EP 12 | Brand Substance as the Foundation of Your Brand Strategy

Build a brand that actually sticks. In this solo Brand Bites episode (Part 1 of the Forever Framework), we unpack Brand Substance—the core of your brand strategy. You'll get 3 must-ask questions every founder needs to pressure-test positioning, plus a new tool to craft an un-copyable difference (link in show notes).
What you'll learn
• How "substance before style" accelerates marketing ROI
• The 3 questions that expose weak positioning fast
• A practical tool to make your brand's difference un-copyable
Who it's for: Startup founders, consultants, creators, and SMB leaders across North America who want a no-fluff brand strategy.
FREE TOOL ! YOUR DIFFERENTIATION KIT : Usehttps://bit.ly/49WWpf8this tool and tag us with your "un-copyable difference." on Instagram @thinkbrandforward .

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Shivani is a Brand Strategist , Founder of Think Brand Forward and host of this podcast- a space and studio for entrepreneurs who want substance-led brands. She helps founders clarify positioning, craft un-copyable differentiation, and translate strategy into simple, repeatable marketing—so they can stand out, charge what they're worth, and scale with focus. Learn more : www.thinkbrandforward.com_____________________________________

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Could a competitor steal your homepage headline and still make sense? If yes, you need a better differentiation. I'm including a free tool in my show notes which has my only Soyu formula to justify your premium pricing instantly. Head the show notes and grab it now.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Today we are doing something special. Hey family, welcome back. This is part one of six spinner series that I'm starting today. And I'm very, very excited about it because this is where every great brand begins, but where most founders fail. So when I have so many female founders, entrepreneurs, small business owners coming to me and discussing about their brand strategy, this is where I hold them first, ask questions which help them further see the value that this framework brings to them. This is an eight-week container program with this very strong six pillars. The first pillar we're discussing today is substance. If you've ever looked as a founder at your website, Instagram, or LinkedIn page, but did not feel anything, how does that make you feel? You have this amazing logo that you paid so much money for, you have a great caption, which you hired somebody to write something for, you have another salesperson who's doing all the bitch, but everything feels hollow. Like you print dress up in someone else's business. So I use the outside in trap, right? This is the outside in trap, and I use people and I hold them in this space and ask them questions because this is where a lot of founders are looking at their businesses from an outside in perspective. Oh wow, this is trending, this is what I need. I should build on this. This is where all the TikTok and IG population is going. So let me build that. That's the outside in trap. And I really need to anchor the founder in this space because most people start with packaging, the fonts, colors, look. But in the container, we do the opposite. We build from the inside out. Because if the substance isn't there, the marketing will eventually fail. There's no truth behind the promise you're making. Very recently, I was sitting across a salesperson from one of the brands I have been following for the last formost one or two years. Honestly, because the founder is so active on all the platforms. I eventually wanted to actually buy the product because I believe in the founder stories and and the brand that they're creating. And when I sat across the salesperson, I was so disappointed. Everything the founder stands for, everything he's talking about, the experience I had interacting with the salesperson was exactly the opposite. So being based here in Fremont and Silicon Valley, I already see these empty shell syndromes everywhere. You know, we we live in scale at all cost culture. The pressure is on to get the product out, get the funding, look big, hire more salespeople. I mean, having like just the experience I'm talking about, I'm sure someone has, you know, bought into the skincare line or some kind of a food and beverage product because it's it's been the inspiring stories and minimalistic looks and this cool girl vibe when we cave into it. But then maybe there's a crisis, right? Then supply chain issue, there's a customer complaint. And that time, the customer's interaction with the brand, the response is so generic. They don't have a not start, the brand strategy, the brand culture to their entire team, because it shows when you're interacting with the when in it in times of crisis, the lack of compassion or intention in their way to repair whatever has gone wrong shows that the brand substance was not put in place in every call, every training, every handout that was given out, so that the teams could not function when it was time to show the brand substance, the brand culture. So without substance, you aren't a brand, you're just a product with a fancy label. Products are replaceable, brands with substance are unforgettable. What is brand substance and what actually makes brand substance? In my framework, I try to divide it and make it easy to look at it from three specific things, right? Number one, what are your core values? And not the values that you put up on a board, like you know, I don't know, courage, and there's like a flying eagle. Like, what does that even mean? It means nothing. It's just uh a cultural value that you've put, which cannot be put into action. So as the founder, as a decision maker at the top level, what are your core values? And those are not just words, right? As I said, courage, integrity, quality. They are how you make hard decisions. If you say your value is radical transparency, and in a in a situation there is a shipment that's got delayed, you don't hide, right? You send an honest email to your customers before they even ask. That is substance in action. You have the the value is again, I'll take courage as an example because Brene Brown is my favorite. Courage is, for example, you have a team member coming in late every every morning this week. You obviously confronted the team member, and the team member felt that they can be courageous enough to tell you the reason. It could be as simple as self-care. Like, I'm sorry, I've had to hit the gym this morning. My body is not functioning well, I really need to take care of my body before I can take care of the business. That kind of brand culture, that kind of brand substance that you bring to your employees will reflect in what they bring to your customers. So your core values are not words written on the wall, they are values that you live by. Maybe you have people who are heading teams accountable for these values. Maybe you have KPIs for these values of how you demonstrated these values to your team members. So I really think core values are something that you can not just, it's not fluff. You can't just whip it up and write something. There needs to be real work that goes into it. Part two is like the big why, right? This is your soul. This is the soul of your company. Why does your company even exist besides making money? This is my favorite because I've in the past worked with a lot of people who are very clear they are here to just make money at any cost. It's a very surface-level belief system that they're trying to project. At the end of it, they're all just because you know that's the idea. Oh, we're all here to make money. What else are we here for? I'm sure that'll make you money. So if you're starting a business, that's not a good enough reason to employ so many people and affect so many lives. And you are in the capacity to impact lives. Why would you just restrict the big why to being profitable? I know this is going a bit spiritual, but I really feel that. Like, for example, if you sell organic baby clothes, is it just about the cotton or the bamboo that you're using? Or is it about protecting the next generation's health? You know, when you know your why. Recently interacted with somebody who makes bamboo clothing for babies because they want babies to sleep, not soaking wet. If the bamboo helps the cloth remain dry. Good sleep for baby means good sleep for mother, happy mother, which is so important in the child's life, more than a perfect mother. That's your why. The more you pitch into it, the more you deep dive into it, you are really talking to the real audience with your own pain and your own why that you suffered through. That's the why that you need to talk about when you're trying to build the brand substance, the brand culture. The third thing is the target transformation. Who are you really serving and how do they change? Because I know that it's very simple to think of transformation as before-after, and boom, that's it, right? I really feel transformation cannot be restricted to the before-after specifics. It's almost like black and white example. You don't just sell planners, they can fill in to journals and their daily habits, but what you're actually selling is the mental piece a woman finally feels in control of her day, right? That's the transformation is the substance of your brand. The entire act of writing or journaling is taking control of the narrative first in your own head because that's where you first live. Your journal is just a means to the end of taking control of your narrative, of your day, which actually builds you to take stronger decisions. I love journaling, I journal every day. So that's the transformation we're talking about. And there's no beer before after. It's not like before the journal, I was a mess, and the moment I got the journal, I'm this perfect Buddha picture. No, that transformation is very superficial. And that's why we need to talk about transformation in so much depth as an entrepreneur, as a leader. You need to sit down and work on it with a deep, deep research. So I know that you will say that, yeah, this all sounds great, very philosophical, but you know, this doesn't make numbers for me. Where is the profit here? And I want to flip that narrative. And why substance is equal to profit? Let's get real about numbers. Why does this matter for your bank account? When you have substance, you stop being a commodity. Hear that again. When you have substance, you stop being a commodity. Look at two coffee shops, Starbucks, this $5 for coffee. You go and you buy that. And maybe in your neighborhood, there's a coffee shop that is supporting women-owned farmers somewhere in Venezuela or South America. They use compostable packaging, they host community workshops and charge $9 for coffee. People and pay it happily. Why? Because they aren't buying just caffeine, they are buying the substance of the brand. When you go deep into your positioning and substance in my container program, we aren't just making you feel better about your business, we are making you more profitable. This kind of clarity helps you charge 2x, 3x more when you sell a mission, not just a product. A, you already heard about my differentiator sheet. Go in my show notes, check it out, download it, see what it brings to you. But I really want you to do something today: microaction. Open your notes app on your phone right now, write down three values your brand would die for. Not the ones that look good on the website, but the ones you actually live by. If you can't name them in 30 seconds, you have a substance problem. And that's okay. That's why I'm here. Next week, we're moving into the pillar positioning. We're going to talk about how to stop being one of the many people and start being the only choice category of one. Alright, guys, to your clarity, I'm Shivani, and I'll see you in the next episode.