You’ve decided what products you’re going to sell and chose a shopping cart. Now comes the fun part: creating a brand that communicates the right message to your audience. But it isn’t all fun and games; you may have a great name in mind already, but you should do some legwork before you create your store’s brand.

Brands like Starbucks, Target and Toyota have spent years crafting a specific customer experience that serves as a trustworthy identity to shoppers. These brands are the result of careful audience research—a crucial part of deciding how you will relate to your audience.

In order to craft a brand that sticks with your shoppers, follow the steps below.

If you’re passionate about what you sell, you may be a member of your own audience. But don’t make gut decisions; there’s still plenty you can learn about your audience. Research may take the form of keeping up with forums and blogs; targeted surveys; and direct interviews.

Good research will help you understand your audience’s needs and desires and position your store as the venue to fulfill them. Once you’ve captured the data you need, create one or two audience profiles. Craft a mock bio that details a fake audience member’s demographic and behavioral information. Put a name on your profile to make it more realistic and refer to it often throughout the branding process.

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience member. What language and imagery are they attracted to? Brainstorm on names and test them on members of your audience. Make a list of imagery that you want to associate with that brand name. If you’re really ambitious, create a brand book that explains every facet of the brand and proper image/color/logo usage.

Colors and logos are an important part of how your audience perceives your store. We recommend working with a professional graphic designer to create your business logo and the corresponding colors you’ll use prominently throughout your site.