Brand images are something that we all know and recognize, like Coca-Cola,
McDonalds, Ford, Costco, and more. Creating a household name is not easy,
and not something that happens overnight. A primary way to build a brand
is to provide a great product or service, that people want, and will return to
you to pay for.
Know your customers
Creating a brand should start with an understanding of your customers and the
product & service that your provide. The following are some starting points for
you to start building your brand:
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What are you branding?
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How will your customers find you? Will it be web, print,
television, business cards?
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What is your product or servce?
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Know the age and gender of your customer base.
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How do you plan to use your brand ?
1.) What are you branding?
Know what you are branding is the first step in creating a strong brand for your
item. The item that you want to brand can be an organization, a company, a
product or a service. Knowing what you want to brand is very important! For
most small businesses they may have only 1 brand which would be their company
name. Large organizations like Pepsico has multiple brands such as Pepsi, Taco
Bell, Pizza Hut, and the list goes on. So, first know what you want to brand
because this will help you better understand how that mark will be used as me
move on with our learning about branding.
2.) How will your customers find your brand?
There are a lot of ways that your customers can locate your brand and you should
have a good understanding of these ways BEFORE creating your brand. When you
create a brand it is often started by making a logo or mark for the thing you
want to brand. But to do this right stop, and take some time to do your
research.
Location, location, location
Make sure that your customers can find you where they expect you to be.
Study the competition and then make a educated plan to market
your business.
If your brand will be used only online, as a logo, then you and use an
unlimited color base and many gradations and shading within that logo, or
brand. If you are going to use your logo on a menu, or stationary, then you
will need to consider printing for your logo, and the potential costs for
printing that logo. If you are using multiple colors and shading in your logo
for print, then you will most likely need to use 4 color printing which can be
significanly more expensive than two color or single color printing. If you
have a product, this product may be resold through other vendors, and this adds
another level of complexity. Such as will your brand or mark be shown by third
party companys and will they be reproducing your mark?
3.) What is
your product or service?
What you sell is also an important
consideration when creating a brand for your product/service or organization.
The product or service that you sell will most like contain the logo that you
are creating. You will want to make sure that your logo can be reproduced in
whatever manner you need for your mark. And remember the largest U.S. companies
generally have text based logos or main corporate brands. Microsoft for example
has a very simple text based logo that has been their brand for over 20 years.
Three separate brands of
Microsoft:( 1 company, 1 product, 1 sub-brand )
So, as you see we have shown just a few of Microsoft's brands and they have
many many more.
4.) Know the age and gender of your customer base?
Knowing who your customers are is very important. Make certain that you tailor
your brand to that market and that the look and design will focus on what they
expect.
5.) How do you plan to use your brand ?
Where do you plan on using your branded logo or mark? This is very important
where conceptualizing it and brainstorming ideas. To know this information will
help a designer or brand specialist to creat the right look and feel for your
brand. For most large corporations universal brands are created with a very
simple look and feel. This can be seen in the main corporate logo for
Microsoft. They have kept it very simple, highly recognizable, and easy to
reproduce. Their company uses it on thousands of business cards, product
labeling, websites, and more.
How do your customers find you?
Most big companies spend a significant amount of time learning about how their
customers found them. Was it online, print, television, or word of mouth.
More Tips for
Branding your Company
You can trademark your logo, to
help solidify your brand. The trademark process is filed at the
USPTO.gov. The filing process isn't too difficult, but to do it
right, you must first check to make sure that you aren't infringing on another
mark.
Increase customer loyalty
To create a brand image, you will need to do more than just have a web site, and
a great logo. A successful brand is based on customer loyalty, and
promoting an image of your brand. This is not that easy, and it is based
in serving customers in the best possbile way.
Analyzing points of contact
To analyze your brand, customer loyalty, and retention rates you should analyze
all of the points of entry where a customer may find your company. This
is simple for some companies, and more difficult for others. For most
small companies the points of entry are fairly simple with a web site, a
storefront, perioidicals, etc. Understanding the points of entry will allow you
to capture customers, and begin to alter the customer experience.
A good name can go a long way
Finding a name for your organization is a critical part of starting a new
business. Before deciding what name to use for your business you may want
to do a nationwide search for other businesses using the same name. This
is also commonly called a trademark search, and it will help to ensure that no
other business is using the specific name for the same purpose. The next
item that you will want to look into, is a domain name for your entity. Now
many brands are not actually represented by a domain name, but it something
that you should definitely look into. Another item that you should look
into anticipated marketing costs to make your brand a success.
