Establishing Brand Recognition Through Strategic Asset Development

Challenge

Stephanie Breedlove was called to entrepreneurship and began her journey as one of the first female entrepreneurs by launching Care.com HomePay (previously Breedlove & Associates), the largest and most comprehensive household payroll and tax firm in the country. After successfully nurturing her start-up to a thriving company with national recognition, Stephanie sold Breedlove & Associates for more than $50 million.

After more than twenty years as an entrepreneur and a CEO, Stephanie’s focus transitioned to becoming a thought leader offering practical guidance with an authentic voice. Stephanie’s goal is to use her experience as a woman entrepreneur to empower other women to pursue their dream of entrepreneurship and take those dreams to the next level by creating substantial, sustainable businesses.

To achieve her goal of becoming a strong role model and thought leader for fellow women entrepreneurs, Stephanie knew she would have to build a platform and begin developing resources to share her message of entrepreneurship. In order to accomplish this, Stephanie worked with Greenleaf Book Group to publish All In: How Women Entrepreneurs Can Think Bigger, Build Sustainable Businesses, and Change the World and to build a brand around her book and herself.

Discovering Brand Potential

Stephanie began working with her dedicated Greenleaf brand strategist in 2016 to build her online presence and develop brand assets in preparation for the 2017 launch of All In. Stephanie and her brand strategist worked closely on an intensive range of branding initiatives from strategy to logo and asset development to video production. Though Stephanie had strong expertise and experience in the field of entrepreneurship, she did not yet have the digital footprint and branded content to both support the launch of her first book and to position her for her transition from CEO to thought leader, role model, and speaker.

To develop Stephanie’s brand positioning, her Greenleaf brand strategist thoughtfully evaluated the competitive landscape, researching Stephanie’s peers and competitors in the female entrepreneurship space to identify Stephanie’s unique offerings and perspective. Finding the gap that Stephanie and All In filled in the market was the first step in setting her brand and book launch up for success.

During this stage of the brand building process, Stephanie learned how to best position herself in the competitive landscape, defined her target audience, and learned the overarching strategies for reaching and engaging those readers to build a loyal following.

From Strategy to Success

Stephanie’s brand strategist applied lessons learned from the competitive research and brand positioning to create strategic recommendations and brand assets. The next step was to develop strategic recommendations for the look and feel of Stephanie’s website and the social media channels she should build a presence on. These recommendations acted as a blueprint for Stephanie’s website creation and social media efforts and for the way she engaged with her target audiences in those communities.

To fully flesh out Stephanie’s brand, her brand strategist also developed brand assets including a logo and identity guide, a speaker press kit, and short form videos. These assets aligned with the look and feel of All In to build a cohesive, and instantly recognizable, brand presence for Stephanie. The logo and identity guide served to tie all of the different components of her brand together through core brand standards; the speaker press kit presented Stephanie’s achievements and unique value as a speaker in a polished branded document; and the short form videos built a robust reservoir of engaging branded content.

"The data presented was incredibly valuable in understanding the components of a successful strategy and also in identifying needs not being met in the marketplace that fit my mission.”

The breadth of strategy and content developed for Stephanie’s brand positioned her well for both her book launch and the launch of the next phase of her professional career as a thought leader and role model. Thorough, strategic planning in conjunction with a diverse well of content helped to achieve her goal of becoming a recognizable and authentic voice for women entrepreneurs.

"Greenleaf ensured that all collateral, from the Speaker Press Kit to personal logo to blog headers, had a consistent feel and message and were well aligned with the book and message of All In.”

Successes include:

• All In achieved Amazon best seller status in Women & Business
• Stephanie has been featured as a contributor in Forbes, CEOWORLD Magazine, Huffington Post, StartupNation, and other prominent industry publications
• Stephanie has become an in-demand keynote speaker at a variety of community, corporate, and educational events
• Stephanie has established a fruitful partnership with the Forté Foundation, the leading consortium of top companies, leaders, and business schools working together to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education, opportunities, and a community of successful women.

"The value of branding can be difficult to measure and is often referred to as ‘the icing on the cake.’ No one wants cake without icing, and thus, it is pivotal.”

Stephanie Breedlove has been walking the walk of a successful entrepreneur for more than twenty years. After launching a career in corporate America with Accenture, she found her true calling as co-founder and CEO of Care.com HomePay, the largest household payroll and tax firm in the country. She’s traveled the full journey from start-up to successful exit and wants to help other women take the leap into entrepreneurship and grow businesses with sustained value and impact.

Lean more about Stephanie and All In at www.StephanieBreedlove.com.

Greenleaf Book Group is a publisher and distributor best known for its innovative business model, distribution power, and award-winning designs. Named one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States by Inc. Magazine, Greenleaf has represented more than 3,800 titles, including over 75 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestsellers. You can learn more about Greenleaf at www.greenleafbookgroup.com.