We say it all the time, and we’re here to say it again: your brand is not just your logo. Your brand is the feeling that someone gets when they interact with any part of your company- from seeing an ad, landing on your website, or receiving an email about their trip. Your brand should be thought of as the all-encompassing external perception.

We’re sharing insight from our Creative Director and branding genius/ brand match-maker, Amandolin Webb. Amandolin takes a psychological approach to brand development to ensure that your branding is aligned with your travel business and ideal client.

As a note, we broke this episode into two parts because we just couldn’t contain all the information into one session. Make sure you tune in for both parts in order to get all the juicy insight that we shared!

Part One:

Humble beginnings

Jennifer did not have any clue what a brand kit was when she started Explorateur. She bought a $5 logo on Fiverr and the website was built by a designer who picked the colors and fonts (free of charge, which is still baffling). What we’re saying is that if you are new to the concept of a brand kit, you’re not alone.

Meanwhile, Robin had a much deeper knowledge of the concept since she had been in a true marketing role.

Niching down

For a long time, Jennifer thought that anyone that liked to travel, wanted to travel, or has ever traveled was her target audience. What she didn’t understand was that there were niches, which would allow her to be more successful. It quickly became obvious to Jennifer and Robin that trying to plan every type of travel was distracting them from becoming a true specialist in one area. It actually took them getting referrals of similar travel styles to realize the age demographic, personality, trip style, and interests of their ideal client.

The creation of the “Defining Your Dream Client” worksheet

The “Defining Your Dream Client” guide was created by Robin back when the concept of TIQUE came about. We knew our ideal client, but needed a better way of making some brand messaging around that niche. Not only did we find that this worksheet worked for our business, but we quickly realized that this was a resource for travel advisors. We recommend taking what you find in the worksheet and researching what that translates to as far as branding is concerned; look at the psychology and the psychology of different fonts. Once you do so, you’ll be able to make sure you’re selecting aesthetic elements that are aligned with your ideal clients – elements that will catch their eye and that they’ll feel a connection to.

How we work

Tique requires homework from our branding clients. The branding questionnaire that we give our design clients as homework really helps me to get a clear picture of who their ideal client is. We’re looking at the demographics and psychographics of their ideal clients – What’s their personality like? Where are they hanging out? What other brands are they gravitating towards? What’s important to them? What are they willing to pay more for?

We also require clients to complete a Pinterest board is my favorite part of the client homework, which allows our Creative Director to combine their answers with imagery. Amandolin takes a psychological approach to match-making the type of client that a business owner wants to target and combining it with the aesthetic that they are drawn to.

To sum it up

It really boils down to this: If you’re able to study your ideal clients and tailor the aesthetics and messaging of your brand to stand out and appeal to those specific people, it’s going to be a lot easier to sell to them, create loyal customers, and ultimately be more successful…which is something that everyone in the travel industry (or any industry) wants for their business.

What we would love for people to take away is, you don’t have to have a major investment to know who you are marketing to. These are easy things that you can do to help you be more intentional with your marketing. If you are currently at a place where a Canva logo and free fonts are all that’s in the budget- that’s fine, but select your colors, fonts, and logo with a purpose. Utilize them consistently throughout everything – emails, social media, etc. without exception.

When you’re ready to enhance your brand, we’d love it if you considered hiring Tique.

We are as passionate about your branding as you are, and we genuinely celebrate the wins when we hear that our clients are now capturing the interest of their dream clients.