Article by Ruchira Khanna, a member of the Congress of Rough Writers.
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Branding!
It’s everywhere.
Rolex, Nestle, Audi, Coach, Tommy Filger, Hanes, Revlon, Prada, Bentley, GE, Kenmore, Maytag, Toyota, Mercedes, and the list goes on…
In fact, companies decide on a product, a brand logo and then go on about manufacturing their product. Such is the importance of a name and logo.
As a manufacturer, a brand is a window for him to peep outside and get noticed by consumers as he advertises his product on his website or a social media outlet, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Branding just doesn’t happen; it has to be thought about and well planned since ultimately that’s how the consumers will picture you.
Some useful advantages for having a brand are:
- It helps give you a platform for ease, reliability and a recognition of what you stand for once you vouch for it, with ardor and passion.
- Branding can put you in the limelight by setting you apart from the crowd that has that same product. You are given a stage where you can continue to exhibit your passion to thousands or millions of like-minded people who agree with the formation of your goods created.
- Your brand once showcased well, can bring like-minded people together who would love to use your product, thus broadening your consumership.
- Depending on your brand and the inspiration it can draw to your buyers. It can help motivate them and assist them to reach out high goals in their lives via the incentive of your A-rated product.
- If your brand has been able to create a good and loyal consumership, chances are they will recommend your work to others while you just continue to be in the production line.
- A strong brand will give a vision to the users on what to expect while easing the stress of the brand owner as he/she has been able to reproduce it with each production.
- If you stick to your brand. If you are loyal to your brand, chances are your consumers will also be loyal to you!
- This is your brand and your promise that you keep production after production. Thus, keeping your promise to your customers.
- Creating a brand not only helps create loyal consumers, but also helps the producer to stay focused on his/her goal of creating best product to sustain the reputation of the brand name.
- Once your feet are soaked in your brand, it will help you connect with your consumers on all levels as they have gotten used to using your name.
Aha! The importance of branding.
It helps differentiate the goods and services from other sellers while clearly delivering the message while confirming your credibility thus, creating user loyalty over time as your solid brand is motivating buyers to purchase the product.
This same fundamental applies to a serious writer who wants to succeed: branding himself to get recognition and be able to eventually sell books.
A writer has to analyze his write-ups and the subjects he is passionate to write about. He has to ponder over the kind of stories he likes to tell, narrate or serve to his readers. Eventually, that will help him attract the kind of readers that love to read such topics.
Typically genre comes first, and branding follows that. The brand has to exist within the genre the writer pens his words.
Some examples could be: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a writer of a fictional genre, but it revolves around detective/mystery. He gave birth to Sherlock Holmes in his write ups that are still looked upon. Could brand this author as a “The detective writer.”
Nora Roberts published her first book in 1981, and since then she has not turned back. Thanks to her 594K followers she has been nicknamed by The New Yorker as, ” America’s favorite novelist.”
Although she would be branded under, “The romance writer.”
As a writer/author decides upon the theme of his book before penning it down. Have a certain topic in mind prior to penciling it down. Frame your characters and plot if planning to write fiction or a subject relevant to the theme if working on non-fiction. Climb the ladder gradually of plotting and scheming as you cling onto the topic of the book. Towards the end when you have published that work, you will be representing that particular brand.
For instance: “The ——– writer.”
The dash could fill in romantic, mysterious, inspirational, dramatic, comic, lover of life, etc.
After branding yourself; making your own website and showcase your brand by publicizing over the media.
“The adventurous writer” will be easily remembered and when searched upon, like-minded readers will be able to connect the dots via the author/writer’s website, and that would result in clicks on your book links, and voila! you have readers craving for that brand by following it with as much passion as you the writer continues to pen down words fervently.
Once a name has been established thanks to the various social media outlets, with a respectable number of readership; the chances are that along with the readers, a literary agent, and a reputed publishing house could also get drawn to your charismatic brand name.
Aha! The journey that unfolds when a writer decides upon a particular brand name! No doubt there is sweat, dedication, passion and lots of marketing involved from the writer/author.
But, in the end, it is all worth it!
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Ruchira Khanna is just another soul trying to make a difference in this lifetime by juggling between her passion and responsibilities. A Biochemist turned Writer who draws inspiration from various sources and tries to pen them down to create awareness within her and the society. She’s the author of Choices, Voyagers into the Unknown, and a children’s book, The Mystery of the Missing Iguana. Ruchira has published her latest fiction-drama novel titled, Breathing Two Worlds 
available on amazon world-wide.
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Platform is a series that discusses the balance between craft and creation. It’s a writer’s sum total of visibility comprised of branding, community, credibility and target audience. An author markets product (books, blog, podcasts, workshops) from a platform. This series offers tips from experienced authors, publishers and marketers specific to all writers interested in building a platform and selling books and related products. If you have an article to share with the community of writers at Carrot Ranch, pitch to Charli Mills, Lead Buckaroo, at wordsforpeople@gmail.com.
Ruchira, first of all, congratulations on your latest novel! Your author’s website look sharp and professional. Nice job of branding. 😉 Thank you for sharing your knowledge of branding, an important component to the writer’s platform. You kicked off our Platform series nicely! It will be a good balance to Raw Literature so we can talk about both creation and marketing.
Thank you Charli for this opportunity to showcase my thoughts and my publication.
I am blessed to be a member of the Congress of Rough Writers. Thank you for your love n support. xo
The feeling is mutual, Ruchira! <3
Agreed! Great job on your site. Looks very nice (and love that photo of you). 🙂 Congrats on Breathing Two Worlds.
I really like that photo, too!
I’ve been trying to figure out for years how to categorize my writing, and therefore my writing identity. The closest genre description that seems to apply to me is literary, but I always thought that sounded pretentious. I’ll just keep writing until I figure it out. 🙂
My hope at Carrot Ranch is to make us all more comfortable with the word literary. 🙂 We are literary artists, and I say that without pretentious intent; more so we create with words. Yet, I understand your struggle to categorize your writing into a genre. That’s an issue of distribution and marketing.
If you walked into a library or bookstore, where would you find what you write? That’s the issue librarians and booksellers have. Sometimes that can help define your writing genre. If not, then it’s likely literary or commercial fiction. You can look at books in those categories to get a sense of where it fits. This is important to marketing.
As for branding, your brand is you, the writer. It can be tricky to define, especially if your genre is not distinct. Yet it’s also fun to cultivate. What aspects of you, the person, do you want to share with your readers? Often readers want to relate to writers and authenticity matters, unless you are developing a persona (and you should say so). I really was born a buckaroo. While I don’t ride horses or ranch, it’s an important aspect of cultural identity to me. Plus I know the lingo and can have fun with the terms, like wrangling words.
Some authors choose to be Professional Author, and their branding would be similar to how you might cultivate a reputation as a CEO or other professional. In that case “fun” and casual conversation might not fit your brand of interaction. Some writers define their brand by region and this might be important if you publish with a regional press. I consider myself a western writer, not so much as writing in a Zane Gray style, but because western place and thought features deeply in my writing, and ties back to my buckaroo roots.
Hope you find that helpful and thank you for commenting on Ruchira’s article!
Thank you for your very through response! My work would be in the fiction section, and I lean toward literary because I write fine and hope that my work will stand the test of time. Most of my fiction takes in the swath of California that starts in San Francisco, goes down to San Jose/Silicon Valley (where I grew up), and ends in Santa Cruz (where I live now). I also wrote a short story that takes place in the Arizona desert at a Native American reservation (it’s my favorite!).
I’m also writing, producing, and directing a live drama anthology for the local community television station. Seems as good a medium to get my work out as any other because more people watch TV than read. 😀
You are doing exciting work, Robert! I would also consider you to be a writer of the West. Writing for television (including Amazon, Netflix, Hulu) is a thriving industry right now.
Hi Robert…Good to know you via CarrotRanch…we are practically neighbors 🙂 I live in the San Jose/Silicon Valley.
I agree with Charli’s thoughts and good luck to you as we all tread upon this literary journey.
Thank you very much, Ruchira! Glad to make your acquaintance. I’m actually in San Jose right now visiting my girlfriend. Though I left SJ back in ’95, it is still close to my heart, and the subject of much of my fiction. I have a serialized novel about 1990 SJ on my site.
Silicon Valley is a special place, but oh so pricey. Happy writing!
Ruchira, Congratulations on your publishing and branding success. I agree with Charli and Sarah that your website looks great and your photo, lovely. You make branding sound so simple. I wish success followed easily on. Thanks for sharing your insights.
I can see Ruchira’s technical writing skills shine through in this article.
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