How to turn a passion into your business branding

Passion is often the driving force behind most entrepreneurs and is the reason compelling someone to start a business. As a result, their passion becomes a strong part of their business or personal branding. More often than not, we might have found our passion or life calling, and want to make a pivot in our lives by turning that into a business or full-time job.

Whether you’ve stumbled upon your passion through a hobby or side project, it is possible to turn it into a sustainable and scalable business. But first, you need to find ways to distill your passion into a brand.

Figure out your place in the market

Before you start making decisions about your brand, you need to understand what the current market is like. This means finding out more about your potential customers and who your competitors might be.

The easiest way to figure that out is to use Google to do a quick search on similar product or service categories, and talk to people who might be in your target market to find out what their favourite brands are. You’ll also need to understand how your potential customers shop, so that might involve shopping online or offline to see what the customer experience or products are like.

As you go about your research, make notes on the characteristics of these customers – they will form the basis of your buyer persona.

Build your buyer persona

Buyer personas are usually fictional, generalised representations of your ideal customers. They help to internalise the ideal customer you're trying to attract, and relate to your customers as real humans. Having a deep understanding of your buyer persona(s) is critical to product development, sales follow up, marketing and anything that relates to customer acquisition and retention.

Define your brand

Remember that your brand can’t appeal to everyone. Therefore, it’s important to find your focus and let that inform all other parts of your brand. One way is to come up with a positioning statement or unique selling proposition.

Your positioning statement is usually a few lines that stake your claim in the market. It’s a statement that can help you answer the right questions about your brand. Your unique selling proposition on the other hand, is something that you’re competing on.

Use your passion, especially if it’s around a cause, to determine what your brand is all about.

Choose a name

Depending on the kind of business you start, the name that you choose matters a lot. Your brand name is probably one of the first commitments you need to make and stick by as it’ll impact your logo, domain and marketing. There are many different ways to go about picking a name, but it’s best to choose one that is easy to remember and that resonates with you.

Write a slogan

A catchy slogan is always a good to have. It should be something brief, so you can put it on all your marketing channels. Whether you decide to stake a claim, make it a metaphor or describe it literally, the slogan should basically sum up what you and your business are passionate about in a few catchy words.

Design your logo

A logo is the visual behind your brand and it will be what your customers will remember you by. A logo should be unique, identifiable and scalable. Consider all the places your logo will be placed at, down to your Instagram profile and how it conveys your brand.

Evolve your brand as your grow

Building a brand doesn’t just stop with creating a logo or slogan. Instead, your brand needs to exist and remain consistent on every single touchpoint. As you hone your passion into something more tangible, your brand will continue to evolve.

Above all, it is only possible to turn your passion into a brand with determination and commitment. Get out there and take the first step to turning your passion into your dream job.