Michelle Thompson- Small Business Branding: How to Stand Out without Spending a Fortune

In this episode of the Blue Shirt Leadership Podcast, we welcome Michelle Thompson. Michelle is an accomplished brand strategist and creative director with over 20 years of experience building market leader brands with Procter & Gamble and most recently with start-up companies through her company, BrandSpark. Today, Michelle shares valuable insights and tips on branding for businesses. She highlights the significance of conducting a brand audit, understanding customer feedback, and making changes when necessary. Michelle advises businesses to take measured steps and have some runway to ensure their brand is resonating and reinforcing growth. She also offers advice on how small businesses can build a strong brand and bring their team together to work towards a common goal. 

Show Notes:

The Significance of Branding [00:01:31] Michelle explains why branding is important for businesses and how it affects the top and bottom lines of a company.

Conducting a Brand Audit [00:04:09] Michelle shares tips on how to conduct a brand audit, including putting all branded communications in one place and asking clients about the biggest value they see in the business.

Auditing the Competition [00:07:47] Michelle suggests auditing the competition as part of the brand audit process to see where the business stands and to create a common adversary for the team to work against.

When to Make a Brand Change [00:08:31] Kyle and Michelle discuss indicators of when a business needs to make some brand changes and how much change is needed based on where the business stands.

Educating Customers on Brand Change [00:10:22] Michelle gives listeners tips on how to communicate a brand change to customers and the importance of reinforcing a brand change with additional news.

Articulating Point of Difference [00:12:18] Importance of being able to articulate a business's point of difference on paper and in two sentences before investing in a brand refresh.

Connect with Michelle at thebrandevaluator.com to learn more about how she can help your business.