Starting A Business Abroad: What Is Your Brand?

Posted on 01. Jan, 2010 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Expat Entrepreneurs, Expat Life
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The first thing that comes to mind when you think about a brand is “logo”. That’s just a tiny part of your overall brand, though.

What is a brand, really?

My favourite definition of a brand is that it’s a promise of consistency that you make to your clients – in other words, when they see your brand, they know what to expect.

When you’re just starting out, potential clients don’t have many ways to know what you’re all about. They haven’t dealt with you before. They haven’t heard anything – good or bad – via word of mouth.

It’s up to you to earn their trust, show them that they’re in good hands, and swing them in your favour.

What is your brand?

What do you want your potential clients to take away from your website? What kind of flavour do you want to add to their interaction with your company (yes, flavour – no one wants bland)?

As an expat, being a foreigner will likely be part of your brand. How big of a part is entirely up to you.

If your nationality actually enhances your professional credibility – you’re an Italian fashion designer, a French pastry chef, or an American fitness trainer – by all means let the world know about it! Likewise, if you work with fellow expats or location-independent professionals, be sure to emphasize that you have a global mindset yourself.

On the other end of the spectrum, your background may only play a minimal role in your brand – for instance if you feel so completely at home in your host country that you don’t identify as an expat anymore.

In that case, you can take one of your personality traits, or even one of your quirks, and make it the focus of your brand – the more distinctive, the better.

Whatever you do, create a brand that truly reflects who you are and how you work. Don’t try too hard to be “cool”, or “super-efficient”, or “a mover and shaker”. I guarantee you there’s room for everyone in this world, so be genuine.

The marketing sin you don’t want to commit

One marketing sin destroys trust faster than you can blink: inconsistency.

The last thing potential clients want is to visit your minimalist, elegantly laid-out website, then come back a week later, only to be assaulted by jarring colours, pop-up windows and hard-sell copy full of yellow highlighter.

OK, that was an extreme example, but you understand what I mean. You can’t promise clients high-quality, premium products and have a two-bit logo that you made with one of those online generators. You cannot emphasize your attention to detail in your About Me page, and have a website full of dead links and typos.

Everything – from your visual identity, to your website content, to the personal information you reveal on Twitter – has to work together to provide a coherent experience for your clients.

When this experience is consistent over time, you have a brand.

At least that’s how I see it – what’s your take on the subject?

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Emmanuelle

Images via internetmarketing101.org (top) and Iain Tait (bottom), via Flickr Creative Commons