Having a solid brand is key to running a successful business. Your branding is the first thing your clients will think of when they assess your offering. It determines how you message your products, how customers will perceive your and how likely they will be to purchase. How and why this happens is based on a theory called brand association.

So, what does brand association even mean?

Brand association is the psychology of how a consumer thinks about a brand, based on tangible and intangible things alike. When discovering a new brand, customers subconsciously categorize them based on things like the emotion they feel, the images they see, and what connections that brand has to others they may more closely recognize. Even at the very early stages of discovery, when thinking of a brand they are aware of, they immediately and subconsciously recall these categorizations and predetermine their opinion of said brand.

Did you know it takes consumers, on average, .05 seconds to determine if they like a website enough to stay, according to Bright Local Study? In addition, consumers spend nearly 6 seconds looking at a website’s main image, in contrast to spending almost equal time reading a website’s written content. We were not surprised to read these, as collated by Tonic Site Shop, as it confirms that visuals are so important to your brand.

What you want for your wedding business: Potential customers to associate positive feelings towards your company and offering, have a clear understanding of what to expect when hiring you, and recognize value that justifies the prices for your services/products.

Pillars of brand association

Visuals/design

“Unlike sound or tactile cues, visual elements can be applied across a multitude of platforms and formats, allowing them to be present at every brand touchpoint.” -- Latana

The look of your brand. This includes your logo, website design, email interface, business cards, sales materials, and yes for sure the actual aesthetic of your work.

Visual representation is one of the first, and most impactful ways that a customer makes immediate assumptions about a brand.

Language

“Brand language is the body of terms, phrases, and words that a company uses to describe both themselves and their products. It is a marketing strategy used to help consumers identify and strike connections between specific words and a given product. “ -- OnDemandCMO

The examples that this article use are specific coined terms like “Magic Kingdom”, “15%”, and “Just do it.” -- can you think of the respective brands immediately? Yep. Disney, Geico, and Nike.

The language you use helps gives life to the visuals you put out there. Language also starts to paint the story of a brand, giving it longevity, and personality. When tweaking your wedding business language, perhaps you can consider phrases and words that a) are natural to you and b) convey feelings of happiness, luxury, celebration, and timelessness. All emotions/values that are crucial on a wedding day.

Once you’ve built your brand, and succeeded in positive brand association - it’s time to think about brand equity. Brand equity is the value of being a well-known, recognized or respected brand and, in having high brand equity, being able to generate more revenue than your competitors because of this status.

Cashing in on Your Brand Equity

As a wedding vendor, there’s a number of ways you can increase your brand equity - by working with other well-known and respected vendors or venues, by producing wow-worthy content that is naturally viral and by partnering with publications who have large followings that closely match the type of client you aspire to reach.

Here at Style Me Pretty, we call this - being in good company and here are a few ways partnering with Style Me Pretty amps up your brand equity.

Venues

Regularly show off your work that took place at your ideal venues (hot tip: or create work at these ideal venues!). Constantly put your business in the same lens as your ideal locations - this subconsciously reinforces the idea that you can create work that aligns with this venue.

Fellow vendors

Regularly show off work that you’ve done alongside other vendors that fall within your ideal range and share images/events with the aesthetic you’re aiming for.

Memberships

Part of the LBB’s job is to reach out and give your brand a hug as your potential client is walking by (or cruising the internet or the ‘gram). This reinforces credibility (there is an application process), aesthestic (you’re connected with SMP who has a strong brand identity as well in romantic, classic, and elevated weddings). The other vendors in the LBB also elevate your brand’s credibility.

We’d love to really dive into this topic with all of you so please feel free to reach out either in our DMs (via @smplittleblackbook on IG) or at lbb@stylemepretty.com!

Cover image by LBB member Rebecca Yale