Principles of Branding: A Conversation with Christy Ford, co-founder of The Scout Guide
Last week we hosted the webinar Branding Yourself and Your Business in a Fast-Changing World with The Scout Guide co-founder Christy Ford, as she discussed the principles of branding. Here, we showcase some of the biggest takeaways in her own words, from how to trust your intuition to her three C’s of branding. Click HERE to enjoy the entire conversation and to explore our other webinars.
Follow your heart. When creating your brand, or starting a new business, don’t let all the negative talk get in the way. Have the confidence to listen to your gut and follow it. As women, we get in our own way when putting ourselves out there. As Nike famously coined, “Just do it.” You learn by doing and you learn more from failure than success. Just get started!
When in doubt, go back to basics. When we built The Scout Guide brand, we took inspiration from iconography that has been steadfast for millennia—royal medallions, classic insignia, colors inspired by nature. Old things that had been done over and over had soul in our minds. And we also took cues from timeless brands like Chanel, Cartier, and Hermès. Through world wars and rapidly changing cultural mores and trends, they have not wavered from their initial branding and are all the better for it.
Be you. Trust your gut that the direction you’re going in is the right one and don’t be swayed by popular culture or others’ excessive opinions. Your idea is great because it’s yours. Lean into that. It would be a really boring world if we all took inspiration from the same sources. The last thing we need is more of the same. That’s the beauty of all these small businesses, they are all offering their unique spins.
Christy Ford’s Three C’s of Branding
Anyone in the marketing/branding world, knows the importance of the three C’s of branding: clarity, consistency, and constancy. But Christy has a unique approach that has shaped the image of brands she’s worked with, including The Scout Guide. Here she shares her three principles of branding.
Consistency.
It’s crucial to stay true to your brand. People need to see the same thing—your consistent branding—over and over again. They become familiar with it and create a relationship with your look and feel. It’s natural for creatives to get bored, and want to reinvent things, but channel that energy elsewhere. Have the courage of conviction to stick with what you’ve built, because straying from your branding is the kiss of death.
Community.
People want to bond with a mission or a person, not a brand or logo. You have to have some soul behind your brand to build a long-lasting community that’s crucial to success.
Classicalism.
This is the antithesis of trendy. Go back to the roots of classic designs, classic colors, and classic motifs. When your brand is rooted in historic elements that have stood the test of time, you can’t go wrong.
To learn more about The Scout Guide and the unique franchise opportunity, visit HERE.
