Breeder Central
WHY YOU NEED A BRAND
According to the American Marketing Association, a brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.
Creating a brand that represents you and your operation is imperative to being successful and marketing your livestock. There are a few things that are very important to remember when creating your brand, logo, and even a slogan! Below are 5 tips that we believe are crucial when considering what your brand is!
Create a foundation
Why do you do what you do? What purpose does your operation have? What do you want people to know about you? Before anything else, you need to determine your WHY.
You want people to understand your brand and why you’ve made the choices you have. Sit down and maybe even lay out why you raise and sell show pigs. When thinking about these things, you may even get ideas for what you want your brand to look like. Just remember that every visual thing about your logo and brand is something that will give a customer or the “viewer” a clue into who you are and create a feeling in them.
Who is your audience?
Who are your customers? Who do you want to target? This is another part of laying the foundation to building your brand. It is important to realize everyone is not your audience. Consider the following things:
Demographics
Statistical data on your audience—the who they are traits (who, where, why, age, 4/H, FFA, show pigs, registered, commercial, etc.)
Psychographics
Look into your audience’s personality traits. What motivates your customers to buy? What are their goals?
Let these things help you define who your customer is and what they are looking for. Then use the information to help build your brand.
What is your story?
Creating a brand is just putting a visual identity to your story. While the physical logo is just part of what makes up your brand—it is important it properly reflects your operation.
Everyone has a story. Did you start the operation? Did a family member? How long have you been in operation? How did you get to where you are today? These are all important questions to not only answer, but to relay to your customers. Telling your story to your customer base makes you more relatable and attainable. Successful brands give their audience a positive feeling and have obtained instant recognition by remaining consistent with their branding.
Once you have established your story and what you want to tell people, find a way to use that story to establish what your values are as an operation. What principles do you stand on? Integrity? Hard Work? Leadership? Whatever it may be, make a list of all the things that you want the operation to reflect, then narrow it down to 3-5 words that really explain you. These will be the core values that people will know you for!
Creating your logo
Once you can answer all of the above, it is time to create your name and logo! In the world of livestock, we often land on using our own name to build our brand, and that is great! Your name is something you can stand on and hopefully transfer to future generations. If you choose not to use a family name, build your name and brand around something that has meaning to you and has that “story” behind it. Just remember, less is more. After you have landed on a name, colors are a key part of your logo. They need to complement each other while also standing for the feelings you would like to evoke in your customers. Look at the chart below to learn what different colors can create different kinds of emotions and thoughts in people.
Tools to remember when choosing a logo
- Keep it simple
- Honor tradition
- Strive to be different
- Make sure your logo will look good in all situations
- On large banners, small print outs, when stitched on a hat, etc
This will not happen overnight
Building a brand, establishing who you are, and creating a name/logo, takes time. Don’t rush this process. Give yourself time to really narrow in on what you want people to know about you and allow your logo to reflect that.
Contact the Showpig.com team and let us help you start building the brand today!
Katey Brattain 765-720-2769
Stacey Watje 209-604-2542
Emily Miller 419-575-5999
Taylor Miller 419-822-1796