Building a cohesive brand identity as a jeweller
Blog
As part of the new book ‘Start and Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business’ with Jessica Rose, a handful of talented and successful, handmade jewellers were invited to be interviewed about various different elements of their business.
Each jeweller was chosen specifically to talk about a particular area of focus within their business which they were doing brilliantly, to share their real life experience and demonstrate how its done. One of these areas of focus was branding…
Building a cohesive brand identity that connects is an essential element to growing a successful and profitable jewellery business. It will help you to stand out from other jewellers and it will give your customers confidence. Whether you start by doing it yourself, or pay a professional to help, having a unique brand identity is a must.
For this chapter of the book, Jess invited successful handmade jeweller Rachel Whitehead to talk a bit more about her branding journey to find out how she achieved a beautiful, cohesive brand identity for her business.
Here’s what Rachel had to say…
Rachel at an Appear Here pop up
How long have you been a jeweller for?
I’ve been a jeweller for around 6 years now.
How did you start making jewellery?
I went to uni in Manchester and studied 3D design. I’ve always loved making things and during the degree I fell in love with the metal workshop.
I realised I wasn’t going to learn the handmaking skills I needed to make the designs that were in my head so I decided to teach myself how to use CAD software. This was before my uni taught it on the syllabus so there were many, many hours and late nights trawling YouTube videos and blogs!
After graduating I moved around the country to work in lots of different jewellery jobs, from small family run jewellers to some of the biggest manufacturers in diamond jewellery in the UK. I wanted to learn as much as possible to I stood the best chance of my jewellery succeeding.
I ended up in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter where I now have a shared workshop with some of my best jewellery friends.
A selection of Rachels brand collateral
Did you create/design your brand yourself or hire someone to do it for you?
I’ve always bootstrapped my business and have done everything myself. The brand has come together over the years organically.
It’d be brilliant to work with a professional branding expert, and I hope to one day in the future, but at the moment I’m having fun playing with ideas myself and getting a really good understanding of what I like and what works for my jewellery.
Did you have a clear vision of what it would look like?
Yes, I think so. I’ve got pretty strong opinions on what I like and don’t like and I’ve always wanted the brand and the jewellery to be inviting and warm but to still feel special and like a treat.
I’ve tried to make the brand feel relevant to now whilst not feeling trend-led. I’m not a natural minimalist, so whilst I can really appreciate very smart, clean branding, I don’t think it reflects my jewellery (or me!).
I’m really drawn to detail, pattern and colour in my own life. I’ve tried to be reasonably restrained when it comes to my branding but it still feels a bit fun.
I’m a bit of a stickler for detail and actually handmake my thank you card envelopes and jewellery pouches because I couldn’t find what I wanted from a supplier. It’s not time effective and I curse myself when I’ve run out of a batch, but I think they add a little something different when a customer opens the box.
Has your brand changed much over the years?
I’m not sure the brand has changed too much but I think my ability to communicate it has.
Remember when nearly everything was grey for a time?! My packaging went through a very grey and pink phase which never felt right. It takes time to find the language for your brand, and sometimes even longer to find the packaging suppliers to make it a reality.
I think if you’re doing things right, your brand should evolve with time, especially in the early years when you’re working out your niche.
What do you think is key to creating a cohesive brand?
For me it’s about really understanding what you’re trying to say with your jewellery. When you know who you’d like to be your ideal customer you can tailor everything you do and put out there to them.
Keeping your ideal customer top of mind with everything you do will mean your emails, packaging, photography and designs all make sense together.
Cohesion might take time, but that’s the fun of it. I remember being told that no one is taking as much notice of you as you are. What might feel like a big design or direction change to you will barely register with other people. I like to keep that in mind when changing anything up and it all feels less daunting.
How do you think your branding has helped to grow your business?
I think branding says everything about a business. When branding is right, it’s reassuring to customers that you take what you do seriously. Getting your branding right requires a time and often financial investment, it signals to customers that they can trust you.
Good branding communicates what you’re about without having to say it in person. Things as small as an email, Pinterest post or jewellery pouch all build a little world around your jewellery, when it’s done right it sings to your ideal customers and makes them really want what you do.
Anything else you’d like to share?
The Way Back Machine is a great website that lets you look back at previous versions of websites, you can get very granular in understanding how other brands have changed their branding over the years. https://archive.org/web
Fiona Humberstone, The Brand Stylist is a fantastic resource for understanding branding and how colour works. She’s published two great books and she’s an absolute font of knowledge.
Studio Cotton are a Bristol based website design studio @studio.cotton. Aime shares so many juicy tips on her Instagram especially during her Thursday Question Time on her Stories and also runs in person and online sessions on all things websites. I’ve learnt a huge amount from what she generously shares for free, I recommend here to anyone who will listen!
Want to know more?
If you’d like to learn more about how to create a cohesive brand identity that connects and read Rachels top tip for new jewellers starting out, then you’ll find it all here in the new book - ‘Start and Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business’ with Jessica Rose.
want to learn more about branding?
Whether you’re just starting out and don’t have a brand identity for your jewellery business yet, or if you’ve been going for a while but feel like it might be a good idea to refine or perfect your branding, then do take a look at our ‘Create an Irresistible Brand for your Jewellery Business’ course. Click below to find out more.
