The Branding Lab

The Branding Lab

What is branding? Does my business need to have a brand? Isn’t branding just a logo and a website? What is more important marketing or branding? And the biggest question of all, how do I even start building a brand? When host, Yvonne Ivanescu, decided to create her brand, Now in Rio, an ethical swimwear label, she ended up asking herself the same questions, and wanted to find the answers. The Branding Lab podcast is a series of honest, informative, and open conversations with industry leaders, designers, and strategists who create and design the brands we love and interact with every day. Each episode will provide advice on how to brand your business from finding your values, purpose, and vision to strategies for engaging with your audience through effective marketing, understanding your brand story, written and visual communications, and so much more. Tune in as we explore what it takes to build a truly strategic, heartfelt brand.

Episodes

August 16, 2021 48 mins
You’ve established your brand foundations, and now what? How do you transfer all that into the online space?


In this episode, Ben Rifken and I discuss how to create and use content to communicate your personal and/or brand values. We talk about what goes into creating your brand’s visual style and how to hire the right people like photographers and/or videographers, to create imagery that seamlessly translates your brand vision, m...
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Guess what, my business blew up in just two months of launching and I made over 6 figures with my launch. Actually, that's a lie, and it's a lie that is being fed to many entrepreneurs out there.

The old narrative is that starting a business is hard. In fact, it takes at least 3 years for you to become profitable. But that has been replaced with a new narrative. A narrative that says that you can blow up your business in less than ...
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What is human-centred design and what role does it play in branding? How can brands and businesses use design thinking to go beyond the traditional business models and focus on customer empathy and real-world experiments?

In this episode, Juliana and I talk about the power of using design thinking in branding, specifically addressing each of the five stages of Design Thinking, which are Empathise, Define (the problem), Ideate, Proto...
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Everything begins and ends with your customer. Who are they? Furthermore, are your customers visual, audio, or kinesthetic buyers? Why does that matter?

In this episode, Shanna and I talk not only talk about the difference between a commodity and a brand, and why you should strive to be the latter, but we also delve into the importance of creating and developing customer persona(s). We also touch upon the three different types of b...
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Deciding to invest in a brand photoshoot for your small business can be scary and in reality,
it isn't as simple as pointing and shooting. In fact, a product photography photoshoot begins way before the actual photographs are taken.

In this episode of Behind the Brand, we are doing things a little bit differently. This time we are chatting with Lucie Kirchnerová, a photographer and listener of the podcast, who wants to know a little...
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Today, there are commodity-type products, also known as “so what products,” that have no differentiators on the product or service level, and yet people love them. These brands do not have an enhanced design, new technology, or innovative offerings, instead, they’ve developed an emotional connection with their customers. But how do you create that connection?

In this episode, Fabian and I talk about how you can create a brand that e...
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Most entrepreneurs don't start with venture funding. In fact, many entrepreneurs start with a couple of thousand dollars in the pocket that they've saved up so that they can launch their passion project. So how can you bootstrap your business to success?

In 2012, Kristi sold her car and invested that money into her new business venture, Encircled - an ethical and sustainable fashion company. And in this episode, we are chatting all ...
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As branding guru Marty Neumeier says, a brand strategy is “a plan for the systematic development of brand in alignment with a business strategy.” A brand strategy helps you understand who you are and acts as a blueprint to help you communicate it.

But how do you create a brand strategy? In this episode of Behind the Brand, we talk about the essential elements of a brand strategy and finish off talking about how you can create your ...
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The biggest part of branding is figuring out the promise that you make to a consumer and the expectation they have, this is almost every single time, the first place where an entrepreneur screws it up.

In this episode, Marc and I talk about the first three principles from his book, Brand DIY, including how important it is for entrepreneurs to have a conversation with their potential customers; staking a claim in your consumer's brai...
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If you are selling a product, you are selling a commodity. And in the end, you are most likely selling the same thing every other company is selling. So why should people buy from you? Branding is the impression that you give people. If you don't have a brand, people can't connect with you, they can't trust you and they probably won't buy from you.

In this episode, Laura and I talk about how to build a connection with your audience...
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Everything in branding starts and ends with your audience.

Who are they? Where do they live? What do they drive? What do they read? What do they do? How do they feel? And what do they want? Your customer persona will guide everything from product development to your brand voice to even the social media channels you choose.

In this episode, I chat about what a customer persona is, how to create one (with step-by-step instructions), ...
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There's no point in embarking on a brand strategy unless its impact can be measured. Make sure to shape your brand story around quantifiable unique audience demand. If you do this then you are going to have a much better chance of cutting through the noise and getting people to do what you want them to do from a marketing and commercial standpoint instead of having a generic or non-specific kind of brand story. 

In this episode, And...
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Do you have brand clarity? Are you able to describe your business and what makes it unique in 10 words or less? And if you have simple clarity do you know how to amplify that message?

In this episode, Jeremy Miller and I talk about his origin story, specifically how re-branding his family business not only saved it but rocketed it to success while also talking about how you to create a brand that connects with people early and ofte...
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Everyone talks about their triumphs, but what about their mistakes? Well, let's be real, everyone makes mistakes, and it’s important to learn from them to better yourself and your business. Mistakes are instrumental to success. In this episode, I chat about the five mistakes I made, and the lessons that I learned from them, before I even launched my business, Now in Rio Swim.

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yvonnei...
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Guess what, if your brand strategy is bad, it usually ends up showing up in your marketing. Are you wondering why you aren’t getting results on social media? Why your Facebook ads aren’t working? If you answered yes to the above questions, then you probably have a brand problem. If your marketing isn’t working, or your content is not resonating with your audience, or if people are not clicking onto your website, then it’s time to r...
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What is brand storytelling? And what do you exactly need to know before you hire a copyrighting studio?

In this episode, Cassandra and I talk about the importance of brand storytelling; the difference between storytelling and brand messaging; and what businesses should know before they even think about hiring a copywriting studio. PLUS we chat about the difference between a content writer and a copywriter - do you how they are diff...
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The Behind the Brand series focuses on the real-life experiences, joys, stories, and failures of my journey launching and building a sustainable and ethical fashion brand.

In this episode, we are talking about competitor research, which I believe is one of, if not, THE most important thing you need to do before you even think about any other aspects of your brand strategy. Why? Well because it aims to uncover a gap that you can st...
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Is color really that important in branding? According to this week’s guest, Alison Engel, YES it is. Colors are more than just a visual aid because colors convey emotions, feelings, and experiences. In this episode, Alison and I talk about color theory; the overlap between branding and personal styling, and why she chose her particular brand colors when launching her vegan delivery app, eat.life.
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The Behind the Brand series focuses on the real life experiences, joys, stories, and failures of my journey launching and building a sustainable and ethical fashion brand. In this episode, we are going straight to the beginning. Why did I want to start an ethical and sustainable swimwear brand even though I’ve never worked in the fashion industry before and never have launched a product in my life? And most importantly, I answer t...
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Did you know that a brand is not a logo? Branding begins with strategy and not design. In this episode, Melissa and Yvonne talk about finding your brand purpose; understanding how your values connect with that purpose; and discussing brand authenticity, highlighting that you should always practice what you preach.
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