10 steps to creating a 100% Online brand

‘It’s a question you might ask yourself when you want to switch from buying and selling products to a brand. It allows you to create a real difference in the market beyond the purely merchandising aspect.
Nathalie, Pass Liberté

Step 1 – Make a list of the 5 areas that interest you most

The first question to ask yourself is: what are you interested in selling? It’s a well-known fact that affinity with a product makes it easier to talk about. If you have absolutely no idea, make a list of 5 areas that interest you and that you like. For each of these areas, list 5 problems in each theme. Once you’ve selected your product, you’ll probably go a long way with it, so you might as well like it. You’re going to have to fly your brand’s colours as high as possible!

Step 2 – List solutions

Once you’ve listed the areas you’re interested in, or even have a passion for, we’ll move on to the next stage. This time, list some solutions to the problems you’ve mentioned. Solutions that seem obvious to you and others that are less obvious, more original.

Ask yourself if there is a market for your product? Is there a demand for it? Is there competition? You can find market studies on the web. For example, if you Google ‘market in…/ sector in …./ development in…/ profitability in…’, you will generally find analyses of the sector you are targeting.

Try to ther as much data as possible. When it’s your first brand, it’s all the more important not to try to ‘reinvent the wheel’. A competitive sector is generally one where demand is high. It’s up to you to analyse whether the pie is big enough for you to take a sizeable slice.

Step 5 – Study the viability of your product

What is a viable product in e-commerce? First and foremost, it’s a product that isn’t too heavy, otherwise beware of prohibitive shipping costs. You should also avoid fragile items, made of glass for example. Packages can sometimes be jostled during transit. During peak sales periods of the year, such as Black Friday or the Christmas period, parcels can be roughed up because of the volume of parcels to be processed at logistics platforms. To avoid breakage, we therefore prefer to choose a more robust product, or at least one that is not particularly fragile.

You should also bear in mind that a smaller product will fit more easily into a standard letterbox than a bulky one. Once again, it’s a question of strategy. If you decide to have a bulky product manufactured, you will have to deal with the consequences when it comes to delivery and, in particular, after-sales service or customer support.

Step 6 – Who is your target audience?

A crucial point in your branding strategy: who will this product or service you’re planning to create be aimed at ? To find out, the first step is to talk about the idea around you and ask 10 different people if they would buy the product you’re talking about, and at what price ? This will give you an initial idea of the perceived value of your future brand.
No one can afford to market to everyone! What’s more, marketing to everyone is the same as marketing to no-one.

Find the group of people for whom your offer seems most attractive.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself to better define your target group:

• Demographic criteria (age, gender, job, marital status)
• What are their behaviours (interests, habits, emotions, preferences)?
• What are its motivations?
• What are its objectives?

By answering these questions, you can draw up a portrait of your ideal customer. Note that there may be several types of person. You can go up to 3 ‘personas’ (fictitious representations of your target) and draw up these portraits in the form of cards, giving them a first name and/or a face and describing their daily life.

Step 7 – Stand out from the competition

How are you going to stand out from the competition? We’re going further here than we did in step 2 (which was more focused on solutions). This time, we’re looking for things that will make us stand out from the crowd. This generally involves 3 criteria:

• Design: a new design is a fine way of standing out from the market.
  The aesthetics of a product are assessed by consumers at the time of purchase.
• Functionality : you provide a ‘plus’ that doesn’t exist on the market. A new function that your target audience will appreciate.
• Price: how do you position the price of your product or service? Is it cheap, or are you opting for a premium, top-of-the-range positioning?

You can opt for one of these differentiation criteria , or for all of them if you manage to stand out through design, functionality and price.

Step 8 – What positioning for your brand?

At this stage you have begun to identify the potential users of your product or service. Now it’s time to think about your brand positioning.
When you buy a brand, you’re not just buying a product.
You’re buying a concept, a world, a set of values . This is a major factor in making your brand memorable.
For example, a single word can define a brand. If we take the world of cars and well-known brands we could associate the following models with a single word or qualifier :

• Volvo : Safety
• Mercedes: prestige
• BMW: driving

Try to define your brand’s positioning as clearly as possible. For exampleyou could create a tag cloud and then identify the keywords that come up most often when you describe your brand.

Step 9 – Start building a community

Now it’s time to start validating the market. If you absolutely don’t want to take any risks, the aim here will be to start building a community around your theme. The theme will inevitably be a little broader than your product itself. For example, if you’re going to sell T-shirts for surfers, start by creating an account around this theme, this passion.

Choose a platform, a social network where your target is located. It could be Instagram, a highly visual lifestyle network. Go for Pinterest if you’re in the decoration, fashion, beauty, wellbeing, gardening or DIY (do it yourself) sector. Tik Tok can also be a good option if you’re into entertainment, and Linkedin if your target is more B to B. Creating a podcast on your theme can also be a very good idea. In all cases, aim for regular publication.

This strategy has two major strengths. Not only will it allow you to see whether or not there is interest in your theme , but you will also be able to survey your community about the brand you want to create. If you see growing interaction, it’s time to collect the emails of people interested in your next launch. To do this, create a landing page (see our video on lead magnets).
That way, you’ll have customers as soon as you launch!

Step 10 – Give your brand a name

Choose a name for your brand that reflects the world you have defined. I would draw your attention to the fact that you should look at the foreign language translations of the names you have in mind. If you’re not careful, the names you choose may have strange meanings or pejorative connotations (e.g. Veepee).

The advantage once you’ve started building your community, is that you can ask your target audience what they think of the name you’ve selected. You can also consider a survey and collect their opinions.

Bear in mind that for a brand to be memorable it’s best if its name is easy to remember. Short names are therefore preferable. The name can be meaningful, abstract, original, or arouse curiosity. Conversely, a brand name should not be literal or try to tell your whole story.

Through the name of your brand, you want to convey an idea of what your product is. At this stage, the exercise will be to try to find 15 different names. Make a list, then find synonyms and narrow the list down to 3-5 names.