Brand Analysis…but make it LIVE!

Kassie O’Driscoll owns multiple businesses – K. Layne Solutions, Kassie Layne Photography, co-founder of ESC Conference, and the Elements Bar – and hosts a podcast, The Mastermind Mixer.

Needless to say, she is a powerhouse. But as she was building her business, she made pivots as she grew, as she moved, and as her interests changed. Nothing wrong with that – that is precisely why many entrepreneurs start their own businesses…so they can do what they want to do.

Along the way, however, when many micro-tweaks are made, it can sometimes confuse the messaging because the overall brand has been hodge-podged as it evolved.

During this podcast episode, you will hear all a LIVE brand analysis where I put myself into the shoes of Kassie’s newly defined ideal client who wants to interact with and purchase from her business.

There were multiple lightbulbs that occurred on our call. Here is a summary of those.

Brand Values & How They Impact Business

Kassie knew there was an importance surrounding business values. As she mentioned, we saw the fruits of having business values in the creation and execution of the ESC Conference. But she had never sat down and intentionally defined values for her personal brand, Kassie Layne. We began to brainstorm some of those on this live brand analysis. In fact, we even went outside of the box and threw out some unorthodox values, like celebration!

She also alluded to the possibility of new businesses being created in the future. We discussed how defining brand values for the overall personal brand of Kassie Layne could bleed into other businesses that didn’t necessarily fall under that brand, but still retained the values. This could be useful if she would want to sell that separate business in the future.

Defining Job Title

One of the questions I asked Kassie was, “When you walk into a room of new people, how do you introduce yourself?”

Kassie O’Driscoll, OBM? Kassie O’Driscoll, VA? Kassie O’Driscoll, brand photographer? Kassie O’Driscoll, wedding photographer? It’s important how you title yourself because that guides people into how they can work with you! Be specific and be confident.

Splitting Two Brands

K. Layne Solutions and Kassie Layne Photography are both “sub-businesses” or DBAs under Kassie’s overall personal brand, Kassie Layne. She had split these two brands due to their varying target audiences; however, she was feeling overwhelmed with upkeeping both brands on socials specifically. While one was thriving, another was feeling neglected and the revenue reflected that as well. Additionally, she was also trying to stay consistent over on The Mastermind Mixer account, which added another layer of responsibility to her content creation.

We talked through how she could make both of those brands “make sense” to the respective target audiences without creating a ton of extra work for herself, both on her website and social media.

Service Offerings & Brand Ecosystem

As she has pivoted within her business, so have service offerings. Kassie is now focusing on her Online Business Management, or OBM, services. She had not yet fully thought through those and what they looked like to her target audience.

I challenged her by pushing her a step further to create tiered offers at different price points. We discussed a freebie offering that could build her email list and ultimately start a funnel of warm leads for her larger ticket offers of workflow/Dubsado implementation and recurring, monthly OBM services.

Technical Branding

Kassie Layne has seen many iterations, but has never really had a solid brand identity – no defined logo, colors, and typography. Overall, this makes it difficult for a potential ideal client to pick your brand out among competitors, thus, making it difficult for them to become familiar with the brand. Without familiarity with the brand, those customers are not going to purchase.

So I encouraged Kassie to define a technical brand with logos, colors, and typography and make it consistent across all platforms! This way, when they encounter Kassie Layne, they will know it is indeed Kassie because it is the same across all platforms – website, social media, email marketing, blog, physical marketing materials, etc.

Ideal Client Identification

In the past, Kassie defined her ideal client as a “creative entrepreneur;” however, I challenged her definition of what a creative entrepreneur was and we got to the bottom of who her actual ideal client was. We re-defined her ideal client to be a “lifestyle entrepreneur” who is looking to build a business that fits his/her life. In the past she has enjoyed working with clients who own wedding venues and wineries, so we determined that her ideal client is actually someone who is “her” in a few years.

Overall, we established a new and clear direction for Kassie Layne, including K. Layne Solutions and Kassie Layne Photography throughout the course of this call. From there, I delivered a PDF that summarized everything discussed in this call, including breaking it down into priorities and action items for her to execute.

Brand Analysis & Brand Report

This call was part of my “Brand Analysis and Brand Report” service offering. It includes:
✅ On-boarding questionnaire that helps me understand your current brand/business and your goals for it
✅ In-depth research and analysis of online presence to identify inconsistencies
✅ 1-hour Brand Analysis phone call where I present my findings from my research (this is what you heard here!)
✅ PDF Brand Report recapping all items found and suggestions given during call
✅ 30-minute Brand Report call to go over document and for client to ask any remaining questions

I would love to help your brand and business achieve its next goal. Inquire today on the contact form on my website!