In my mood board activity, I pulled out some key concepts that I knew my brand would center around, and I decided it would be a good idea to define not only what these words mean to me, but also how they relate back to Slumber & Scones. So let’s dig into my new brand words: Whimsical Playful and fanciful, imaginative and full of life, color, and joy. Whimsy shows itself unexpectedly, and ephemerally, in pops of brightness: a single bold rose on a wooden table, a sparkler against a dark sky. Whimsy is orange, teal, and purple. Romantic In the traditional coupling sense, and also the sense of imagination. Romance appears delicately and subtly as a softness: a delicate layer of snow at sunrise, two hands resting atop each other. Romance is cream, pale blue, and rose gold. Adventurous
An eagerness to face nature, respect but not fear for the unknown. Adventure can be seen as the overarching backdrop as big and sweeping: a grand mountain range, the chase of a gigantic dream. Adventure is kelly green, navy, and wood grain.
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Once I had developed my reader persona, I created a mind map of a few things she loves: walking around cute downtown neighborhoods and popping in and out of local shops; eating artisan chocolates and going to olive oil tastings; wearing a sundress and swinging hands while skipping with a friend. And I started thinking about some words that could describe her, and pairing those words in interesting ways to come up with brand concepts:
I want the brand to include aspects of nature, since b&b’s tend to be located in more out-of-the-way places; but also an air of romance, since they tend to make great couple’s getaways. I created three mood boards with images I thought fit into each of the brand concepts: Romantic AdventureFeminine SpontaneityRustic WhimsyBut I realized through looking these boards over, that it wasn’t about choosing one concept, but about combining the best of each. My reader is feminine, she’s whimsical, and she’s romantic. I needed to incorporate all of these into my brand. It was back to create another mood board.
Inspiration images from Unsplash. Branding is tough. I have a bit of background in design and creative writing, so I decided to go the way of branding Slumber & Scones myself. After all, I came up with this name that was really resonating with me, surely I could brand it as well.
Harder than it sounds - trust me! Brand needs to be a mesh between the blog and the audience, but I didn’t have an audience yet. So I decided to start there - who did I want to be reading this blog? Women, easily. Twenty-somethings, because that’s what I am and can easily relate? Probably someone interested in the things behind a b&b, right? So we have the generic fan base of millennial women interested in cooking, decor, storytelling, and travel. Great. Oh well, maybe niche is overrated. But then I realized - I do have a niche. It’s just subtle. I want my readers to be the type of person who would choose a bed and breakfast over the generic hotel. I want them to be the type who prefers a cozy themed room over name recognition. Who chooses a home cooked meal over continental breakfast. Who awakens ready to swap stories with strangers. Who needs to escape sometimes and spend some quiet evenings in the country. My girl has a persona. She’s not generic. And then the brand just started to unfold. When I first got the idea to start a new blog, I figured I’d probably name it after myself. I have a pretty solid collection of abandoned blogs full of Kait puns:
The other concept I played around with was naming the blog similar to how an actual b&b would be named. I thought of some I’ve visited, and they seemed to fit into a few categories:
I made a list of all the words I could think of for each: chaise, cozy, dreams, lullabies, sleep, springs, threadcount & bacon, cinnamon, omelette, pancakes, pastry, yogurt. Then I combined some into alliterative pairs, and narrowed it down to six I liked:
So Slumber and Scones was born. I think it does the job. |