The Human Centered Brand: A Practical Guide to Being Yourself in Business

by Nela Dunato

Overview

Promote your business with clarity, ease, and authenticity.

The Human Centered Brand is a practical branding guide for service based businesses and creatives, that helps you grow meaningful relationships with your clients and your audience.

If you’re a writer, marketing consultant, creative agency owner, lawyer, illustrator, designer, developer, psychotherapist, personal trainer, dentist, painter, musician, bookkeeper, or other type of service business owner, the methods described in this book will assist you in expressing yourself naturally and creating a resonant, remarkable, and sustainable brand.

Read this book to learn:

Why conventional branding approaches don't work for service based businesses.

How to identify your core values and use them in your business and marketing decisions.

Different ways you can make your business unique among all the competition.

How to express yourself verbally through your website, emails, articles, videos, talks, podcasts...

What makes your “ideal clients” truly ideal, and how to connect with real people who appreciate you as you are.

How to craft an effective tagline.

What are the most important elements of a visual brand identity, and how to use them to design your own brand.

How to craft an exceptional client experience and impress your clients with your professionalism.

How your brand relates to your business model, pricing, company culture, fashion style, and social impact.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or have lots of experience with marketing and design, you’ll get new insights about your own brand, and fresh ideas you’ll want to implement right away. The companion workbook, checklists, templates, and other bonuses ensure that you not only learn new information, but create a custom brand strategy on your own.

Learn more at humancenteredbrand.com

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789534817117
Publisher:	Nela Dunato Art & Design
Publication date:	10/27/2018
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Nela Dunato is an artist, designer, writer, and teacher from Croatia. Her focus is on helping passion-driven businesses to create expressive brand identities and exceptional client experiences. She teaches design as a course instructor, leads in-person workshops, and speaks at international industry events. She's been writing articles about art, design, marketing, business, and creativity for over a decade, and her award-winning blog inspired a whole generation of Croatian web designers. The ideas and methods presented in her book The Human Centered Brand draw from her successful career as a brand designer, as well as her deep interest in symbolism and the human psychology, and her experience as a facilitator of personal development techniques. Learn more about Nela and her work at neladunato.com

Table of Contents

Introduction

Do We Need Yet Another Book on Branding?

Defining the Terms ‘Brand’ & ‘Branding’

Whose Rules Do You Play By?

Poor-Fit Clients Cost You More than You Think

Branding: The Bridge to Overcome the Trust Gap

The Small Fish Advantage

How to Put This Information into Practice

I. The Human Centered Brands

Deconstructing Branding

Why Does Branding Matter?

Differentiation: The Main Purpose of Branding

The Second Purpose of Branding: Connecting with the People You Most Care to Help

Great Branding Creates Resonance

Human Centered Branding is about Self-Knowledge

Do We Need to Be Strategic about It?

Why Human Centered Branding Works

Human Centered Brand Is Not a Personal Brand

Human Centered Branding Is Not for Wimps

When Is the Right Time to Create Your Brand?

Bootstrapping versus Outsourcing

II. Your Brand Needs a Healthy Foundation

Dealing with Emotional Blocks That Prevent Your Authentic Self-Expression

The Human Centered Brand Discovery Pyramid

Where the Framework Meets Real Life

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

Are We Ever Allowed to Step Away from Our Brand?

The Rebranding Process

III. It’s All about You

Business is Personal

What Are Core Values?

Can Our Core Values Change?

Your Transformation Story: The Key to Your Core Values

Your Most Defining Core Value

How Core Values Ripple through Your Business & Brand

How to Identify Your Core Values

How to Use Core Values in Your Business

IV. It’s All about Them

Your Unique Value Proposition Is a Promise of Client’s Transformation

The Role of the Buyer Cycle

The Real Challenge: Making It Unique

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

How to Use Your Unique Value Proposition

V. Talk the Talk & Walk the Walk

How to Discover Your Authentic Brand Voice

How to Use Your Brand Voice

Naming Your Business

Authentic Connection or TMI?

Is Swearing Ever Acceptable?

VI. Who Are You Serving?

How Narrowing Down Makes You Stand Out

How to Identify Your Ideal Clients

How to Use Your Ideal Client Profile

VII. Wrapping It Up with a Bow

Beauty Matters

Design Is a Visual Language

Who Is a Designer?

The Elements of a Visual Brand Identity

1. Brand Mood Board

2. Color

3. Typography

4. Logo

5. Photography

6. Illustration

VIII. Brand Style Guides

Why Brands Need Guidelines

What Goes into a Brand Style Guide

Where to Keep Your Brand Style Guide

The Brand Style Guide Bundle

IX. Creating an Impeccable Client Experience

Tips on Implementing Your Brand Strategy and Identity

Everyday Communication

Stationery

Documentation

Online Marketing

Public Relations

Live Events

Advertising

Physical Space

Uniforms

Packaging

X. Beyond Branding

Business Models & Offers

Pricing Your Work

Social Impact

Company Culture

Fashion Style

Reviewing Your Brand

Closing words

Acknowledgements

References

About Nela Dunato

Index

Editorial Reviews

“The Human Centered Brand is not your typical approach to branding. It's designed specifically for heart-centered professionals and visionary souls who yearn to authentically show the world how exceptional and unique their work is. Though branding has many moving parts, Nela clearly and thoroughly explains it all in a way that anyone can understand and use to elevate their creative business to the next level. The book balances theory, practice and examples with some fun visuals and personal stories that will teach, guide, and inspire you to create a truly original brand with your core values at the center.”

– Jennifer Lee, author of The Right-Brain Business Plan

“This book reinforced something I’d been thinking about, but hadn’t heard anyone talk about: that the brand stems from who we are, not the client and what they want. This book gave me a roadmap to follow and motivation to do so, which I really appreciate. Overall, I’d recommend The Human Centered Brand for Nela’s humanity, humor, realness, and heart-centeredness! Creating one’s brand is doable and Nela’s book can help you do that at your speed.”

– Beth Barany, award-winning novelist and creativity coach for writers

“Nela Dunato has given us a valuable gift in this book. She unpacks why traditional approaches to branding feel too creepy to many creative and social impact oriented business owners. Then, she takes the reader step by step through a process that will help you land on a brand for your business that is resonate and effective with your ideal clients. The part I appreciated most about The Human Centered Brand is how granular Nela is in her suggestions – this book goes way beyond theory to practical strategies that I feel deeply aligned with and use similar practices with my own marketing clients.”

– Paul Zelizer, founder of Awarepreneurs and business coach for conscious entrepreneurs

From the Publisher