The first step of branding a person, product, or service is to find its frequency. What does that mean, “to find your brand’s frequency”? Whether it’s building a brand that is a person, place, thing, product, or service, it’s essential to find out what the “woo-woo” person in me describes as a “vibration”— in other words, an emotional appeal meant to reverberate with your target audience or market.

A frequency can best be described by talking about it in terms of radio stations. If we want sports talk radio, we turn to a specific channel. If we want rock ’n’ roll, we’ll find a station whose music (and employees) have that vibe. If we want cool jazz, that’s an entirely different frequency. Only the people who are tied into that frequency will seek out or hear that radio station. The same thing holds true about branding.

You want a brand that rings true to your audience, something aligned with their beliefs, desires, or aspirations. You also want to find a frequency that enough people listen to, right? To connect to others and take your message, product, service, or solution mainstream to the biggest audience, you first need to fully understand who you are, what you’re selling, how you’re selling it, and the value that it brings to others.

You need to understand how your frequency, or that of your product, resonates with others and attracts them to the brand that you’re trying to establish.