
Brand and Butter
The straight-talking branding podcast for leaders who refuse to settle.
Brand and Butter delivers no-BS advice on how psychology, strategy, and design create brands that work. Host Tara Ladd, founder of Your One & Only brand design studio, breaks down the real influence and power of branding – how understanding behaviour and cultural shifts can transform how people see, think, and choose.
Sometimes funny, always honest, never dull. This is the podcast that cuts through industry jargon to talk about what actually makes brands stick.
Tara Ladd is the founder of Your One and Only, who design brands that breathe with culture through psychology, strategy, and design.
Brand and Butter
What Makes You Different? The Questions Every Business Must Answer
What makes your business geninely different from your competitors? Do you know? Think of it like this, if your top 3 competitors all disappeared tomorrow, why would customers choose you? If you're struggling to answer these questions clearly and confidently, you're not alone. From a SWOT analysis to brand personality, this episode takes you behind the scenes of our process and into the critical foundations that come before visual identity.
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you're listening to Brandon butter a straight-talking occasionally in your face no BS branding podcast for modern marketers and business owners. Here for those who want to understand the influence and power of branding and how pairing associations, consumer behavior and design thinking can impact what people say, think and feel. I'm your host, tara Ladd, the sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable and often unapologetically blunt founder and creative director of Brand and Design Agency, your one and only. Hey, hey, welcome to this week's episode of Brand and Butter. I'm going to talk about a good one today, something that I think a lot of people are missing and wanting to know more about, and that is positioning and audience. So I'm going to walk you through what I do with clients at your One and Only, and I actually have a document in front of me now so I can kind of walk through as I go through it.
Tara:But I was with my Idea Lab girls earlier in the week I shouldn't say girls, I should say women, and there was one. All of them established business owners. They've had businesses for ages if not, like you know, some of them 20 years in the game, and it was just that simple reiteration of okay, are we all good here? Yep, and then we went right into the crux of what positioning is, what it means, how to assess it and to ask those crucial questions. So, generally, when I say to people, do you know who your audience is, everyone says yes and I say okay, um, do you know this question? Do you know this question? And then the more questions that I ask, the more that reveals itself. And so AI is great. I use it all the time. However, you need to know what to prompt AI in order to get the best results right. So you're going to ask it certain questions based on your knowledge, and even if you're asking it to ask you questions, there's still this area of experience and humanized attributes, or humanized language, that you need to inject into it. It's not that advanced yet where it can't break through bias, Like you want it to basically find the things that you're missing, and that's what someone else can do with a line of questioning.
Tara:So we started off the session with a few questions and that was a basic SWOT analysis. So if you don't know what a SWOT analysis is, it's your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and so we went through this basic rundown of what are your brand strengths, what are your brand's weaknesses, what are the opportunities and what are the threats. And that's when we hit a bit of a curve right. Most got them, some didn't. There are so many opportunities there and all of this is really in-depth research, and the differences are that sometimes you just don't know where to look. And that's where we come in. We're developing something really soon, so I'm excited about it and hopefully it will help people to kind of stitch together some of the gaps. But this is where you kind of start and you look for these options and opportunities.
Tara:And when I say to people, can you describe to me I sent an email out the other week can you describe to me what makes you different? Or if your top three competitors were to disappear speaking to you first, were to disappear tomorrow, what would make them come to you? And it's like a lot of people cannot answer that question. And so at the core of this answer is your positioning and your differentiation. And so if you don't know how you differ in the market, this is why you can't stand out. And the biggest concern that we hear is how do I stand out? How do I get people's attention? And sure, there are lots of different ways you can get attention, but are they staying around after you've got their attention? And this is why it's so important to understand the messaging, understand your positioning, understand your audiences and then how you're perceived or what kind of narrative you're putting out so that people keep coming back to you. Values, all of that type of stuff.
Tara:So I'm about to walk you through one of my clients' 70-page DNA strategies, I might say, and this one's probably one of the higher end. I mean, if you really wanted to, you could. If you really wanted to, you could keep pulling it out and pulling it out and doing more and more and more. But the way that I like to do my strategies is that we're providing clients with something that they can actually take away and not be overwhelmed with. So we simplify the complex and make sure that it is basically idiot proof. You could hand this to a kid and they'd be like, oh cool. I mean, depends what language you've got in there, but that's kind of the point. And so this, by the way, this document has zero visual identity in it, like none. It's just the beginning part of your brand identity. So the contents page to give you reference is foundations, positioning, personality, voice and tone, messaging and audience, and usually I will work with a copywriter for voice and tone, so this would extend out even further, but we do put in some touch points at the beginning when we're working with a client, so that we can give guidance on. You know, to go to a copywriter and say this is what you need to ask for them. So something that I am trying to do from a baseline level is, if people can't work with your one and only one-on-one, we're out of their budget. Then what happens is we are providing, where I'm building out, a offer or a product offering that will give small business owners the option to really understand strategy and to build out their own.
Tara:My goal here is to literally help small businesses. It's something that I always wanted to do, as, if you know me well enough, I'm a big F you to the system, so I'm all about helping grassroots businesses get off the ground and challenge the status quo, and that means, if we've got more small businesses taking part of the pie, that means those bigger businesses start to break apart. So yeah, I'm here for it. So what I want to do is build out this system that can provide small business owners bite-sized pieces of how to build out their strategy as you go. Rather than get like A to Z of the whole thing. You can take parts of it to build as you go. And, yeah, it's proved to be quite successful with a lot of my clients at the moment, so I'm really confident in it and really excited to see it all flow out.
Tara:So let's kick off this document, shall we? As I ramble on and we start with the foundations, so we go through that. But first I start off with an opening statement, and the opening statement is like an executive summary, which is almost like your brand story. So this is who we are, this is what we do, this is what we're about, this is why we exist, all of that type of stuff that leads into the next iteration of the brand. So, if, let me as well just open mine or my, open your one and onlys, rather than giving my client strategies out to the world. But there are parts of my client strategy that has ironic how ironic. That has more stuff in it than my own strategy. It's always, like you know, the plumber has the leaky tap.
Tara:However, I just redid your one and only strategy last week and it's got 61 pages in it, again without the visual identity. So what I did last week after I did the keynote was this is what I want to do for the digital picnic it was the keynote for those who are playing at home was beyond the brand identity, culture and the new consumer, and it really just established what I wanted to do. It kind of pieced together this massive aha moment for me. So I redid our strategy, so I'll walk you through with that. But I came up with this tagline that I'd been working with and it was brands that breathe with culture and I was like that's it. So I trademarked it, so I did that this week. You know, don't stuff around over here, and that's what the opening is. So it starts off with brands that breathe the culture. So then we move into our who we are, and so, if you know our brand and you're familiar with our brand, this is a basic summary of who we are and it's your one and only stands at the intersection of psychological insight and strategic disruption, challenging the status quo of traditional branding.
Tara:Born in Southwestern Sydney and led by our founder, tara Ladd, we are a team of big thinking creatives who call bullshit on conventional thinking, conventional design thinking, our approach. Think of us as the ones who aren't afraid to flip the tables when the game isn't worth playing. We break the right rules while standing up for what actually matters. Our brand DNA blends deep psychological understanding with cultural smarts, creating brand experiences that tap into the real human connection instead of just surface level stuff. We back the underdogs, the small businesses and the voices that industry gatekeepers try to shut down. What sets us apart is how we dig into what makes each brand tick, finding that distinct difference and cranking it up to 11. We shut down the vanilla rinse and repeat approaches that flooded the industry in favor of strategic positioning that makes brands impossible to ignore. By connecting psychology with identity, we're reshaping how business connect businesses the industry in favor of strategic positioning that makes brands impossible to ignore.
Tara:By connecting psychology with identity, we're reshaping how businesses connect with their audiences, creating brands that don't just look good but feel real, drive meaningful change and build communities where people truly belong, because, let's face it, the world needs more brands that aren't afraid to be themselves. That, in a nutshell, is your one and only, and I was like, yes, and it took me so long to get here. So if you're at home thinking, oh my gosh, something's off, I did my own process with myself and I've been documenting a lot of different things lately and just really building the backend and my gosh, I was like so proud of myself. So I've got this really good system. Now that is just pushing out this great work, and so, yeah, I was even able to break past the biases to create some of our own stuff, and so then we move into the purpose, and so the purpose is why you exist and I said for you on and only we exist to make to make space for the big thinkers and change makers who refuse to blend in, helping them build brands that create real connection and drive meaningful change. That is us in a.
Tara:Our mission is that we shape how brands connect with people by fusing psychology with identity, using human understanding, strategic thinking and creative disruption to build brands that resonate deeply and inspire action. So at the base of that is that we want to help all of the grassroots businesses, all the small businesses, just do what it is that they love and help to create good change right. And then the vision for us is a world where diverse voices shape the cultural conversation, challenge harmful narratives and create brands that stand for something real, triggering a ripple effect of positive change through inclusive design. So you will see as we, as a brand, we'll go through and we make choices based on these directives. So who we connect with, who we supply, who we work with in terms of, I guess, other suppliers, the clients that we take on, the industries that they're in the pro bono jobs that we choose to do All of this stuff is really embedded in the culture and it's something that I've always felt really proud of and something when I left my old agency so it was an agency for 10 years prior to kicking off, you Want it Only eight years ago was don't put shit to market, just whistle there.
Tara:Don't put shit to market is what the goal was, and I stand by that. I don't want to just help someone, just make money, that's. I mean, that's obviously a goal, but I want to do something for the brands that just genuinely want to change something, and we're getting them in the messaging's working, so I'm really happy about that. So our promise, which is your brand promise, is that we'll bring new ideas to every challenge, be honest with you and work together to build a brand with purpose that feels true to you and connects with people who matter, and so that's important because it is our, you know, it's integrity, it's what we stand for, our values here is exactly what you think they would be. So the first one's channel the inner rebel. So always challenge conventions, push boundaries and bring on unconventional. Bring on the unconventional. We believe that creativity grows when it's free to explore and experiment. The next one is the people at the core. So we put people at the heart of everything that we do. We design brands that resonate with audiences on a deep emotional level, building genuine connections and lasting loyalty. I'll come back to that one, because that's really important Speak hard truths.
Tara:We're honest, open and upfront in all of our dealings and we believe in clear communication, mutual respect and a no bullshit approach. Obviously, here I dealings and we believe in clear communication, mutual respect and a no bullshit approach. Obviously, here I am. You can hear that in action identify and adapt. So we're always about learning, growing and adapting. We embrace change, challenge ourselves to think differently and continuously improve our knowledge. So, if anyone knows me, I am basically a walking book. I love to learn all of the time. Hit me up, give me something, I will. I'm learning something at the moment, actually. I will talk about that in a minute, which is exactly in line.
Tara:And then the last one is to open the dialogue. So that is, we champion diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of our work and we believe that everyone deserves a seat at the table and we listen to hear and we aim to create a more equitable and inclusive landscape, so anything that aligns with those things we are. So for it. And so, coming back, I am studying. It's like business for a better world or something business strategies for a better world, and it's all about like trades and geopolitics and politics and culture, and it's like, so, like what I love. So all of that knowledge then gets embedded into these strategies, which is really important.
Tara:And then, obviously, you have brand positioning. So your UVP, your USP and obviously I'm not going to read mine out because they're obviously ours, but yeah, it's just about why we're in market. So what's our value that we're bringing to the landscape and our unique selling proposition, so what it is that's different. You know, like, how we then push that message across and sell with it. And our positioning statement is your one and only helps brands stand out by understanding how people think, what makes what matters in culture today and making sure that your brand feels true to who you really are. So, and our tab line is brands that breathe with culture. So you can understand how there's this key alignment with um, what we're putting out, how we're in in, like setting these, like guiding principles, essentially into what we stand for as a brand. These go beyond the products that we sell. We haven't even mentioned design here once. We're all about the intention behind how, why we exist, our business practices, our culture, that we're building our intentions.
Tara:I think I said that already, but yeah, like this is. This is what brand is. It's the being of the business. It's it's the humanized attribute you're wrapping around the brand. It's how you have experiences and you build relationships and how you connect with people on a deeper level and bring in emotion, and so many people don't have this stuff. Like they will bring up a mission, vision, value and they're so lame and I will talk to people and be like that is not what you want to do and I will always find a deeper meaning. I can guarantee you someone will come to us with a level five reason and I'll take them right up to level 11.
Tara:So, exactly what I said at the beginning I'm like you do realize you are challenging a societal norm here, and they'll be like, no, I'm not. And I'll be like, yes, you are, go sleep on it. And then they come back and they realize. And then, when they realize that this, like fire, comes up inside and I'm like, shit, yeah, let's go. And I am all about that because there's a reason that you're trying to do something, and sometimes it's just that you can't articulate it in a way that makes you go. What is it that? I that that sets me on fire. Like what is it? I mean, don't set yourself on fire, but, you know, set your soul on fire. And that's where you want to kind of look.
Tara:I then list our three core differentiators and then I give an example of those, and this is also what I do for my clients. But I'll switch over to my client now because she's got more in it. So, as we look about to give you an example of I think I was trying to give you a reason before, so I've got little when I send the strategy off to clients, I put down like what does and use so, like for you, for the unique value prop, for instance it's what it is is a main benefit competitors don't offer does. It shows why clients choose you and use is on the website and marketing material, for instance, and it just gives an example so that people understand what the heck they are and you know how to use it. It's all great to have this stuff, but if you don't get it and then I've got the brand personality, so I move into the brand personality.
Tara:Um, carl Jung has a really good like brand archetype, like framework, but there are plenty of other ways to do it. We like to then um, do like a sentiment check and go through and we analyze based on who they are, and we create our own like personality or persona of the brand. So then we give like a bit of an introduction into who that brand is. For instance, you know, just kind of I'm trying to do it without actually I'll just read kind of partially, partial areas of it. So this is one of our clients at the moment. They're in the health space and it just talks about them being direct and quirky. Um, so it's direct and quirky realness, auntie Elaine. And so we've built this profile off um Elaine from Seinfeld, and so this is what we've kind of brought into the table.
Tara:And then we're bringing in their expertise in their field with this element of character which creates the tone of voice and the direction and the personality and all of that stuff. So then we've got key traits. So we list like eight key traits there. So, for instance, the first line says combines expertise with the relatable humanity through strategic awkwardness, and then it goes through all of these like lists of things that they do. We then have personality traits in terms of primary and secondary, so knowledgeable but relatable, direct, strategically awkward, evidence-based, practicality, inclusive yet validating. And then the secondary are passionately protective, occasionally self-depreciating and holistically balanced. So we go through what they mean. Then we go into brand archetypes, so the two core archetypes that we've built this from, and we explain what they are and how we've fused them. And then we go into brand voice and tone.
Tara:And now this is where I usually bring in a copywriter. Some of the times I can just put like the base of the narrative, but copywriters are bloody geniuses at what they do. We're more visuals. I wouldn't expect a visual. I mean to be completely fair. I have studied and have multiple credentials in writing. So it's not like I don't know how to write, but I still prefer someone else to be writing.
Tara:So we've got, you know, the voice and tone, so we talk about what like there's like a light, so it's like insightful, adaptable and authentically purposeful. So that's what the intention of, like a bit of a summary of what it is. And then we go into who they are, how they present themselves, what they're like, how they communicate, and then that's really important because of you know how they are going to attract audiences, but also anyone that they may work with in terms of suppliers or, you know, media or whatever that may be. It just gives a really good over and also staff that you hire, so important. And then I say how this looks. So then we give like five different things as to how this looks, and that's really important too, because it's like it's all great to have a glorified paragraph, but it's like how do you put this in action? We have a how we say it. So we say and we don't say, and we give examples of them how we sound. So then we've got like a tone guide and then we have like terms and phrases, so phrases to use and phrases to avoid, and then a quick tone guide of speak like this and, before publishing, ask these questions, and then we've got a who we are and who we are not, and then we've got a word bank.
Tara:If you're working with a copywriter, they go all out like they are why? So this is like us touching on it. And then I would be like go to a copywriter, this is our guideline. Get them to write some good shit off this framework and they will create the best one-liners like hero statements, bios, taglines, anything that you need if the tagline isn't in here. Usually I'm working simultaneously with a copywriter, but to give you an example, we've got key messages in here of core message, professional context and personal context. So how you would say that Copywriters go all out. You know, my friend Shani from Wildspark has, you know, massive documents that are really important.
Tara:Then we have a like a brief elevator pitch, but in our audience personas, we go into detail about each persona. So we usually do three. We go into their demographics age, income, gender, geographic location, occupation, interest, lifestyle and then key psychographics. But then we go into like a blurb about who they are and what they are like and where they are in their life and a really in-depth perception of them. We talk about where they're sitting now personality, traits, goals, beliefs and values, distinction from other segments, how the brand addresses their needs. We talk about why they buy, why they don't buy, their wants, their fears, so that's like a decision-making analysis, how to talk to them. So obviously we've got the tone of voice as the top, but then you would speak to these guys specifically into what their problems and pains and pleasures and all those things. And then we have language styles and conversation starters, topics to emphasize, emphasize, topics to avoid, and then, like the pain points, the motivations and desires, solutions, and then we have three core areas that they speak to in the funnel, so the messages of awareness, consideration and conversion, and then we do that for each of the clients or the personas, and so that's just the strategy, right?
Tara:So we have something coming out very soon that will break apart a lot of this into key areas. So if you aren't on our email list, I suggest get on there, because they are going to be the ones that get it first or have access to it first. I'm going to use them as guinea pigs and see how they respond to it, but because what I want to do is get these small businesses and people that are kind of stuck and bridge that gap so that they know what to do. So that is today's rundown. I'm going to be breaking this apart into depth over the next couple of weeks. I think it's really important subject and if this is something that you really want to do, I'm going to be running a master class on this in the next couple of weeks, might run a workshop actually might be better, and if you're interested in that, make sure you're also on the email, because that will again, they'll get it first.
Tara:So if this is something that you think you don't have and you need obviously this is some high level shit please let me know and, you know, ask any questions too. If there's that you have, feel free just to jump in and be like hey, can you help me here? Or I was listening to this and you said this and I would like to know more about X, y, z. Always happy to have a conversation, but for now it's obviously Friday, my kids just pulled into the driveway and I want you all to have a great weekend, and if you're listening to this fresh next week, then I hope you had a good weekend. Or if you're listening to this later in time, don't even worry about any of that. Oh, friday out. Okay, I'll talk to you guys next week. Did you like that episode? I hope so, because if you did, why don't you head over to whatever platform you listen on and rate and review? It's much appreciated and helps others know what we're about. If you want to follow us, you can find us at yourwannanonly underscore au on Instagram.