Brands We Love: Jenna Kutcher

We all have brands we love, so why not learn from them?

This segment pays homage to those brands (big and small) that are kicking goals with their brands—from their visuals to their brand voice, these people have found their place, their tribe and their style.

I spied Jenna in a nighttime scroll through instagram. As usual, I was in a social media stupor and I can’t remember exactly how I found her, but somewhere in the maze of clicking on things that interested me I saw a post from Jenna Kutcher. 

Jenna is a photographer, painter and educator from Wisconsin in the US, which, for those of you playing at home, is nestled south of Ontario, Canada and right above Illinois in the States. Kane and I made it to Chicago and Toronto on our travels but never to anywhere in Wisconsin—something to add to the list for next time! Jenna is doing lots of great stuff in her business (her 106 000 followers on instagram certainly think so), but here are 3 things I loved about her brand.

1. She has oodles of personality

Jenna’s personality is written all over her website, quite literally in her words, but also in her visual identity. I love how she’s deviated from the classic and sophisticated style so many wedding photographers opt for, making her visual identity warm, down to earth and relatable. She’s achieved this through using a loose handwritten typeface, using colour selectively and using lots of imagery and video of her and her workspace. Jenna has also kept her brand voice conversational and fun as she shares her thoughts on building her business, her work and her personal life.

I wasn’t on Jenna’s site for long, but she made an instant impression through her beautiful website experience and by using every opportunity to tell me about herself and the things that make her different.

The gist: Don’t be afraid to inject some ‘you’ into your brand.  

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2. She’s not afraid to sell

Jenna’s got a range of products, courses and, of course photography services, and she’s not afraid to ask for the sale. But, just like Jenna’s free content, she makes things less salesy by keeping her tone of voice real and relatable, keeping her audience’s pain points in mind and focusing on the value she’s providing.

The gist: No slimy salespeople required— keep your sales pitch conversational, know your customers' pain points and share the value of what you do.

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3. She’s not perfect

Just like every other human on Earth, Jenna makes mistakes and hasn’t had the perfect path to success. No one expects perfection from anyone, but they do expect honesty. Transparency breeds trust, and Jenna does this well through sharing who she is and where she’s come from.

A lot of startups and entrepreneurs (myself included) build a businesses around a dream or passion. Sometimes your passion isn't exactly where you've cut your teeth or earned your qualifications, so it’s easy to get daunted and feel like a ‘fraud’ when you’re starting out. But, every experience that you’ve had has given you a unique perspective and outlook. You might not have the most experience, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t worked hard to earn your place and get to where you are right now. Owning up to where you’ve come from, your failures, mistakes and imperfections makes you more relatable, so be refreshingly real and transparent about where you’ve come from.

The gist: Forget the illusions, the best way to build trust is through being transparent.

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I think we all know these things are important, but sometimes we need a little reminder (and examples) to inspire us to apply them when building our own brand! What do you love about Jenna's brand? Let me know in the comments.

Want to read more about Jenna? Check out her site at jennakutcher.com.

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