• BRANDING FOR BUSINESS

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Branding is important to any business

Branding is one of the most important considerations for any business whether it be a small or big business. Having an effective brand strategy increases your chances in the competitive market. But what is branding? How does it affect a business?

A brand is useful as it helps customers to choose. A brand can say a lot about you and your business. It lets your customers know what they can expect from your products or services and can help you to standout against your competition. Your brand will communicate who you are, what you want to be and what your values are.

Is your business traditional or modern? Reserved or flamboyant? Is your product or service high quality and high cost or cheap and cheerful? You can’t be all things to all people and how you decide should be somewhat based on the consumers you’re trying to attract. The principle marque of your brand is your logo but it can’t convey all of the values instantly it can only represent them over time.

When you consider brand strategy you should refer to the who, what, when, where and why?  To whom are you trying to gain attention from? How do you plan to do it? Communication of your brand values to your consumers both verbally and visually should also form part of your branding strategy.

Consistency of branding leads to a stronger brand perspective which means that you can increase the value of your brand against similar products on the market. A good example of this would be Pepsi vs a generic soft drink. Because Pepsi is a well known brand and logo they can maintain a higher price and consumers will accept the higher price.

Representing your Brand

Describing your brand can be a business self discovery. It can be time consuming, difficult and awkward. These are some of the important considerations:

  • The purpose of your business
  • Your assets and the appearance of your products and services
  • What consumers and prospects think about your company’s services
  • The qualities that you would want your consumers to affiliate with your company

Understand your brand

Do some research. Learn the needs and wants of your consumers and prospects. Do not rely on what you think they think. Take time to understand what they are thinking. Defining your brand and establishing  a brand strategy can be complicated, consider using a external partner or organisation to help you.

How do you market your brand?

  • Design a great logo and display it consistently
  • Create your brand messaging. What are the key points you want to announce about your brand? All your employees should be aware of your brand values.
  • Incorporate your brand. Branding should relate to every aspect of the business—how you answer phone calls, your email signature, what your employees wear, how you respond to sale calls, everything.
  • Build a “tone of voice” for your company that will reflect your brand.
  • The tone of  voice can be incorporated in to all written documentation and in images, in advertising and through all channels both online and offline.
  • Developing a big idea.  Make a clear and concise statement that will capture the quality and vision of your brand.
  • Create templates and guidelines for marketing components. Consistent placement of your logo, chosen fonts and colour scheme is a start.
  • Be true to your brand values. If you want to keep your customers and gain more, deliver your brand promise.
  • Consistency is the key. It is the most important factor in branding your business.

Take control of your brand

Branding underpins how your business operates. It is how potential customers see you or your business; the way you present yourself and your business to the world. Branding helps people to understand what you believe in and what to expect from your business. Branding takes time to develop because its defined by what people think. You need to take action to build the ‘right’ impression. If you don’t control your brand you won’t stop people making a judgement but it could mean it isn’t a desirable as you might like.

Your brand is more than just your logo

Often people mistake branding and corporate identity. A corporate identity is the combination of a business logo and the way the business communicates visually through its stationery and marketing materials. Branding incorporates much more than this but a corporate identity should reflect the brand and the brand’s ‘tone of voice’.

Getting a new brand up and running can be very difficult and complex and you might need some professional help. If you are serious and committed to get your business started on the right foot it would be useful to consult a design agency. This could help to avoid costly mistakes and give your business an appropriate appearance. The benefits of hiring a design agency are:

  • Skills and experience. Creative agencies will bring in all their expertise and talents together to build a powerful and effective brand for your business.
  • Save time. Hiring a creative agency means that you won’t need to use your internal staff to help with campaigns. They may struggle to complete marketing tasks efficiently. It’s better to utilise professionals and allow your staff to continue to do what they are best at doing.
  • Added value. A creative team can help you to create a big idea, design a logo, select brand colours and build your entire corporate identity. A creative agency can also help to position and differentiate your brand which can be quite a challenge.

The best branding is built on a big idea that you and your business can commit to and strive to deliver. The biggest brands lead their markets because they understand the value of branding. We believe businesses of all sizes can use branding to help them achieve greater success.

Contact Red Fred Creative today to discuss how we can help to develop your brand.