By the end of this email, you’ll know:
How to define your own brand
How to build powerful associations to increase perceived value and make more money
🤔 What is Branding
Branding is others’ views of your business.
It is based on their expectations, memories, stories, and emotions. Your brand can also be your logo, slogan, content, product, etc.
But what does your brand really do?
Your brand creates associations with feelings and identities
Rolex associates with status.
Apple associates with innovation.
McDonald associates with joy.
And so on.
When people see a Rolex logo attached to an object, the perceived value instantly increases.
That’s the power of a brand.
When you build a brand, you:
Charge more
Have more trust
Pay less to get customers
Turn one-time buyers into repeat buyers
The benefits continue.
And I’m going to cover how to build a brand step-by-step.
Not just to “focus on a set of feelings” or “design a unique brand” but how to actually follow the actions that make a great brand.
Let’s get into it.
😍 Your brand = Your best audience
The goal of you brand is to give your target audience what they want.
When you stack up positive associations with things your audience likes, they will trust and buy more.
Understand your target audience (or ideal buyer), and you’ll figure out how to help them.
What are their fears, desires, problems? What do they want to learn? How do they want to learn it?
Then you can figure out how to align your brand to fill their needs.
Content pillars (the topics you make content on)
The platform (social media, blogs, podcasts, etc.)
The website
The customer service
I’ll give an example to make sense of this.
You want to start a business, so you go on Reddit to learn. You see a post on the best business ideas in 2026 and use the ideas (social media + the first brand interaction).
You go onto the website to get business advice and love the information on there (website + second brand interaction).
Then, you receive weekly emails that help you with business strategy for your business (solves the audience need + third interaction).
In all of these areas, the customer is receiving personalized help. The business ideas and strategy give value and build trust with the audience.
It fills their need to learn how to start a business and gives them the basic strategy they need. Your content and brand should be personalized to the maximum amount possible to help your target audience.
Go where you audience is and give them what you want. Got it?
Great. Now, how do we make our brand and business seem extra special?
Associations.
Good branding is all about making the right associations for the right people (the right people is your target audience, as you hopefully know).
Associate your brand with things your audience likes.
Then, they will associate your brand with that positive thing.
The Rolex logo is associated with luxury and status after thousands of minor associations with wealthy people, with designer objects, and other luxury items.
Associations are very powerful.
I am going to break down three of the best brands I know. Then I’ll explain how you can copy their strategies for your business.
Onward.
Deconstructed: Red Bull example
Red Bull targets a loyal (and crazy) audience of sports fans.
When you think Red Bull, you also think extreme sports, energy drink, F1 racing team, and maybe Red Bull Gives You Wiiings.
Those are the associations they built from years of branding, making it the leader in energy drinks, and worth over $16 billion.
They did this with one driving force: collaborations.
They have thousands of people they filmed and collaborated with. They have hosted hundreds of extreme events. They even have a whole F1 team.
You likely don’t have billions to spend on buying an F1 team but there are plenty of ways you can use collaborations to build your brand.
Guesting on a relevant figure's podcast or newsletter
Holding events within your community (giveaways, contests)
Collaborating on an event
Using influencer marketing
Remember the person/business you collaborate with should always be helpful to your audience, not just theirs. A big creator who your audience doesn’t like can hurt your brand.
Deconstructed: Disney
Disney. The happiest place on earth. Magic. Disney+. Disney World. Mickey Mouse. Princesses.
Disney has built these brand associations with this core factor: exceptional customer experience.
Across every experience, Disney works to make sure it’s the happiest place on earth. Whether it’s the live performances at Disneyland or the fun movies on Disney +, they work to get you the happiest you can be.
So, how can you do this?
Map out the parts of your customer journey. Your content, your profile on social media, and your website.
Make your brand consistent across every experience. Where does your brand have different associations that may confuse your audience? Find them and fix it.
Deconstructed: Alex Hormozi - Acquisition
People trust and buy from people, not brands.
And founder-led marketing works very well today. Alex Hormozi posts content on his personal account to promote Acquisition, the company he owns.
He delivers content in all the forms (podcasts, videos, books, newsletter) for his audience of business owners.
How can you use founder-led marketing:
Pick one social media channel (unless you have a team or experience with multiple platforms—stick to one).
Market for your business as a founder and be authentic and share your wins, losses, and challenges.
A brand can take years to build up.
Consistently giving value to your audience and building strong associations creates a powerful brand and lifelong customers.
-Warren
PS: I’ve been reading a lot over the past few months. And I thought why not share the most valuable business books I’ve read to you all.
This is my secret list of the must-read business books anyone who wants to be successful has to read.
Inside are 20 hand-picked books that taught me almost everything I know on business.
And since you are a loyal subscriber of Business Deconstructed, you get free access.