Technorati Tags: brand recognition, brand building, online brand, online brand recognition

Consider these important questions about branding and the brutally honest answers that could help you sell more and save you lots of money that is typically wasted on branding. If you sell yourself as a branding expert – you might not like these answers. These are frank answers that demystify branding.

1. What is branding? Branding is the ongoing process of creating and enhancing the brand. The brand is the emotional connection that encourages your clients to cling to the organization, product or person. It is important for you to understand that branding is an emotional connection. And emotion is devoid of logic.

2. Why is branding important to business? Effective branding builds that emotional connection. The more emotional that your clients are about you, your company and your product – the easier it will be for you to sell to those clients. You can appeal to emotions instead of logic. Emotions, although more complicated, are easier to influence than logic.

3. What mistakes do companies make with branding? Many entrepreneurs get confused about branding. They believe that branding is about logos, fonts and pantone colors. That happens because graphic designers and advertising agencies, masquerading as marketing experts, claim that branding is about image.

Often bad marketing decisions and wasted money are justified with the phrase, “It’s good for branding.” Branding is not the goal – it is a tool. The goal is to sell more.

Many corporations fall into this trap. The corporate branding police insist that every PowerPoint slide be a particular color, including the company logo and in the company fonts. Readability and purpose are thrown out the window by the branding police because they lose sight of the purpose and focus on the tool. Maybe they should be fired.

4. How can business build a strong brand? A strong brand is about feelings. First you need to decide the feelings that you want to evoke from your customers. You need to be clear on your intended message and the mindset of your best customers.

You can build feelings by the way you treat your customers. You need to treat them in a manner that stands out from the competition. Southwest and WestJet airlines demonstrate this well.

5. Give an example of successful brands. Nike and Coke are companies that built strong brands because of huge marketing budgets and mass marketing over time. That’s the most common way that most well-known brands were built. Unfortunately it’s too often emulated by small business as the only way.

Harley Davidson and Buckley’s cough medicine are examples of branding built on creative positioning. That method is the smarter choice for businesses without multimillion dollar advertising budgets.

6. Is branding the best marketing approach? No. Branding is only one approach to marketing. Marketing is about making customers want your product. Branding is about building an emotional bond with your customers. It takes time to build that bond. And branding requires one of two things in abundance – money or creativity.

7. What is the alternative to branding for small business? Small business can do something that’s better than branding. They can build real relationships with their clients. Big corporations can’t do that. That’s why big corporations spend millions of dollars on branding. Small business has a better tool. They can build real relationships.

When you are building your brand ask the important questions and get the straight answers about branding.

Technorati Tags: branding, branding tips, branding strategy, brand strategy

In today’s market selling quantity seems to be the rule of the day. Slap together something quick and don’t worry about what flies out the door, it doesn’t even matter who the purchasers are.

Companies who focus on branding will stand out amongst the crowd. Why? They have recognized that most buyers’ especially online buyers need confidence in doing business with an established entity. Nothing shows your commitment to your business like a well developed branding strategy. Having a great logo is the first major step towards cultivating this development. Sure there are plenty of “out-of-the-box” logo solutions and the prices are more than appealing to a business that doesn’t recognize the value of their corporate image.

The Difference

Why should you spend more than $300 on a logo? Would you buy a car for $1000? Chances are if you do you’ll be paying a lot more for maintenance and the headaches it will bring. You always get what you pay for. This can’t be stressed enough. If you are willing to sabotage your business from the very beginning by neglecting the image you portray to your potential clients, that logo will be costing you a lot more than you’re willing to invest. A professional Graphic Designer will invest a lot of time, researching to produce a logo that is truly unique (vital to branding and making your mark) and introduce you to a solid first step in Branding your company as a powerful entity. A logo is further enhanced by the elements built around it. With everything related to design, everything should be custom made, now more so than ever because the competition for capital is increasing. You have to be better than your competitors in as many ways possible.

For the young start-up company, budgets may disallow you the option of working with a professional designer. There are plenty of great designers out there that won’t gouge your pocket book but be certain that they are capable of creating exactly what you want and that they have the experience to expand upon the logo design provided. You want someone who is business savvy and has demonstrated their applied knowledge. They must be able to foresee the bigger picture. The success of your business rests on this.

Putting it Together

Generally speaking the more experienced the designer the higher the rates charged. With the experience you will usually get a product that has been developed and refined over time. A veteran Graphic Designer will be designing with the big picture in mind taking your investment dollars further. The numbers quoted are relative to what they generate, a client will be happy to invest money when they see return. If the image developed for them attracts customers price becomes secondary. Recognize the value of your image and take your logo very seriously. As human beings we are visual.

For the long haul

Generally a business that has quality services to offer and takes their image seriously will understand the value of investing in professional design. Most successful businesses know how much they must devote to marketing in order to generate the sales they desire. Those marketing dollars will be more effective if your Branding approach was cultivated properly. If you take your business seriously chances are you’ll attract the same. How do you want to be viewed?

A Bit about the Logo

For the most part focus was placed on the business mentality rather than the logo itself. There are different types of logos. Many large corporations utilize strictly text or abbreviations. Companies like DELL, IBM, RCA, ABB, etc. Text logos are very popular and are easily integrated across the Branding board. Iconic treatments are also utilized by many businesses. An icon can be very powerful in identifying a company. Take Apple or Nike for example. Using imagery is a very powerful strategy in branding. Symbols guide us in our lives and daily activities. Icons can be very simple and clean to more complex utilizing gradients and simulated 3D. Illustrative (beyond iconic) is less frequently used but can work effectively for companies that usually want to portray a timelessness or “natural” homey feeling typically found on a bottle of tomato sauce or organic potato chips.

Everything outlined above can dictate the price of your logo. The logo is a powerful aspect of your company. It should take time to create and will require much attention if it is to create a powerful Branding strategy. Be sure that the logo designer of choice is willing to provide you with mock ups and multiple revisions and is willing to help take your company to the next level.

Technorati Tags: corporate branding, corporate brand

Every business needs an image. What better way to create one than to have a consistent business branding? It is fundamental for every business to be recognized. Each and every element of its structure must come with a public face. The face of your business must contribute to the overall look of a company.

To start, websites are one of the most popular and efficient tools in business branding today. With the emergence of the World Wide Web, no business can ever reach its maximum potential without a website.

Basically, what a website does is to create an online image for a business. This means that on a certain web address, details about the company can be accessed. These bits of information are extremely useful for potential as well as existing customers. They can be as simple as the description of the business or its services and products, images and footages of the products the company is offering for sale. They can also be the contact details about where the company can be reached once the customer is interested. Marketing campaigns and press releases can also be placed on the company website.

Once the website has been created it includes all of the necessary contents. The next thing to do is to establish an online presence. This is done by doing search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization is a technique common to many internet marketers. Search engine optimization works by designing a website in a manner which will make it appear on the top ranks of a search results page when prospective buyers search for it. It follows the principle that when it appears on the top ranks, readers see it as the most relevant to their searches. In effect, more traffic can be expected to the website.

There are many ways to do search engine optimization for a site. These include article marketing, press release writing, keyword incorporation, Web 2.0 creation, link wheels, link submission and bookmarking campaign. These can all be used at the same time while there are instances where only a few of the techniques are employed. The key is to use them in a way to help the website. Substance, strategy and timing all come into play with these elements. Otherwise, the tools will not achieve their desired purpose.

All these are done to increase the relevance to the site with a goal for it to gain more traffic. Once online presence is established, the image or business branding starts to build up. Its presence in the cyber community is starting to take off.

Technorati Tags: business brand, business branding, company branding, company brand, branded business, branded company

Consumers buy your brand, not your corporation. So you should choose the name carefully. For example, you buy laundry detergent based on the brand name and not the corporation that makes it.

This is why the brand name almost always comes before the company name, like swiggies by HydroSport. The brand name should get top billing because that’s what the customers remember. You can make it simple by using the brand name as your corporate name.

The company name matters to their employees. They work for the company and not the brand names they manufacture. The company name matters to the executives that work there. So that divides it into two different situations. The corporation has its own life separate from the brand. It’s usually the company that is talked about in the trade papers and the Wall Street news.

Instead of using the company name and the brand together, you can put them both on the packaging. Always make the brand name bigger than the company name.

There’s another way to look at the brand names vs. corporate names dilemma. A corporate name will live on even if the brand name dies out. A brand name could be a trend or fad, like Beanie Babies, yet the corporate name they fall under, Ty, could continue to live on. That’s another thing to think about as you pick a name.

Your corporate name can be boring, but never pick a boring name for your products. It needs to be unique and different and be something that resonates with your customers. It needs to connect with them emotionally. Don’t pick names that limit you too much. You never know what direction your business is going to go in or how big your product line will become. You also need to think about how your brand names and corporation name will play out around the world. Some names don’t translate very well.

A brand name, whether you use the product or corporate name, should be well thought out in advance. The positive side of having a successful brand is that it can become bigger than the corporation. But if the brand sinks for any reason, or is associated with something negative, you take the whole company down with it. Rebranding down the road can be a tricky and expensive undertaking. So choose wisely.

Technorati Tags: brand name, company name, brand name ideas, company name ideas, brand name selection, company name selection

Brands are one of the most valuable assets of a company owns. Just like any other assets they have value, they are built on trust, creating value for the customer, satisfying customer needs and the brand building process takes a lot of time and effort. Customers purchase brands because they promise to the customers and they deliver value and experience. Brands are created to satisfy certain target market, customers with similar needs and wants. The process of creating brands and managing them for long-term success is called branding.

Before we proceed to Online Brand Management, let’s get a definition for brands, according to the Business and Management Dictionary brand is “a name, sign, or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller and to differentiate them from goods of competitors. So with this definition we understand that a brand can be a name, sign or any symbol that will help a customer to identify one product from another.

Brand management is a process of used in marketing, this means that the brands of the company have to be managed so as to create a positive image about the brand and the company in the minds of the customers. When we do this process for our company’s name or brands in online market then it called online Brand management. This is a difficult task and one that has to be handled carefully. Regular press releases on your products, unique features, offers, sales, etc can create interest among the online users.

Technorati Tags: brand management, online brand management, online brand, online branding, digital branding

Technorati Tags: powerful branding, branding strategies, powerful branding strategies, branding strategies, brand strategy

Technorati Tags: brand building, branding, brand effort, brand genius, branding effort

There are few images as recognizable throughout the world as the Coca-Cola brand. Travel to the furthest reaches of the globe and you will probably encounter it on a clock or a sign, if not on the drink itself. Marketers today look to the Coca-Cola brand as a model of marketing power. Its image has transcended national borders and cultural barriers to reach almost everyone on earth. How did the Coca-Cola symbol become such an omnipresent image?

Beginning in 1886, Coca-Cola president John Pemberton began traveling the country introducing pharmacists to the drink. At that time it was considered a medicinal substance that could relieve headaches and other minor woes. Candler distributed clocks, calendars and other items laden with the Coca-Cola logo as he toured the country, spreading the brand and selling his product.

From there the brand continued to penetrate further around the world. The bottling rights to Coca-Cola were sold in 1899 and in 1915 the Root family submitted a standard size bottle for distribution, but it was too fat in the middle. The Coca-Cola Company liked the bottle so much they thinned it down and has been used ever since and is called a Hobbleskirt Bottle. By 1920, with new bottlers springing up all the time, the brand had expanded into Cuba, France, Puerto Rico and other territories. Its world dominance would increase further with World War II, when Coca-Cola promised that “every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for 5 cents, wherever he is, and whatever it costs the company.” Suddenly Coca-Cola could be found throughout Europe as American GIs carried it with them, and by 1960 the number of countries with Coke bottling plants had doubled.

Today Coke remains a powerful brand with over a century of history behind it. As a result, items featuring previous incarnations of the Coke image have become classic pieces of Americana. The success of the Coca-Cola brand has made it an icon not just in the world of brand marketing but of American history. It symbolizes the popularity of a soft drink as well as the dominance of American entrepreneurialism in the twentieth century and beyond.

Technorati Tags: branding, coca cola branding, coca cola brand, branding of coca cola

I have mentioned on my recent articles the importance of a good logo design for a website. So, I must say, you can not go wrong if you have a good logo designer.

But choosing the right designer for your website’s needs is sometimes a difficult one. Every designer has its own unique talents and expertise based on the needs of every client. In other words, to achieve what you desire, you need to make sure that the designer you choose to hire is a good fit for your company’s need.

Below are some guidelines from us to help you choose the right logo designer for your company.

1. Check the designer’s experience and portfolio

Designer with strong portfolio is a must. Previous designer’s experiences will give you a good hint of knowledge and skill level of the designer that you will going to hire. If you are expecting for a top quality logo design results, consider hiring a designer that has strong design portfolio and previous design work experiences.

2. Check the designer’s site reputation through client’s testimonials

Check-out if your chosen designer has a good reputation. You can do this by looking for some positive testimonials from their clients and colleagues. You can use the Google search engines to determine its credibility or by checking if the designer’s site is truly exist.

3. Check their published designs, awards and achievements

Check their design’s reputation by gathering some information pertaining to their awards and design achievements. Do also thorough research of all their published designs on their site.

4. Check the designer’s service/professional cost

This process is sometimes a question that is hard to answer, but most often the design price is an indication of a quality work. Do a thorough research and make a comparison from different design logo designers around the web by carefully checking every design quotation that you will gather.

5. Check the design process and strategy

Every good logo designer must have a design process to follow. Put in mind that the design process does not take instantly under twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Logo design process must need thorough researching in order to achieve the desired design goal. Typical design process for a good logo design usually takes between two to six weeks. So before you hire a designer, make sure to ask and confirm their design process.

6. Check their design affiliation

Check if they are affiliated with any reputable design publications and associations. Usually, design affiliation is a good indication of every designer’s reputation.

7. Check their customer relations reputation

A good logo designer must be a great customer service relations at all times. Check how they respond with your email query. A designer should respond quickly from your entire query from the start of transactions until the final processing.

8. Identify the designer’s professional character

A good logo designer should be detailed oriented, trustworthy, can work under minimal supervision and with strong communicational skills.

9. Check if they can ask and answer appropriate questions

A designer should know how to ask and answer appropriate questions in order to find out the business needs and goals. The questions and answers should focus in company history, company goals, competitors, target markets etc.

That’s it, all guidelines that I have mentioned above might also applicable when hiring a graphic designer, web designer or any designer matter.

To end with, keep in mind that a good logo design is one of the most important parts of every business online success so be very vigilant in hiring a good logo designer that would help you in reaching your business goals.

Technorati Tags: logo design, logo designer