We kick off a series of podcasts on branding indie beauty businesses with a marathon interview packed with actionable advice. You've no doubt heard the one about your brand being more than your logo, but have you worked out what this means in reality?

Here, at Formula Botanica, we thought we knew all about branding, and how it applies to indie beauty businesses, but our chat with Rob Moore of The Design Co certainly opened our eyes. We'll give you a clue to just how much more there is to branding: it's only by Tip 8, that we start talking about logos and visual design.

The eye-catching visual elements that we tend to think of as branding are only the tip of the brand iceberg. A truly strong, successful brand is one that creates touch points with its audiences from the very start and pays attention to fine-tuning the little details that go into running a business day to day.

Rob is an energetic, inspirational designer who went through this self-same checklist when he set up his own branding agency just a couple of years ago and needed to define what he wanted for his business.

Since then, he has been key in branding several start-ups turned successful indie beauty businesses such as Pink's Boutique and Proverb Skin whose founders were guest speakers at the Formula Botanica 2017 Conference. As he admits, it's not an easy task to brand, or rebrand, but he hand-holds us through his top 10 tips giving us a clear action plan to follow.

If you're thinking of turning your passion for natural cosmetics into a business, or even if you're already running one, Rob's advice will revolutionise how you've thought about branding or growing your brand.

Rob is offering us his Essential Guide to a Strong Brand, which we suggest you download and use as a checklist once you've listened in.

In this episode on branding indie beauty businesses, you'll hear about:

• Why your brand name is a big deal and needs as much planning as your entire branding exercise;
• What to look out for when buying domain names and applying for trademarks;
• Why your brand's reputation is built from the very start, and from those little everyday interactions with your audiences;
• Why your product is not your brand;
• How your customer service and your employees are critical brand ambassadors; and
• How your own story and journey to starting your business is key to captivating customers and making an emotional connection with them.

Key take-aways include:

• Each product sale can take as many as 12 brand touch points with your customer. Bear this in mind when designing your website, your daily customer service touch points and post-sales follow-up. Leave nothing to chance.
• Don't talk up your products nor use hyperbole in how you portray your brand. In some ways, it's best to undersell and then over deliver in order to gain happy, loyal customers.
• Remember that customers are key in branding indie beauty businesses. They build your brand reputation, not you. They are highly influential in marketing your brand on social media and through word of mouth.
• Think of the bigger picture: don't make every single action sales related. Get out there and do good in your local community or for example by donating a percentage of some sales to charities or causes that are in line with your brand mission.

You can find The Design Co here:

The Design Co website The Design Co on Facebook The Design Co on Twitter The Design Co on Instagram

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