Branding is a marketing term that you should know if you're involved with creating a product or offering a service. It is relevant to anyone who streams on Twitch as they are creating a unique blend of product and service: streaming video that is shaped by a live audience. I've seen a few very good comments on the subreddit that talk about aspects of branding, but I'm hoping to offer a comprehensive look at what branding is and why you should care about it. This is a long post, so read at your own peril.
Branding is an amorphous concept. Here's the best explanation I've found:
As a streamer, your brand is part of your identity. It ties into all the things you say and do, your overlays, your appearance, your stream graphics and buttons, your activity on social media and anything else you can think of. It forms a part of the way new viewers judge you and others on Twitch instinctively react and think about you.
For an example that most people can relate to, let's talk about syrupy sugar water. Suppose that I take my old family recipe for a decent tasting carbonated caramel-colored beverage, put it in a can with the name "Good Cola" and get it on supermarket shelves for the same price as similar sodas. A consumer walks into the store, looks at the can of Good Cola and the adjacent can of Coca-Cola. Good Cola gets a half a second of thought. It sounds like it might be pretty good cola.
The can of Coca-Cola triggers a cascade of thoughts and reactions. The can has a high quality design and a logo that they've seen since childhood. Just seeing that blend of red and white keys off thoughts of drinking Coke. The product has been around for nearly 130 years and has become ingrained in our society. Their favorite restaurant only serves Coke brand soft drinks. The cups at their local movie theater have the logo on them. They recall the advertisements they saw as a kid, a mother polar bear and her cub being adorable and relaxing with a cool bottle of Coke. They associate Coca-Cola with all of their favorite sporting events and leagues (which Coke has conveniently sponsored). They remember that the only soda their parents ever drink is Coca-Cola. They've had Coke dozens of times in their life and it always had that same refreshing taste. So... they buy the can of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola is considered one of the strongest brands in the world and for many people, it is THE cola beverage. It doesn't mean you can't compete with it. But simply offering another high quality product isn't enough. You need to make yourself stand out. Without something to make that can of Good Cola a unique product in a consumer's mind, they will always go with the established product. That's where branding comes in.
Creating a successful brand involves understanding what you uniquely offer and anchoring your name/image to a certain perception in the minds of others. Branding involves the same process on Twitch, though a huge portion of the work is tied to how you produce your content.
You can stand out using personal appearance, voice work, physical behavior/performance, attitude on stream, your reactions to emotion, or the graphics and appearance of your stream. If you're doing it well, you're taking most of these elements and weaving them together to build up the image that people will associate with your content. You want to find a way you wish to be perceived and get people to view you that way.
I could try to set out general guidelines for how to do this, but the process of creating a brand identity really ties into everything you do on your broadcast. I think we benefit more from seeing examples in action, so I will direct your attention to two streamers with excellent branding on Twitch: Lethalfrag and FuturemanGaming. I'll speak about each of them, but I urge you to watch both broadcasters. Note that you don't need to do nearly this much to have a solid and recognizable brand on Twitch, but you can see the benefits of both styles at work.
Frag is an amazing example of a broadcaster that has a well-established and recognizable brand without being over the top. Many examples of solid branding on Twitch involve crazy gimmicks or wacky behavior. But branding comes in many forms. The auto repair shop in your home town that gets work done quickly, correctly, and at reasonable costs is engaging in branding. Their image is one of reliability and dependability. It generates business and often times a lot of it.
Frag's broadcast is in this exact vein. His rise to popularity in the variety broadcasting community was tied to a combination of excellent timing/game choice and his two year livestream challenge. Every day for two years straight, he was producing live content. His style involves laid back behavior, heavy chat interaction, and focus on creating and maintaining a positive community.
In terms of personal appearance, Frag anchored his image off of his beard and hair, which he didn't cut over the course of his live stream challenge. It's only been in the past few months, after his stream was WELL established that he really made a major change to to his physical appearance.
Many behaviors and reactions are nearly ritualized on his broadcast. Completing a run of Isaac has its own ceremony. Key phrases and remarks are common and predictable. The stream has regular topics of discussion that are touched on multiple times each broadcast. While some of these things change over time, they provide recognizable continuity for regular viewers and an experience that new viewers can be inducted into.
Frag engages in a good deal of behavior that promotes a desired image for his stream and himself. He uses positive reinforcement, constantly complimenting his audience and thanking them for good behavior and their patronage of his broadcast. Whenever Frag refers to his time with broadcasting, he emphasizes his view that his work is part of his career and his desire to keep his work fun but professional. He's quick to point out his adherence to his schedule. Additionally, he appeals to his audience emotionally with regular updates on his concerns about his stream and the community built around it. All of this is active image building that helps shape the way LethalFrag and his content are viewed.
Futureman is over the top fun. Crazy gimmicks AND wacky behavior are at the heart of his show. To anyone who wasn't aware, Futureman at one point had a channel on Twitch under a different name. That original show was much more mundane and likewise much less successful. The new channel and associated Futureman persona are a testament to the power of good branding to create an image and expectation for viewers. His rise to popularity are tied to the high quality of branding done on his channel and some strong exposure thanks to Twitch’s Partner Spotlight.
Sentient video games, time travel, and an incredibly stretched N.E.R.F. acronym are just the start of the backstory that introduces Futureman to new viewers. He's a slim man in a ridiculous tracksuit with a futuristic vizor. You've got liberal use of a voice transformer. Oh and don't forget his intro video.
Every one of his shows is framed by an over-the-top opening/closing and take place from his Future Ship. Most broadcasts are simply high quality let’s plays, transformed by his in-character behavior, interesting stream overlays, and some common memes for viewers to rally around. Some content, like DJs in Space, is just completely innovative and a draw in itself. In both cases, it's clear that Futureman is creating something incredibly unique.