Defining Your Brand Pillars

Defining Your Brand Pillars

By Samantha Garner, GoForth Institute

Defining your small business’ brand is a critical component of marketing. When planning your small business’ marketing strategy, identify your brand pillars very early in the process.

What are brand pillars?

We define brand pillars as the most important attributes and principles that you want communicated through your brand. Examples of brand pillars are Quality, Expertise, Passion, Natural Ingredients, Community Involvement and Honesty. Your business can use as many brand pillars as you like, but narrow them down to those most important to your business’ image and values. If you need help focusing your brand pillars to the most important, write down exactly what they mean to your business, or the way your business exemplifies these pillars. You may find that a brand pillar such as  Passion isn’t as representative of your business as Community Involvement, for example, or that Accountability trumps Expertise.

Keep in mind that brand pillars you decide to omit are not necessarily values and principles you no longer believe in – they are just less critical to your business’ image than others.

Using brand pillars

Once you’ve settled on your brand pillars, make every effort to ensure that everything your company is – from colours, layout, names, taglines, and all marketing productions – reflect these pillars. This usage can be as simple as high quality photography or design if one of your pillars is Quality. It can also be more creative. If one of your brand pillars is Honesty, resist the urge to make grand claims or guarantees in your marketing material – unless, of course, you really can meet these guarantees.

Brand pillars should be clear and consistent

Consider what you would like to communicate to customers about your small business – are you professional or relaxed? Modern or traditional? Colourful or restrained? Be sure to provide consistency throughout all of your marketing in order to develop a clear and recognizable brand.

Look to your brand pillars to direct all your marketing efforts – and your corporate culture and actions as well. Share your business’ brand pillars with all employees and inspire your team to reference them in all they do for your company. Brand pillars, as the name suggests, exist to support your branding, marketing and business operations – choose wisely and stick by them.

Samantha Garner is GoForth Institute's Director, Communications.  Contact Samantha by email: samantha@goforthinstitute.com

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