How to Use ZeBrand's Brand DNA

ZeBrand is a branding platform built to support emerging businesses as they grow. An essential part of building an effective brand is creating a strong brand strategy. In this article, we’ll be taking you through the why, what and how of our Strategy boards.

1. What are ZeBrand's Brand DNA?

Brand strategy can be complex and time-consuming. But it is still essential for building an effective brand and growing a business.

ZeBrand's platform makes building a brand accessible, practical and efficient for emerging businesses. There’s more to your brand than just your logo, so we’ve designed a brand strategy service that makes creating a strategy simple.

Brand DNA are a collection of interactive tools, and templates that allow you to think about your brand in a structured and efficient way. They are arranged in a way that reflects the process of creating a brand strategy and allows your team and you to come up with ideas and agree on a clear direction together.

2. What are the five stages of a brand DNA in ZeBrand's tool?

A brand strategy incorporates thinking about your business, its customers and the broader world. ZeBrand uses 4 key stages in building a brand DNA. By completing the frameworks in each stage, you gain clarity about your brand step by step.

The four stages of Brand DNA

1. ENVISION - Where your brand is today and where you want it to go

・Brand Core: Define your brand vision, values, and personality

・Business Idea: Reflect on what makes your business unique and what you want to achieve

2. EXPAND - Gathering ideas from the world around you

・Inspiration Reference: Gather inspiration and use it to enhance your brand and business

3. ELEVATE - Finding what sets you apart from the competition

・Competitive Analysis: Understand the competitive landscape and their strengths and weaknesses

・Market Positioning: Visualize your market position and find new opportunities

4. EXPRESSION - Creating a foundation for expressing your brand in words

・Messaging: Create a brand story and tell the world

3. Why use ZeBrand's Brand DNA?

Brand DNA has been designed to focus your thinking about your brand strategy and make it easier to make the link between your business model, your customers’ needs and your brand design. A Brand DNA can help in the following ways:

・Makes conversations about your brand more productive and efficient.

・Gives you structure to gather inspiration and put it all together.

・Provides you with all your brand strategy basics.

・Enables people, including non-marketers, to gain clarity and alignment about the brand.

Beyond this, filling out the Brand DNA also allows ZeBrand to generate and suggest more tailored options for your brand identity when you are using the Visual Identity.

4. How do I start?

Here are the steps to get started:

・To start using Brand DNA Frameworks, the first step is to sign up to ZeBrand. If you haven't signed up yet, get started here.

・Before starting you’ll have to fill in some basic information about your brand - it only takes a few minutes so you’ll get your brand strategy going in no time.

・You’ll now have access to the first framework. The Brand DNA frameworks have to be filled out in order as ZeBrand's Brand DNA tool follows a step-by-step process. The inputs you create for each board will be used for boards in later stages.

・Click "Edit" on the page listing the boards to start editing a particular board. If you want to see one you’ve already completed, click “See board”.

・Remember to save each board after you fill it in.

And that’s all there is to it. We hope the Brand DNA Frameworks help you along your brand journey by creating clarity around what sets you apart, your goals and how you can get there. If there’s anything you need, feel free to reach out at support@zebranding.com.