(13:16):
What is it that you want yourphotography to reflect about
your brand and then make thatcome out in all aspects of your
brand, from your website to whatyou're posting on social media,
to the images inside the emailsthat you're sending out to your
customers.
All of your photography shouldhave a relatable feeling, so
(13:39):
that it's not all over the place.
Now, again, when you havedifferent collections that you
come out with, that is fine tohave're scrolling online an
image of yours.
If they stop, they should beable to know what brand that is
(14:02):
tied to, even if your logo wouldbe removed, all right.
So step number six to definingyour branding is your brand
voice and messaging.
What tone is your brand goingto use?
Are you going to have casualconversation tone?
Are you going to have aconfident tone, a warm,
(14:23):
luxurious?
What kind of candles are youselling and what is the tone
that you want to have with itthe same tone that a inexpensive
candle that I may buy at a bigbox store and a $200 luxurious
candle.
That messaging should be reallydifferent.
The way those emails arewritten should be very different
(14:48):
.
The product descriptions on thewebsite should be very
different, right?
What personality traits aregoing to define your brand?
Is it calm, witty, bold,friendly?
What personality traits do youwant to convey?
It's important to stayconsistent.
So the same tone that we use inour social media posts is the
(15:11):
same tone that you're going toget if you go and read our
website and you read the aboutus or you read the product
descriptions and then if youreceive an email from us.
It's going to be the same tone.
You want to make sure that youare using that same tone across
all of your platforms.
So just kind of keep that inmind, especially in the day and
(15:32):
age now, where people are usingAI and ChatGPT to help write
product descriptions and titles.
They're even using them towrite emails and things like
that.
It's going to be real easy toget off tone by doing that.
So you need to make sure, ifyou are using the assistance of
AI, which I am completely onboard with doing, make sure that
(15:53):
the tone is going to beconsistent across all the
different ways that you arepromoting your brand.
Okay, for the seventh and finalstep in defining your branding
is you have to create amemorable customer experience.
So, from the unboxing, fromwhat is the very first
impression someone gets whenthey receive your candles, what
(16:17):
do they feel when they open it,whether they are just opening it
out of a bag that they receivethe candle in, is it wrapped in
tissue?
Is there a candle care card inthat bag?
Same thing whenever theyreceive an order from you in the
mail.
Is it well packaged?
Is there a personalized notewith it?
Is there a business card inthere?
(16:38):
What is it you're doing that'sgoing to create a memorable
experience for them?
Now, it doesn't mean you have tospend a lot of money.
It can be as simple as puttinga stamp on the outside of the
box, which is what we do.
We just have our black stampthat we stamp onto that craft
box.
So when people receive it, thefirst thing they know is,
(17:00):
hopefully, a feeling ofexcitement before they've even
opened it, because they knowthat they have received that
order from us.
And then, when they open thatbox up.
We are going to have a candlecare card, front and center
right there that's going to havea personalized note written on
the backside of that candle carecard and then they're going to
(17:21):
see that we have wrapped thatcandle in tissue and put a logo
sticker to keep it wrapped onthere.
There's people that will go wayabove and beyond that to make
the unboxing experience verymemorable, but that also is
putting them at a lux level thatour brand isn't.
(17:43):
Our brand is quality, but it'snot to the level of lux and
that's not what we're going for.
So we're not going to investadditional dollars in that
unboxing experience.
But we are certainly going todo more than just putting a
candle in a box with somepeanuts and shipping it off
(18:04):
right.
So you got to find the balancebased on what your brand is and
it's going to be memorable basedon that For us.
If someone spends over $100with us, they will actually get
a little package of brandedmatches along with their order.
So they don't even know it'scoming.
Their order arrives, they're inthere along with a little
(18:26):
personalized thank you note.
That in itself we feel ismemorable and so that's why we
do that.
You can add samples, you canadd sent cards, you can put in
discount codes for them topurchase again from you.
So that's all going to bereally important.
And in this step, don't forgetabout the follow-up.
Are you emailing your customerafter they purchase?
(18:47):
Are you asking them to leaveyou a review?
Are you inviting them to stayconnected?
Hey, come and follow us onsocial media?
Are you offering that discountfor them to purchase from you
again within, say, seven days ortwo weeks?
We always like to createurgency around a coupon that
we'll send them so that they'llhopefully buy from us sooner
than later.
If you're sending them a couponthat's for an expiration in,
(19:10):
say, 60 days, they're going toforget about it.
But if you say seven days, ifthey can think about someone
else that they need to buy foror other options that you have
that they are now incentivizedto go and buy from you because
they have to use that, say, 25%off coupon in the next seven
days.
That is something that weinclude with every time someone
(19:32):
purchases from us, they're goingto get those follow-up emails.
Okay, so let's go through theseseven areas of branding one more
time.
Number one clear mission.
Number two target customerdefined.
Number three is your uniqueselling proposition has to be
communicated.
Number four is a strong brandstory.
Number five is your uniqueselling proposition has to be
communicated.
Number four is a strong brandstory.
Number five is consistentvisuals.
(19:52):
Number six is your definedbrand voice.
And number seven is a memorablecustomer experience.
So, just to recap, your brand ishow people remember you, not
just about how your candles look, but how you make people feel.
So I want you to take at leastone of these items that we
(20:14):
talked about today and try toimprove it this week.
Just one of them, and whetherit's the communication that
you're using in all of youremails.
Go back through and see if thatcommunication is the same type
of tone that you're using onyour website and in your social
media posts.
So just pick one step and tryto improve that this week.
If you want the full brandingworkshop and worksheet so that
(20:36):
you can work through thisstep-by-step, you're going to
find that inside the innercircle at canobusinessprocom
slash membership.
If you found this episodehelpful, we'd love it if you'd
leave us a rating and a review.
It really helps us reach moremakers like you.
Thank you so much for tuning intoday.
Take care.
Branding isn't just your logo.
It's how your candle businessmakes people feel, from the
moment they land on your websiteto the second they light one of
your candles.
In this episode, I'm walkingyou through the seven steps
every candle brand should taketo build something memorable,
consistent and clear, so thatyour candle brand will stick out
in a crowded market, troutedMarket.
(00:29):
So, like us, many of you mostlikely, when you first started
on this journey, wanted to comeup with a name for your candles
and wanted to start working on alogo for your candles.
And that's all very exciting todo.
It's part of the fun and Ihighly encourage all of you to
have fun with that.
But that's not your brand.
(00:51):
That's not your branding.
Your brand is going to be muchmore than just your logo.
So we're going to dive into theseven steps that we actually
break down inside of a workshop,inside of the inner circle, but
we're going to cover theseseven steps to branding here in
this episode today.
So hopefully, after thisepisode, you can reevaluate,
take a look at your business andsee if you have all of these
(01:16):
covered.
We want to put a vision in ourcustomers' minds about our
candle business that is beyondjust seeing a logo.
It's how do our products makethem feel?
What do they think about us?
Is it the way we are doingthings in the community?
(01:39):
Is it the way we have fantasticdeals on our website every
month?
Is it that we are supportingnonprofits?
What is it we want customers tothink about when they think
about our business?
That's your branding, thecommunication that we have with
them, the emails, the copy onour websites, the product
(02:01):
descriptions, our social mediaposts.
These are all important factorswhen it comes to your branding,
and the reason why branding isso important is because branding
is how we communicate with ourideal target audience.
So in previous episodes, we'vetalked about defining what our
(02:22):
niche is and figuring out whoour target audience is.
Once we know those things, oncewe have those figured out, once
we've decided those, we thenmake our branding all about that
person the things that they aregoing to like to see, the sense
that they're going to like tosmell, the way we package our
candles.
It's all about that customer.
(02:43):
So we're going to break downseven steps to doing that.
So let's get started, all right.
So step number one you got todefine your why.
Why did you start your candlebusiness.
What change or feeling do youwant to create for others?
Here's a tip for you your whybecomes the foundation of your
(03:08):
candle business.
So you have to understand thewhy so that you can relate that
to your customers and yourcustomers will then be able to
find you.
What is your purpose?
What is your why?
What is it that you want to putout into the world?
That is like a light, that islike your beacon that will
(03:29):
attract people towards you isgoing to be your why.
Your why should be shared withyour customers with every
opportunity that you get on yourwebsite.
You should have an about asection and your why should be
there.
It should explain, of course,you know who you are.
Section and your why should bethere.
It should explain, of course,you know who you are, but why
are you selling these candles?
(03:49):
So your why is really important.
Number two know your targetcustomer.
Describe who your candles arefor.
That's not just demographics,but also their mindset.
So what problems are yourcandles going to solve?
Is it stress relief?
Is it gifting?
(04:09):
Is it just creating ambiance?
Right, gifting is a fantasticproblem to solve, but it's not
as easy as oh yeah, people arejust going to buy these for
other people.
Well, there's price points thatcome into that, right, or what
we spend on gifts.
So if you're going to be agifting targeted brand, then you
have to think about it as who'sgoing to be buying these.
(04:31):
Who are they gifting it to?
What are they going to bespending on candles?
What occasions are they giftingthis for?
Someone's not going to buy acandle for $100 and gift it.
The same way.
They're going to buy a candlefor a hundred dollars and gift
it the same way.
They're going to buy a candlefor five dollars and gift it.
Keep that in mind that there aregoing to be limitations upper
and lower of gifting candles,stress relief candles what's
(04:55):
going to make your candle astress relief candle?
Is it because your whole brandis about self-care, relaxation,
finding a moment of having spaceto yourself?
What is it that you are solvingwith your candle?
So think about that and thinkabout how that is going to
(05:15):
relate to your target customer,because the problem that you're
solving pulls in your targetcustomer.
Now you don't have to go sodeep with it.
Your candles can just be verycheeky.
Fun little raunchy sayings onthe front of them, right?
We see them all over Etsy theirpersonalized candles that are
just kind of fun, right, and soit can be very lighthearted, and
(05:37):
your candles are just to givepeople a laugh, a sense of
excitement in their life byhaving this candle that says
something snarky on the front ofthat, right, and that's a
perfect gifting candle.
And your customer isn'tnecessarily the person receiving
the candle.
Your target customer is theperson that's buying that for
(05:58):
someone else, right?
So think about it that waythere.
So it doesn't have to be superdeep, but you do need to know
who your customer is going to bethat is buying that candle, all
right.
So number three is crafting yourunique selling proposition,
your USP, unique sellingproposition.
What's going to make yourcandles different?
(06:18):
Is it the ingredients?
Is it because of your mission?
Is it your packaging?
Is it just your voice and howyou're communicating with your
customers?
This is why you have to defineyour niche very clearly.
So in other episodes we'vetalked about defining your niche
, and if you define your nicheas a travel-inspired candle, the
(06:42):
way you're going to build yourbrand for that with your USP,
your ingredients, your mission,your packaging, your voice, is
going to be different than ifyou are making candles in a
sports related theme or in amystical related theme?
Right, because these niches aredifferent than your unique
(07:03):
selling proposition is going tobe different.
Here would be an example thatsomeone might have uh, for their
candles Instead of just we sellcandles, it's we make nature
inspired candles for mindfulmoms.
Okay, so it's very differentthere.
So keep that in mind that youhave to have a unique selling
proposition, for that's thereason I'm buying that candle
(07:27):
over that candle.
And number four is you've got toshare your brand story.
So this is part of your, whythis is part of your unique
selling proposition.
You've got to share yourbrand's story.
Talk about why your journeymatters.
Share that with your customers.
Make them want to support you,not just to buy from you, to
(07:50):
actually support you and supportthe mission of your candle
brand.
Is it because you'reeco-friendly?
Is it because they're smallbatch and they're handmade?
Are you a veteran-ownedbusiness?
Are you an an LGBTQ ownedbusiness?
Why are people going to want tosupport you and your mission?
And again, you can't pleaseeveryone.
You can't.
(08:10):
When you try to please everyone, then no one feels like, oh,
that's my, those are my people,those are my candles.
I have to support that brand.
That's the only kind of candlesI want to burn in my house,
like.
That's the kind of customer wewant.
We want those customers thatsay we love buying your candles,
we love supporting you.
(08:30):
You're the only candle brand weeven talk about to other people
.
That's what you want.
So you've got to share yourstory so that you can connect
and find your people.
People are going to buy the whymore than they're going to buy
the candle, so just keep that inmind.
Okay, so now number five.
Now this is the visual brandingsfor your candle business.
These are the things that wetypically think about when we're
(08:54):
asking or talking aboutbranding.
So let's go through a few ofthese.
Logo Are you going to betext-based or are you going to
be an icon based?
For us, we're a combination ofboth.
We have the icon is alighthouse with the water
underneath it and the beaconshining on the top, and then we
have our wordmark, which is justGarcin and Beacon Candle
Company.
We will use them together, butwe'll also use them separately.
(09:14):
We will use the wordmark inmany places as well, so what I
would recommend is keeping itvery clean and flexible.
I wouldn't add too much color toit.
Have a color, have a couplecolors.
I have seen people that havelike a logo, that it looks like
it's like glitter or somethingright, or it's a font that
they're using.
(09:35):
I would be really cautiousabout that because it's not
going to be as versatile.
You may be able to put it onyour website just fine.
It might be hard to print, puton a label, it might be hard to
put on packaging and things likethat, or to get a box created.
So I'd recommend really tryingto keep it clean and flexible
With our logo.
We want to make sure that theycan see it, even if it's really
(09:56):
small.
So zoom out on your logo justas much as you're going to zoom
in to make sure that it's goingto work in all different places.
The next thing with your brandvisuals is going to be your
color palette.
What feelings do your brandcolors evoke?
What is that feeling that comesout when people see that?
Do you want to have boldstatement colors?
Do you want to have the black,the white, the gray scales?
(10:19):
Do you want to go with softpastels, more of a calming
feeling?
What colors are going torepresent your brand?
Think about it not only in thisinitial collection that you may
be coming up with, but also asyour brand expands.
Are you going to be able tokind of stay on brand with your
coloring?
Of course you can always changeup your colors as you grow, but
(10:41):
trying to have consistency isgoing to be key, especially for
those that are first startingout.
We've stuck with the same.
It's a little off black, littlegray scale and then white
version of our logos.
We've had those since day oneand those have done us pretty
well, and then we can use thepops of color around that.
So with your color palette, I'drecommend three.
You can have a couple morealternative colors, but try not
(11:04):
to overcomplicate it.
Try to make it recognizable sothat when someone sees those
colors they know it's tied toyour brand.
The next thing is going to beyour topography.
Choose one or two fonts thatmatch your style at a maximum.
I will often see labeling wherepeople will have all different
(11:26):
fonts, from their logo font tothe scent name font, to the
other descriptors like the scentnotes, and they're all
different fonts.
I'm kind of old school.
I learned many, many, manyyears ago in branding to stick
to a two font maximum.
Only have two fonts, becauseyour eyes start to go in
(11:47):
different places with thesedifferent fonts.
So we have our main fonts thatwe use for our titles and then
we have our secondary font thatwe use on the rest of our labels
.
It's the same thing on ourwebsite.
If you're on our website, youwill see we have a header font
and then we have just like ourtext font is what I call it for
(12:09):
the rest of the writing that wehave throughout our website, and
then it's all going to beconsistent.
Don't switch it up too often.
Again, I'm under the old schoolbelief of a two font maximum.
The next thing we're going totalk about is the packaging.
This is all still part of yourvisual branding.
Your packaging is going to besomething that you want to be
recognized for your jars, yourlids, your labels, the box they
(12:33):
all need to be cohesive so thatthey're telling the same story.
So all of our labels lookrelatively similar to each other
.
They are going to be differentscents, but the labels
themselves, the images and theelements within that label all
really come together as acohesive brand.
(12:55):
And then when we put those inboxes on some of our candles,
that box is also going to needto be cohesive as well.
Okay, and the last thing underthe visual branding is your
photography.
Do you want your photography tobe light and airy and
minimalistic, or do you want tohave that moody and that luxe
feel?
Or possibly you just want thatclean and bright?
(13:16):
What is it that you want yourphotography to reflect about
your brand and then make thatcome out in all aspects of your
brand, from your website to whatyou're posting on social media,
to the images inside the emailsthat you're sending out to your
customers.
All of your photography shouldhave a relatable feeling, so
(13:39):
that it's not all over the place.
Now, again, when you havedifferent collections that you
come out with, that is fine tohave're scrolling online an
image of yours.
If they stop, they should beable to know what brand that is
(14:02):
tied to, even if your logo wouldbe removed, all right.
So step number six to definingyour branding is your brand
voice and messaging.
What tone is your brand goingto use?
Are you going to have casualconversation tone?
Are you going to have aconfident tone, a warm,
(14:23):
luxurious?
What kind of candles are youselling and what is the tone
that you want to have with itthe same tone that a inexpensive
candle that I may buy at a bigbox store and a $200 luxurious
candle.
That messaging should be reallydifferent.
The way those emails arewritten should be very different
(14:48):
.
The product descriptions on thewebsite should be very
different, right?
What personality traits aregoing to define your brand?
Is it calm, witty, bold,friendly?
What personality traits do youwant to convey?
It's important to stayconsistent.
So the same tone that we use inour social media posts is the
(15:11):
same tone that you're going toget if you go and read our
website and you read the aboutus or you read the product
descriptions and then if youreceive an email from us.
It's going to be the same tone.
You want to make sure that youare using that same tone across
all of your platforms.
So just kind of keep that inmind, especially in the day and
(15:32):
age now, where people are usingAI and ChatGPT to help write
product descriptions and titles.
They're even using them towrite emails and things like
that.
It's going to be real easy toget off tone by doing that.
So you need to make sure, ifyou are using the assistance of
AI, which I am completely onboard with doing, make sure that
(15:53):
the tone is going to beconsistent across all the
different ways that you arepromoting your brand.
Okay, for the seventh and finalstep in defining your branding
is you have to create amemorable customer experience.
So, from the unboxing, fromwhat is the very first
impression someone gets whenthey receive your candles, what
(16:17):
do they feel when they open it,whether they are just opening it
out of a bag that they receivethe candle in, is it wrapped in
tissue?
Is there a candle care card inthat bag?
Same thing whenever theyreceive an order from you in the
mail.
Is it well packaged?
Is there a personalized notewith it?
Is there a business card inthere?
(16:38):
What is it you're doing that'sgoing to create a memorable
experience for them?
Now, it doesn't mean you have tospend a lot of money.
It can be as simple as puttinga stamp on the outside of the
box, which is what we do.
We just have our black stampthat we stamp onto that craft
box.
So when people receive it, thefirst thing they know is,
(17:00):
hopefully, a feeling ofexcitement before they've even
opened it, because they knowthat they have received that
order from us.
And then, when they open thatbox up.
We are going to have a candlecare card, front and center
right there that's going to havea personalized note written on
the backside of that candle carecard and then they're going to
(17:21):
see that we have wrapped thatcandle in tissue and put a logo
sticker to keep it wrapped onthere.
There's people that will go wayabove and beyond that to make
the unboxing experience verymemorable, but that also is
putting them at a lux level thatour brand isn't.
(17:43):
Our brand is quality, but it'snot to the level of lux and
that's not what we're going for.
So we're not going to investadditional dollars in that
unboxing experience.
But we are certainly going todo more than just putting a
candle in a box with somepeanuts and shipping it off
(18:04):
right.
So you got to find the balancebased on what your brand is and
it's going to be memorable basedon that For us.
If someone spends over $100with us, they will actually get
a little package of brandedmatches along with their order.
So they don't even know it'scoming.
Their order arrives, they're inthere along with a little
(18:26):
personalized thank you note.
That in itself we feel ismemorable and so that's why we
do that.
You can add samples, you canadd sent cards, you can put in
discount codes for them topurchase again from you.
So that's all going to bereally important.
And in this step, don't forgetabout the follow-up.
Are you emailing your customerafter they purchase?
(18:47):
Are you asking them to leaveyou a review?
Are you inviting them to stayconnected?
Hey, come and follow us onsocial media?
Are you offering that discountfor them to purchase from you
again within, say, seven days ortwo weeks?
We always like to createurgency around a coupon that
we'll send them so that they'llhopefully buy from us sooner
than later.
If you're sending them a couponthat's for an expiration in,
(19:10):
say, 60 days, they're going toforget about it.
But if you say seven days, ifthey can think about someone
else that they need to buy foror other options that you have
that they are now incentivizedto go and buy from you because
they have to use that, say, 25%off coupon in the next seven
days.
That is something that weinclude with every time someone
(19:32):
purchases from us, they're goingto get those follow-up emails.
Okay, so let's go through theseseven areas of branding one more
time.
Number one clear mission.
Number two target customerdefined.
Number three is your uniqueselling proposition has to be
communicated.
Number four is a strong brandstory.
Number five is your uniqueselling proposition has to be
communicated.
Number four is a strong brandstory.
Number five is consistentvisuals.
(19:52):
Number six is your definedbrand voice.
And number seven is a memorablecustomer experience.
So, just to recap, your brand ishow people remember you, not
just about how your candles look, but how you make people feel.
So I want you to take at leastone of these items that we
(20:14):
talked about today and try toimprove it this week.
Just one of them, and whetherit's the communication that
you're using in all of youremails.
Go back through and see if thatcommunication is the same type
of tone that you're using onyour website and in your social
media posts.
So just pick one step and tryto improve that this week.
If you want the full brandingworkshop and worksheet so that
(20:36):
you can work through thisstep-by-step, you're going to
find that inside the innercircle at canobusinessprocom
slash membership.
If you found this episodehelpful, we'd love it if you'd
leave us a rating and a review.
It really helps us reach moremakers like you.
Thank you so much for tuning intoday.
Take care.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.