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In blogs over the past year, I have broken down some of the key elements of branding for your service-driven small business:

Your USP: Unique Selling Proposition. 

Thoughts on positioning your business. 

Perfecting your “elevator pitch.” 

What do your brand colors say about you? 

What’s your brand personality? 

Does your small business need a tagline? 

Next, let me add something else for you to think about as you create a lasting brand: your brand affiliation. 

Your brand affiliation is the “club” that your customers join when they engage with your small business. What does it say about them that they chose to do business with you?

Understanding this group that buys from you – and what connects them – can pay dividends for your brand.

A Few Examples of “Brand Clubs”

Sometimes, a brand’s communications make their desired brand affiliation clear. When The Home Depot ends its commercials with the tagline, “Where doers get more done,” they are giving a name to their brand affiliation: Doers. They want people to feel good about tackling do-it-yourself projects. And “doers” sounds like a positive club to belong to, right? 

Or take L.L.Bean, as another example. Their slogan invites customers to “Be an Outsider.” It’s a clever riff on “insider,” capturing the essence of L.L.Bean’s outdoorsy brand. When you buy their clothing or gear, you can self-identify as an “Outsider.” That’s the club you join as an L.L.Bean customer.

Now, to be clear, these aren’t “clubs” in the literal sense – it’s not a loyalty program for customers, for example. But even if the “club” is imaginary, the viewpoint can have real-world effects. When Disney trains its staff to think of fellow employees as “cast members” and its customers (even at retail stores) as “guests,” that has a profound impact on the way that Disney staff members interact with others.

In the instances above, brands such as The Home Depot and L.L.Bean spell out their brand affiliation. But, more often, this brand affiliation doesn’t get said overtly. Brands want their customers to see themselves as members of the brand’s “club,” but they leave the name of the club unsaid.

The passengers shown on Virgin Atlantic’s website are hip-looking and kinda glam – it’s easy to want to be like those jetsetters (the brand club) without Virgin ever using that word. Similarly, Airbnb may never observe outright that staying with a local makes you a traveler, not a tourist (the brand club), but it’s the implicit promise of their tagline, “Belong anywhere.” 

The point is, how you think about your customers matters. You may (or may not) make your brand affiliation client-facing. But knowing what unites your customers will help you talk to them.

Some Brand Affiliations to Consider

I’ve included a list of 50 possible brand affiliations below, to get your juices flowing. Notice a few things about these descriptors:

Positive

Most of us would be glad to be considered a member of a club such as “Brainiacs” or “Supermoms.”

Aspirational

If you aspire to be a “Thoughtful Gift-Giver” (see the list below), you might do business with a custom jewelry-maker, for example. In other words, you want to engage with a brand because of what it says about you as its customer.

Not All Real Words

Yep, some of these brand affiliations are made-up words, such as “outdoers.” (Think folks who want to outdo last year’s holiday party – or outdo the neighbors’ party.) Coined brand affiliations are fair game. It’s all about illuminating who your customers really are.

Not Necessarily Customer-Facing

Like we discussed above, you might (or might not) use this description in your communications – it depends on the brand affiliation. If you’re a high-end college admissions consultant, you might signal that your audience is those who aspire to attend top-tier schools, along with their parents. (See “Would-be Ivy Leaguers” below.) But if you’re a party planner working with hosts who have a million things to figure out, it would be better instead to simply project confidence and calm. You wouldn’t call them “harried hosts,” even if you understand that’s what motivates them!

One last thing: This list is just for reference, to wrap your head around ways to refer to your brand’s core audience. Feel free to borrow wording from this list, or make up your own brand affiliation.

Artsy types.
Big spenders.
Brainiacs.
Budget hawks.
Business-builders.
Careerists.
Choosy travelers. 
Comeback kids.
Couples of deep faith.
Deal-finders.
Discerning grooms.
Go-getters.
Granola gals.
Gym rats.
Harried hosts.
Iconoclasts.
Influencers.

Lacrosse dads.
Midlife career-switchers.
New chapter writers.
Old-schoolers.
Overachievers.
Party people.
Proud to be nerds.
Rebels.
Savvy spenders.
Scrappy solopreneurs.
Showboats.
Social butterflies.
Sports freaks.
Strictly business.
Strivers.
Suburban hipsters.
Supermoms.

The Comic-Con crowd.
The cool moms.
The driven.
The in crowd.
The Insta-famous.
The NPR crowd.
The outdoers.
The reinventors.
The street smart.
Those in the know.
Thoughtful gift-givers.
Tree-huggers.
Visionaries.
Worker bees.
Would-be Ivy Leaguers.
#van-lifers.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

As a service-driven small business owner, you want to give thought to your key audience. You should know demographic details (age range, background, income bracket, etc.) as well as psychographic details (personality type, what motivates them, turnoffs, etc.).

Brand affiliation counts among those psychographic details. What does it say about them when they do business with you? What “club” do they join?

Finding an apt descriptor for your “brand club” will help you picture your ideal customer. Really understanding who’s listening can inform the story your brand has to tell.

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