What is Brand Equity?

Brand Equity Defined

Brand equity is a marketing term used to refer to the marketing impact of a given product in association with a brand name. It tries to examine how a given product will perform in the market if it did not have the privilege of that brand name. Therefore, the basis for brand equity and its impact on a business is based on the knowledge of the customer about that product. And yet, brand plays a vital role in helping build that knowledge and awareness, as well as the choices they make based on that knowledge.

Brand equity, then, reinforces the significance of a brand's value and produce that positive type of recall in the mind of consumers. Marketing research has revealed that brand equity is one of the most important asset to the company.

Three Perspectives of Brand Equity

As an intangible asset, brand equity only gets its meaning out of the perceived quality and associations made by a consumer on a given product. Brand equity can be viewed in three different perspectives:

• Financial: One way to understand the value of brand equity is to calculate the premium that is placed on a product. To further understand, take for example two types of products: one that is of a recognized brand, and the other is unrecognized brand. Consumers are willing to pay a bigger amount for the branded product over those which they are unfamiliar with.

• Brand Extensions: When certain products attain a certain level of commercial success, most companies consider extending their line by introducing newer products under their brand. Because of the existing brand awareness, these companies will no longer invest on large advertising expenditures just to make that newly introduced product known.

• Consumer-based: The trust and attitude exhibited by a customer towards a given product is impacted by the associations they make with that brand. Oftentimes, these associations are a product of their own experience with using the brand. Therefore, actual experience plays a crucial role in the marketing strategy, especially in a developing brand.

Benefits of a Strong Brand Equity

Not all brand equity is positive, therefore most companies invest on building a strong brand equity. After all, it offers several benefits to the company. Below are just some of the helpful benefits that a company can derive of a good brand equity:

• Establishes a more reliable stream of income.

• By increasing brand equity, companies are also able to increase their profits through increased market share and premium pricing for less promotional costs.

• If you have established a good brand, then you can sell that brand name at a given price.

Managing Brand Equity

There are three stages involved in creating, building, and managing your company's brand equity. They are outlined below:

1.) Your first step involves the introduction of a product of a given brand into the market. You must establish a certain standard for that brand to be able to launch products in the future that will sell in the market. Your aim here is to produce a positive response from the consumer to build trust among consumers.

2.) Try to produce a brand that is unique and yet memorable. The attitude of your brand must be accessible to consumers and must also provide benefits to satisfy its users.

3.) Consistency is the key. Your message must be synchronized with your company's overall image and reinforce the value espoused by your organization. This is one of the most effective ways to build a strong brand equity. http://www.squidoo.com/rhod-gilbert
Branding: Managing Brand Equity

Logos In a Branding Strategy

The Significance of Logo in Branding Strategy

Creating Company Logo

In addition to creating a unique name, designing your own distinct logo is another effective branding strategy that every business owner can employ. Aside from the name, having a logo to attach to that image reinforces the potential power that your brand has in the market. As a factor that compels customers to pick your brand out of other competing businesses, this is something that every businessman need not take lightly.

Visual recognition is the main purpose of a business or brand logo. Therefore, you need to produce a logo design that would easily stand out and be recognized. There are two steps involved in the process of creating a logo: first is conceptualization and then execution.

The conceptualization part is where you extract ideas from the message that you want your brand to convey to the consumers. Then, the execution part is where you produce creative ideas that will make tangible that concept you have for your brand. The execution part is the most vital part in this process because a good concept could still fail if not executed properly. Here is also where you should decide on the color or styles used in the logo.

Significance of a Logo

Logos are an integral part of a company's branding strategy mainly because it is a visual representation of the company. For instance, companies create simple yet elegant designs to produce the idea of stability and trust. Meanwhile, other companies create an interactive and complex design to showcase the different features of the company.

Going back to the creation process of a logo, the information that you want to reveal about the company and its product will serve as basis for the creation of the concept for your logo. The same goes with how you utilize the design to showcase those information. There are different methods done to achieve this but you can perform some brainstorming to get the ideas out.

Logo as a Branding Strategy

The company is logo is the most important part in the creation of company image. It can be used as a trademark for the company to represent its existence and identity in the market. As compared to most advertising campaigns, a successful logo is one that is able to stay in the memory of the customers at a longer time and be able to appeal to their attention. This is crucial whenever you have several other similar businesses trying to achieve the same.

If you have decided on a final design for your company logo, then you can utilize that on various mediums such as websites, billiards, ad spaces, business cards, promotional items, and many more. If you did a successful job on the creation alone, the presence of the logo itself will serve as a reminder to people about your company and what type of business you do.

Protecting Your Logo

Since the logo is now a representation or visual image of your company, you must do your best to safeguard it and protect your company's reputation in the market. If possible, you must patent your logo once you have decided on using it. Since you have invest much on it, you have to ensure that it is solely the property of your company. This applies not just for large-scale companies, but even for small ones as well.

Also, when you are working with somebody else in designing the logo, such as a logo design firm, opt only for those legitimate ones. This would help possible cases of infringement or to protect the reputation of your own company. After all, the main essence behind creating a logo as a branding strategy is to create your business identity.

The Art of Internet Branding

The Art of Internet Branding

What is Internet Branding?

Internet branding is one strategy that business owners can employ to establishing their position in the marketplace. Even well-established companies are investing on creating an online brand reputation since internet branding strategies have also produced massive impact on a brand's effort to expand. This is most important these days wherein the internet has taken on a significant role in the everyday lives of the consumers. Hence, you need to utilize it as one of the means that you can communicate your message to them.

With internet branding, you are basically utilizing the tools provided by the internet as a leverage to all your marketing efforts. The objective with using the internet as a medium for promoting your brand works the same way as any other branding methods, which is to increase the demand for the products in your brand.

Importance of Internet Branding

Every business owner is aware of the benefits that a good brand can make for your company. Since the brand is basically what distinguishes you from any other companies that offer the same product or service, you must execute your branding strategies properly to produce the results you want. Take a look at some successful brands in the industry, who have become so distinct to the point wherein their names have been associated with a certain product. This is what business owners must try to aim for.

In business terms, this is referred to as brand positioning. It establishes the main locus of your product to the target market. Therefore, you will be utilizing the specific features that makes your product distinct from the other and use that as a focus of your message in the internet branding effort. Indeed, product differentiation and product positioning are closely linked to one another. These are two basic ploys that you can utilize in your internet branding strategies to “own” a segment of the market and produce a loyal customer base from that.

Is It Worth Investing In?

Several companies and brands have worked so hard on establishing their brand and yet they fail to look into the possibilities of producing an online brand. Hence, they lose that advantage to other brands who worked on appealing to the consumers and making their offer known.

However, if you opt to embark on an internet branding strategy, you must not also neglect the positive value or message that you are trying to impart with regards to your company. To sum it up, a good internet branding strategy is worth your investment. So, don't just go right into an online campaign for your brand. It must be something that is a product of your thorough evaluation and planning.

What About Small Businesses?

Despite the large impact of the online industry in people's lives these days, it is only projected to grow in the years to come. Hence, this makes the internet an even more reliable avenue to expand their marketing efforts. The best thing about the internet is that it provides an even playing field for big- and small-time businesses to promote their brand. Even new businesses can utilize the internet as a means to position their brand and make their existence known in the market. So, it's no longer new these days to have new products or brands introduced online as it is one of the fastest growing industries today.

And yet, the benefits of offering your products and brand to a larger market is beneficial for small time businesses since potential buyers can focus only on the quality of service and performance. By maintaining the value and continually differentiating your product, then internet branding will offer several potential benefits for your business.

Managing and Reviewing Your Business Brand

Effective establishment and management of your business brand are as equally difficult as creating one. Indeed, one's you have created a standard and built your own company's reputation, then you would have to constantly live up to that standard and avoid under-delivering. In the business industry, a failure for your company can produce manifold consequences and if you want to protect the brand you worked so hard on building, then you need to continually check on every aspect of it.

Managing Your Business Brand

If possible, assign a person who will continually look into the management of your company's brand strategy. After all, it is a vital aspect of your business that you need to protect if you want to maintain whatever market success your business is currently enjoying. If not, then you can educate your employees or staffs on exactly what are the missions and objectives of your company brand. This knowledge will help them become aware of their role in producing and meeting customer's standards for your business.

If you are aiming for a certain standard, having all members of your crew working towards the same goal and at the same pace will enrich all your efforts for an effective branding strategy. For a more effective management scheme, ask for suggestions on their end as well. You can get valuable input directly from the people who are involved in the process of creating or delivering products and services. Having their inputs will enable you to assess what other aspects of your business need improving and you can maintain the level of your business' performance.

Value of Feedback

If you want a substantial feedback, then you can get it directly from the people who avail of your products and services – the customers. As them for feedbacks on your brand to determine whether you are delivering the quality of standards you have set and they expect from you. If there are any dissatisfied customers, ask them for feedback on how you can improve the quality of your product or service. Your customer is probably your best source of honest criticism and should also provide you with a concrete idea on where you must improve.

Reviewing Your Brand

Successful brands are those that remain consistent with the needs of its consumers. Therefore, it is your duty to constantly review your brand and its performance to know whether you are meeting these standards. As times evolve, the needs of your customer changes as well. In fact, your customer base might change because of that. So, you need to adjust your branding strategy in accordance with changes in market demands and needs.

Even the most established brands change their marketing approach and branding strategy to stay attuned to the changing business trends in the market. Reviewing your brand must be something that you need to perform periodically; hence, you are always aware of any ongoing trends.

Importance of Reviewing Business Brand

The reviewing process involved in your business' branding strategy offer several beneficial opportunities for your business and its expansion. Here are just some of them:

• It is a good indicator of areas in the business that you can improve on or potentially expand.

• Be careful when trying to stretch or expand your products because it might end up similar to some other existing products. Better yet, reconsider the possibility of creating a new product instead.

• It will provide an avenue for more inputs and suggestions from inside or outside of your institution.

• It enables you to validate your company's core values and how your products or services remain consistent with that.

• Periodical assessment of your business brand enables you to keep up with changing business trends and market demands.

Increasing Brand Recognition For Improved Sales

About Brand Recognition

In any form of marketing strategy, brand recognition is usually the initial focus. Business owners employ varying tactics to increase familiarity on their brand wherein the ultimate aim is to create awareness about the existence of a given product or service. This process will then produce a domino effect and impacts people trust of the product and their decision on whether to purchase it or not.

Brand recognition can be achieved through various means though. Which is a good thing for business owners because this means they do not have to allot large amounts of money in order to get their brand recognized in the market? Awareness is of the essential in all efforts for brand recognition. All other steps needed to be taken after that must be looked at a different aspect, but this one serves its own purpose.

Importance of Brand Recognition

The reason might seem obvious but brand recognition offers multiple benefits for your business. It is capable of impacting other aspects of your business; hence this is a crucial determiner for success. Some experts have claimed that brand recognition is the most important factor that could spell a business' success potential.

However, the main importance of brand recognition is to establish a mental connection between your business and its potential customers. Therefore, when your prospects hear about your company or its name, they will be able to produce a general idea of what products and services your business is offering.

With several similar businesses available, creating a distinction for your name in a given field of business will encourage more people to do business with you. You also need to consider the psychological aspect of it. Studies have revealed that people tend to go for a name that they know or recognize. So, this is a helpful stat that you need to take advantage of.

How to Increase Visibility?

If you've been working on a business start-up, then chances are you already know the importance of brand recognition and its role in the success of your business. But the bigger question remains: how do you do it? Traditional marketing efforts for most company involve major expenditures being set aside for increasing media presence such as advertisement, to increase awareness of the product and create a connection between consumers.

Today, there are a lot more avenue for that, in fact more interactive ones. Aside from the traditional media outlets, the internet has opened up several possibilities to enable a business to establish its name and potentially grow. Therefore, companies have also worked on increasing their web presence to expand their market reach.

Studies have shown that most web surfers begin with a search. Therefore, it is best to optimize your web site in such a way that it ranks well in the search engines. In short, you have to make efforts to make your website easily found by potential web researchers. That is why several companies invest in search engine optimization to improve their performance and marketing strategies on the web.

Producing Strong Brands

The impact of brand recognition extends beyond purely marketing but also appeals to the emotion of the consumers. In order to produce a strong brand that has established itself on the industry, you must be able to purge favourable emotions from your customers. It is one thing that largely impacts a consumer's buying decision, so it pays to invest in an effective brand recognition strategy.

The good thing about brand recognition is that it is not limited to giant companies. It also offers substantial benefits for even small-scale businesses. As the cliché goes, familiarity breeds comfort. And when people have increased familiarity or brand recognition, then they are most likely to feel confident about using your products.

Increased Brand Credibility Means Increased Sales

What is Brand Credibility?

Brand credibility is often pointed out by marketing experts as one psychological factor that could trigger the buying impulse of consumers. However, just like with any type of triggers, it can produce a positive or negative effect. In this case, it refers to your brand's reputation and its ability (or inability) to convert that into sales.

As a business owner, you must try to change your perspective into that of the consumers. Try to understand how you would perceive various companies and how it affects your buying decisions. Most often, consumers would opt for those companies that are deemed to be experts in their respective industries.

Other factors that affect your buying patterns would include longevity, which covers the years that a company has been in existence. This reflects their mass appeal and quality of their service or product given that it has been patronized by a certain demographic and for that given period. This is what credibility in branding is about: the perception that people have of your business or company.

Establishing Credibility

Now that you understand what brand credibility is, you must face the harder question: how do you establish it? This is even more difficult for business newcomers or business startups because there is a lot of work to be done. Aside from that, you need to continually nourish it so as to be able to maintain that credibility that you have built up for your business.

Credibility is the heart of every business. Even though you offer quality products or services, if your customers perceive your company as incapable of delivering such level of quality, then it would be of no use. It would not be able to confirm your business as a reliable choice among several possible competing choices in the market.

To produce brand credibility, you need to meet the following categories:

• Non-verbal such as your logo or image,

• Verbal efforts through marketing or advertising,

• Mission and Vision of the business to exemplify your organization's values,

• and, Internal operations that is crucial in delivering your promises to the customer.

Following are tips on how you can build credibility towards success.

Customer Perceptions

You establish this initially by doing business that satisfies your customer. When you make advertisement claims about your product or service, you need to meet or exceed their expectation standards to be able to build that positive perception about your company. First impressions always last, so you need to make a good first impression if you want to increase market share.

Highlight Business Competence

Regardless of what product or service you are offering, you must demonstrate your expertise in that given field. Show data and statistics that serve as proof to what your company is capable of delivering. That is why most companies or websites advertise with testimonials to prove the results of using their product. When consumers see actual results, it extends from your products to your overall company image.

Consistency

As already mentioned above, establishing credibility is not a one-time process. Instead, you must also work on maintaining and enhancing it. After all, one mistake could easily trump the reputation you have built. Consistency then becomes of utmost importance in your business. It must be aligned with all processes involved in your business operations, from advertising, to the marketing, and production.

If you want to attain a certain level of standard, it must be true for all levels of business operation since this will serve to back up your integrity. Learn to follow the essentials of building and establishing brand credibility for it is one important aspect in achieving longevity.

Importance of Branding Your Business

Facilitating comsumer [sic] choice decisions: The importance of branding cues (SWP)
What is a Brand?

Branding your business is an essential step that any business owner need to take, whether yours is a small- or big-time business. In fact, it is something that must be looked into during the phase of business planning.

A brand is basically a name or a logo that will be used in advertising campaigns to represent your company or business. This will be used when printing out your business cards or when referring to your company. Hence, deciding on a brand must be undertaken with much consideration and thought. To sum it up, a brand details who you are, what you do, and how you do it.

Importance of Branding

There are several aspects that involve branding businesses. Each has its own importance and impact on attaining your business goals. This is a step that every beginning businessman needs to educate him or herself about because it will determine the company's performance in the future.

Here are reasons as to why business branding must be given careful thought:

Creating Business Identity

When you use a business idea to start your own business venture, chances are there are already some other existing businesses with the same nature as yours. Therefore, you need to create a brand for your business that will differentiate you from your competitors.

So when deciding on a brand name or logo for your company, you need to think of creative ways that will help make your business be easily remembered by potential customers. Distinction is a vital part of every business venture and when people find that you have something unique to offer that lets you stand out from competing businesses, then you are one step closer to your business goals.

Once you have created your company brand, then that is when you need to look into delivering quality product or service that your brand will be perceived as. That takes you now to the next essential aspect involved with branding, which is marketing.

Marketing and Advertising Campaign

Branding also impacts the sales force of your product. If you are able to create a brand name that people will easily remember and recognize for your outstanding products, then it helps create an efficient branding system for your company.

The first step for a successful business is taking the time to let people know who you are, what you do, and the means at which you do it. Properly communicating your company's vision through your brand is an essential stage of any business branding effort. Having established an effective company brand will also create awareness of the product you are promoting.

So, when people hear your brand, then they would easily think of your products or services and your company's reputation.

Impact of Internal Branding In Your Marketing Efforts

About Internal Branding

Most companies focus entirely on promoting their brand to create a positive perception on the consumer's brand that internal branding loses its share of the formula. An important share, at that. Marketing efforts are executed to establish a high-quality brand that delivers to the needs and demands of the consumers. But how do you ensure that you are delivering up to the standards of your company? This is where internal branding comes into play.

To attain good quality products and services for your brand, you need to take care of your business' internal processes first. Internal branding is about the focus you give on ensuring that practices and methods utilized in the creation of products or services meet your company's set of values. Branding must be done inside and out. You need to be able to reproduce these values in the mind of everyone who is a part of the organization so you can naturally promote your brand.

How Do You Achieve It?

You cannot produce a good marketing message to the public unless you start from within. That is something every business owner need to realize. Therefore, you need to learn strategies as to how you can effectively execute a sound internal branding system to ensure a cohesive take on developing a brand that will satisfy your potential customers.


Here's how you can do it:

• Gather together all of your development team work together in the development and creation of the brand to ensure that all methods are synchronized with your values and set of objectives laid out by the company.

• When hiring employees to work with you, choose those that are aligned with the corporate values of your company. Having the right set of skills will enable you to achieve the most effective brand representation you desire.

• Keep internal communication lines open at all times. This will enable you to reinforce and enhance whatever existing values that are being executed to meet the promise of your brand. If you keep nurturing this in the mind of the employees, then they will be able to develop that soon enough.


Benefits of Internal Branding

Aside from unity in your company's vision towards what you want to achieve with your brand, internal branding offers more benefits. If you are not aware of the potential benefits that internal branding offers, these are just a few ways that it can help boost your brand's campaign:

• Internal branding produces a healthy working environment and cohesive working culture. Once all employees understand the vision behind the brand, all components of the company are now geared towards the same goals.

• Internal branding produces a more consistent branding message. Once your brand have established a given brand reputation, your employees will be proud to represent your company while at the same time be challenged to meet its set of standards.

• Internal branding serves as an avenue to push for change.

• Internal branding develops your brand identity.


Basic Priciples

If you want to create an effective internal branding system, every company must give attention to the following set of principles:

1.) Give freedom not control. An effective internal branding management is one that emphasizes a set of rules that are agreed on by the employees, so they could genuinely contribute to the advancement of your brand.

2.) Decentralize. Learn how to trust your employees to deliver the quality your brand deserves.

3.) Communicate your company's message to the personnel first before the customers. How do you expect your employees to deliver the type of standard you want to achieve if they do not have proper understanding of the company's objectives?

4.) Synchronized operation. You need to be able to pull together different departments of the company so that everyone works at the same pace and perspective.

5.) Think long-term goals. No brand is created overnight. Therefore, you need to create that mindset in your personnel that enables them to think of the long-term impacts and effects of an effective internal branding system.

Expanding Your Business Branding Online

Promoting business branding online is similar and yet different from typical marketing strategies. Therefore, you have to make unique approach to this method of promoting your business brand. And yet, the benefits of using web tools in making your brand distinct include the ability to maximize your business efforts and expanding your business' reach. After all, it only makes sense to extend your branding efforts to the internet given the fact that most people nowadays use the internet as their source of daily information.

There are five major areas that you need to address when developing a strong business brand online.

URL Address

This is a crucial determiner for web browsers. Therefore, you must be able to produce a sense of identity for your website and provide a glimpse into your company even before they get the opportunity to see what your website is really about.

Keywords

The keywords are essential to help search engines connect you to the proper audience. Use keywords that are related to the nature of your website, so that it can be easily detected when people run a search on the internet. Try to be creative in coming up with keywords to use, especially those queries not directly related but associated to your business.

Website

This is where you get to showcase your company's vision and your offer of quality products or services. Therefore, you must create a website that speaks for your brand. There are several ways to do that, which includes the content, style, design, and colour. You must also incorporate your company logo in the design of the website, to enhance the level of trust and confidence on the consumers to your website. Therefore, you must refrain from compromising the substance of your website for style. A website is just another form of marketing strategy and its objective is to communicate your company's message.

Weblog

Your blog is basically where you focus on producing quality content. This will help establish your company's brand as something that is of authority to sell a given service or product. There are several spammers that infiltrate the online community, so you have to separate yourself from them. You can do this by remaining consistent with your vision and highlighting your focus on producing a quality brand.

Social Profiles

There are several social networking sites online such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Face book, among others. When you join any one of these social sites, always include your company signature or brand representative such as a logo. This will help visitors to easily remember your company and be on top of their list.

Business Branding Online Do's and Don’ts

• Utilizing social network sites that you are interested in as an avenue to promote your brand online is beneficial for your business. Here, you can make connections and expand the reach of your brand. Getting more people into your page will produce major brand building traffic into your site.

• Just write useful and quality content on your site. When people begin to realize the importance of your site's content, it will eventually impact your performance on search engines.

• Try to offer advice or solution to the needs of the people. But refrain from spamming since it would basically ruin your business' reputation.

Business branding online has expanded the reach of your branding efforts to produce a more promising growth for your company.

Essential Tips for Effective Business Branding

When a businessman embark on a new business venture, they readily go processing ideas on complicated marketing strategies and other ways of promoting their business but none of their efforts are dedicated to business branding. Indeed, with so much factors coming into play, it is easy to miss out on the most essential and basic aspect. But that is just one half of it, since the other half is dedicated into ensuring that you can build an effective brand that will produce results for your marketing efforts.

But the key to an effective branding strategy is to be able to deliver. You must be able to back up your claims and produce exactly as you say. Majority of your business sales and profits come from repeat customers, after all. An effective business branding system involves the following:

Customer Satisfaction

Brand is just a mere representation of your company. Therefore, it must reflect exactly what your business can deliver for the customers and build its reputation from there. If you cannot produce quality product or services, then regardless of how potent your branding system or strategies are, you'd never be able to turn your marketing campaigns into a sales force.

Therefore, you need to be as sensitive to your customers' needs as possible. But only to a certain extent that you still hold control over the image and reputation that you want your brand to exhibit.

Indeed, brand equity is a vital aspect in every business, especially consumer-based equity. It reflects the level of trust and attitude that a customer has towards a product associated with a given brand. This is impacted by the actual experience that a consumer has had with the product such that brand loyalty is affected by factors such as perceived quality and the delivery of the product.

Consistency

One of the most effective ways to build trust amongst your customers is to be consistent with the message you are trying to convey. Consistency is most important when exhibiting the values that are key and vital in your company. Then, focus on every aspect of your business to ensure that it remains consistent with the values professed by your company and that they make a good representation of the company's vision.

Expanding Your Brand

Creating a brand for your company is not only limited to the creation of a logo. While it is essential, your work does not stop there. After all, a logo is just a representation of your professional image but there are several factors in between that would help translate them into sales. You do not even have to spend lots of money to fulfill them. In every form of communication that you use in your business transactions, include your company logo in it, whether you'd be using business cards, yellow page ads, newsletters, letterhead, invoices, envelopes, and many more. Your logo is of no use unless you are able to capitalize on it and make it do its work for you.

Managing Your Brand

As market trends continue to change and evolve, so must your approach at branding strategies. While you set your own company's branding standards, you also need to look into exceeding those promises you've set and this is one of the most effective ways to generate more customers. On the other end, one failure could eventually ruin your business' reputation on a long haul.

If you see any opportunity where changes can be done or improvements can be executed, then don't be afraid to execute them. This is one way for your business to stay on top of things and keep up with changing trends in the market for an effective business branding effort.

Elements of an Effective Business Brand

Building a Business Brand

No business brand is produced overnight. It follows a methodical process that involves strategy and organization. But if you think that once you have a business name and logo that your work is already done, then you need to know that even with long-standing business the process of brand management is still ongoing. Aside from time, some big companies even invest lots of time and amount just to ensure that the legacy of the brand remains consistent to the values embodied by the company.

Small-time business owners can take comfort in the fact that building a brand need not be expensive. All you need is commitment to the process to provide a focus and consistency on your branding efforts. There are four elements involved in producing a successful business brand.

Consistent Message

One of the best way to achieve a consistent marketing approach is to create a unified name, logo, and image. This is one of the most efficient ways that you can communicate what your business is about to your potential customers. Therefore, you need to bear in mind about the vision and mission of your company, which is initially the inspiration behind the design of the logo. Then, you need to use that in relation with what marketing strategies you employ to promote your brand image and increase awareness.

Even when you come up with innovative marketing ideas to reinvent your image or offer customers something new, it has to remain true to the ideals of your business.

Brand Planning

Careful brand planning is essential in building a strong business brand. Regardless of what marketing methods you utilize to enhance brand awareness, you need to look into each detail that is involved with the process. This helps ensure that you are able to achieve consistency, which is a crucial element indicated above.

You need to identify what branding strategies will enable you to achieve your goals. If it does not work, what back-up plans do you have? All marketing efforts are aimed towards strengthening your brand to gain a return of investment.

Branding System

This is the part wherein you put into action everything you have designed during brand planning. Different systems must be employed for every phase involved in the overall business and brand development. It must properly outline what steps you and your employees must take during certain circumstances. Bear in mind that a holistic and integrated system is key in creating a strong brand.

Review and Management

Every brand must continually undergo a review process. Since consumers' needs and demands change, so must your brand's marketing approach. Here are aspects of the brand review and management procedures that you must take into account:

• Product benefits and features

• Market competition

• Changing customer needs and demands

• Marketing methods used

Continued evaluation of these factors in relation to your brand's marketing strategies will help produce a more efficient and cohesive marketing efforts. You will have brand managers to look into the welfare of the brand and what methods are to be executed to enhance its market performance. However, internal branding is still of importance since they are the ones that are responsible for delivering these products or services.

So, it is therefore important that they are aware about the business brand's objectives as well.

Effect of Word-of-Mouth Marketing on Your Branding Strategy

Word of Mouth Marketing

There's probably no more effective branding strategy in existence than word of mouth marketing. However, only few realize its actual potential in helping you build a successful business and branding system. What could be better than having actual people talk others into doing business with your company? It is a common thing for people to do, which is talk about something a recent product that they were satisfied or had good experiences with.

And yet, word of mouth marketing does not cost you anything. It is just as effective as other methods of advertising or increasing awareness about your company's products or services but without the entailing costs and investments. Even marketing experts profess word of mouth marketing to be the most potent means of communicating a company's marketing message.

Effects of Word of Mouth Marketing

If you have seen various TV commercials or websites that sell products, then you might already be familiar with testimonials. This is a marketing ploy utilized by most business owners in order to provide a valid proof with regards to the benefits and claims made by the company, which is in the form of actual users of the product.

However, there is a discrepancy here: if business owners were to tap people to provide a testimony about a product and the results experienced, then it is most likely a biased demographic. The business owner will pick only users who have something positive to say about the product, since their main intent is to influence the buying choices of the consumers.

This is when the power of word of mouth marketing becomes evident. Using this method to communicate the potentials of a given brand creates a personal connection between the consumers and the product in question. Previous users to the product who attained satisfaction from it can recommend the product to their friends or family members. Therefore, business owners can get free advertisement out of that, which is probably as effective (or more) than a TV ad but without the costs.

Word of mouth marketing can work to a company's disadvantage as well. It happens when people who have tried the product have certain complaints about bad service, or bad quality products, and unsatisfactory customer relations. Research reveals that word of mouth marketing essentially has a bigger impact on the buying decisions of people aged between 18 to 34 and 35-54.

Bigger Customer Voice

It has been highly emphasized by marketing experts that if you want to maintain or increase your market share, you need to work on providing excellent customer service. This will ensure that you get a share of loyal customers who believe and trust in your brand. If you're able to successfully enhance that trust, then you are able to produce a good customer voice. Therefore, when these individuals are asked to say something about your company, they only have positive views to say.

Hence, several companies are now devising methods to improve their “listening” ability when it comes to customer voice. Indeed, improving customer communications will produce satisfied customers and consequently increase the potential of producing more positive word of mouth marketing.

Tips for Increasing Word of Mouth Marketing

A recent study conducted to determine the most influential marketing methods; word of mouth marketing came out on top. Hence, it has raised awareness on the important role that consumers play in influencing other's buying options. Therefore, you can utilize a positive word of mouth marketing to create your own sound branding strategy. Here's how you can do it:

• Create a branding strategy that will get people interested and have them talk about it. Unless you can arouse their curiosity and attention, you will not succeed in this.

• See to it that you satisfy customer needs. When people are happy about your product, they will joyfully and willingly recommend it to others.

• Respond to feedbacks, whether positive or negative. Aside from promoting your business, you can utilize word of mouth marketing as a means to gather essential information on how you can improve your service and branding strategy.

Creating Powerful Message with a Potent Branding System

Your Brand's Mission

The basic framework of an efficient branding system is a vision. Vision is translated into a brand and that brand is utilized in various communication methods to deliver a message to the market and the consumers. That is how the process works. But in reality, it is not as simple as it sounds or appears. There are several variables involved that could end up you sending the wrong message. Hence, you need to constantly evaluate the branding system you use to ensure that you are communicating your company's message effectively.

Every company nowadays desire to build a strong brand, because it is after all what helps one produce profits and build a loyal customer base. But what most companies often fail to realize is that brands are avenues to showcase the mission of the organization. Although some companies who fail to do this experience some level of commercial success, those who give much attention to utilizing their brand as a means to deliver their mission is one that is able to withstand the challenges and downturns of the marketing industry.

Purpose of Brand

You can exert your effort on the creation of a logo, name, or design for your company, but the essence behind them is what is truly important in every business branding system. It is not just one of these elements but rather a combination of them all. But how will the market be able to create that distinction about your company against other companies if you cannot foster it to deliver a message?

The brand holds immense power over your company since it is what customers utilize to create perceptions about the company which the brand represents. Therefore, branding is not something that is restricted to large scale companies and be given attention to, but it is basically for all levels of businesses.

Steps towards a Brand Strategy

If you want to arrive at a cost-efficient strategy, your first order of business is to get into the mind of your potential customers. This must be given much attention to when doing your market research. Gather as much information about your customer demographics that you can utilize in the development of your brand. But do not simply settle for that; instead, learn more about what factors would encourage them or prompt them to act on the impulse to heed the message being delivered by your brand. This is the part wherein you tailor your message based on what appeals to the emotional and physical needs of the consumers.

The word-of-mouth is one of the most effective yet cheap advertising tools that you can utilize within your company. Hence, you need to gather ideas on how you can produce a brand that will have people talk about it and convince others to respond to the message of your brand.

Internal Branding

In whatever type of brand strategy you employ, you must focus on remaining consistent with the overall vision and objectives of the company. This also helps build a stronger level of trust among your customers about the reputation of your company.

Therefore, you need to hire and develop people who understand the importance of the core values exhibited in the company's vision and objectives. Having people within your company who realize exactly what the brand wants to showcase to people, then you are more capable of producing a cohesive and consistent message to the market about what your brand is about. This will also help ensure that you can deliver the promises of the company as part of your branding system.

Creating A Strong Business Brand

Creating a business brand is one thing, but creating a strong business brand is another. Therefore, every starting businessman needs to be aware of the fundamentals involved in creating a business brand that would enable your product to excel in the market. However, you must not be scared by this process; instead, try to enjoy the exercise of brand building and you will be able to build a brand that you can be proud of and your customers will love.

Focus on the Business

Before even thinking of a brand, think first of your business. After all, the brand is merely a representative of your business. So, you must refrain from focusing too much on developing an effective brand without giving attention to the business. Your brand must come as a result of your business, not the other way around.

Therefore, you need to come up with your band depending on the following factors:

*nature of business
*type of service to customers
*distinction from competitors

Nature of Business

One of the purposes of creating a brand is to communicate to the consumers what your company does. Therefore, take time to evaluate the nature of your business and the distinct attributes and images it tries to convey to the market. If possible, try to produce your brand according to the specific target market that you are aiming for your business. Is your business catering to mothers, young adults, or children? This will help establish the name and image for your business.

Once you increase awareness of your brand as a representative of your company's products or services, only then can you expect to experience increased sales. Therefore, creating a firm brand that will be easily remembered and distinct will enable you to create a loyal customer base.

Type of Service

The entailing concept surrounding a brand name such as a logo, strap line, mission statement, or colour scheme are all but abstract concepts. What establishes a brand as a concrete representation for your company and business is the experience that your customer has with your product or service. Therefore, you need to establish that relationship between your customer and the kind of service you bring to them as one aspect that will enable your brand to establish itself in the memory of your customer.

Indeed, perceived value of your company is a vital formula that would produce a strong business brand. It is not all about images but delivering to the emotional and physical needs of your customer will help reinforce your brand's campaign in the market.

Distinction from Competition

Although examining the type of brand that is utilized by your competitors will help you establish your own brand, you need to differentiate from them while exceeding them at the same time. Distinction must not only arise from the business name or logo itself, but in terms of the quality of service that you deliver. What can you offer that your competitors have not and cannot offer customers? Then, incorporate that into the creation of your brand so you will easily be able to capture customer's attention as to the possibility of doing business with you.

In a market that is flooded with several other businesses, making yourself unique and distinct from others is one way to establish the reputation of your business. Couple that with a passion for delivering top-notch customer and quality service, you are sure to establish a strong business brand that will help your company achieve its goals.

Creating a Business Brand Through a Down Economy

Branding in a Troubled Economy

A good business brand is one that can withstand an ailing economy. In today's times wherein majority of the world is suffering from financial crisis, small- to big-time businesses are feeling the impact of this downturn.

This is when your branding campaign will be put to the test. Indeed, when businesses are competing for what remains of the market, you have to double your efforts at making the brand enable your business to thrive. What is also essential in these times is to never discount the impact of quality and improving value statements. These are important factors that hold promise to deliver more to the clients and keep your business afloat.

Are You Recession-Proof?

Branding seems to lose its vigor during recession. People tend to buy base on logic and needs, rather than impulse or perceptions. Therefore, you have to maintain or improve the kind of value, property, and benefits that your product promises its consumers. This is something that you must not lose focus on in your branding and marketing efforts, but its significance become more evident during times of recession.

If you want to add more value to your brand to make it better able to withstand the challenges of a suffering economy, here are areas of your branding system that must be given focus on:

• During recession, most businesses would tend to cut back on their marketing efforts and investments. On the contrary, this is the time wherein you need to strengthen your marketing efforts.

• Create more aggressive marketing programs to be able to capture a bigger share of the market.

• Assert yourself on consumers largely affected by recession by offering better value on your products.

• Your advertising campaign must highlight quality, economic benefits, and real benefits as opposed to appeal to their superficial concerns.

Helping Your Brand Survive The Recession

When recession has hit the consumers, buying becomes a less desirable practice. This will largely impact your business' efforts and this is made worse by the intensity of competition amongst various similar businesses.

Try using the following practices to keep your business thriving:

1.) Never change your brand identity. Doing so will reduce the trust you have built on the customers and will also ruin your reputation. Merely try to restructure the messages you are trying to deliver but make sure that it stays within the context of your basic brand identity.

2.) Utilize this time to appeal to your customer's needs by performing a more thorough market research. This will produce an impression that you are concerned about their needs and are seeking for ways to deliver that.

3.) If your business' products are mostly high-end, do not simply revert to dropping prices. Instead, try improving the value and quality of your products so that customers will have a better quality spending habit.

4.) Be open to potential new customers. In times of recession, people are in the process of re-evaluating their spending habits. This is your opportunity to come into the picture and offer your business as a possible solution.

Ensuring Brand Stability

Consumers change their buying patterns during recession, but business owners must remain committed with their branding strategies. However, you do have to make slight and appropriate changes though, such as increased sensitivity to this new buying attitude exhibited by consumers. During times of recession, you have to stay committed in helping your customers attain quality service and products that add more value to their money. This is your winning formula.

And with increased dedication to your business brand, you will also increase the loyalty of your patrons.

Common Branding Mistakes and Myths

What Makes a Brand Identity?

Branding is an aspect of every business that consist of visual elements and are used for the company's marketing purposes. Therefore, most business owners would hire a professional logo designer to execute the concepts laid out by the company, which they believe will help communicate the company's business into the market. This logo will then be used as a marketing material that will appear on business cards, envelopes, letterheads, or other professionally related materials.

Establishing that brand identity is one of the initial steps that must be taken by a company if it wish to achieve market success. Hence, this process must involve careful brand planning and though to avoid damaging your business. You must also look into how the customers might perceive the message being delivered by your brand, to avoid having it work against you.

Designing the Brand

There is no need to reiterate the importance of your brand identity to the success of your business. Therefore, this is an area of your business planning and startup that must be left to the professionals, especially if you are new to the business industry. Although you might have a sense of creativity, graphic designing becomes an entirely different concept when it is associated with using it as a marketing tool.

Apart from being creative and visually appealing, the brand logo must have meaning and is able to convey essential information about your company. Here are some benefits you can get from hiring a professional to design your logo:

*The creation of your brand logo will serve as priority. Hence, you are able to set a specific time-frame for the completion of the job to ensure that it is being focused on closely.
*As a professional logo designer, it is their job to utilize their unique skills as a graphic designer and incorporate their expertise on the importance of logo in relation to the marketing side of your business.

Customizing Brand Design

Contrary to popular belief, designing your own company logo to use as marketing material is not expensive. But of course this is relative, especially if you insist on using high-quality materials for this but this is totally your own preference should you have enough budget for this. If not, then a sound concept and a skilled logo designer will be able to produce a strong brand.

After all, this is a business investment since your brand can impact your sales. This is a relatively inexpensive investment with a potential for a lucrative profit.

Understanding the Importance of Branding

Several businessmen tend to neglect the creation of a brand identity. Therefore, most of them fail in their business endeavors and yet they do not even realize where the lapses are coming from. A brand identity is as essential as some of the basic priorities in every business startup such as a business name, bank account, or operating system. And if ever a brand is created, most business owners do not look into the details of the brand and thus ending up with a brand that misrepresent their company.

Below is a list of common branding mistakes that must be avoided:

• Failure to create an efficient brand planning.

• Not giving full commitment to the management and review of the brand.

• Inability to establish internal branding.

• Lack of a sound marketing plan.

• Trying way too hard to create distinction to the point of inaccessibility.

Branding your business is never easy but once you recognize the factors that could impede your business' progress, then you're on your way there.

Color Coordinated Business Branding

Image is a vital factor in any business branding effort. Colour is part of the process of building an image. If you might notice, several top businesses are recognized by their distinct colours. Therefore, you need to realize the potential impact that carefully choosing the colour to use as part of your brand strategy will help establish your company's image amongst consumers.

Importance of Colour

Although it might seem trivial, colour affects the memory recalls of consumers on your product or company overall. When they think of a certain colour similar to the ones used by your company brand, then they will easily associate that colour with your product. The presence of colour will then stimulate one's senses and sending message signals without having to initiate a communicative pattern.

Now that you know the role that colour plays in your brand strategy, the next big dilemma is choosing the colour to use. However, even this one shouldn't be as difficult provided that you have clearly set out the guidelines and vision you have for the company. Once you have chosen the colour, you must then use that in all of your business promotional materials to further enhance the prominence of the colour in association with your company and its products or services.

Each colour has its universal meaning that you must take into account before using them in your business branding efforts. Here are basic colours to consider:

Blue

The colour blue, universally speaking, is a well-liked colour. It exudes a feeling of trustworthy, responsibility, and security. That is why blue is also commonly used in the business industry because it is not only pleasant to look at, but it exudes a positive vibe as it is a colour associated with the sea and sky. The message of stability conveyed by the use of this colour builds up trust among individuals working within an institution.

Red

Another popular colour used in several brand of company. The colour red stimulates your senses rapidly; hence it is an attention grabbing colour that creates the impression of being aggressive and energetic. This colour is utilized by businesses who want to evoke emotion and quick response from potential customers. Fast food chains typically use the colour red because it exhibits a hot, burning and intensify attitude.

Green

In terms of its universal meaning, green connotes health and serenity. But the meaning can differ though according to the shades of green used. Lighter shades of green produce a calming effect while darker ones exude wealth and prestige.

Yellow

This is a colour closely associated with the sun. Therefore, it is a colour that you might want to use if you want to establish a positive message of optimism and warmth. There are also varying shades for this colour but their meaning ranges from creating motivation to producing positive energy. Bright yellows effectively capture the eyes, so you might want to use this colour for displays and you can get people's attention, which is the first step in every purchase process.

Black

This is a classic choice of colour for a business brand. Aside from that, it also connotes a bold, powerful, and sophisticated persona. Therefore, this colour is quite common for expensive products or most sophisticated gadgets.

White

As always, white signifies simplicity and purity. Because any white object produce a certain level of brightness, it is good for use on signages. The same with black, it also helps you achieve a professional and powerful image. This colour is best associated with products relating to health and sanitary care.

Use all these pointers when choosing a colour for use on your business branding strategy and you will be able to produce more impact on your marketing campaigns.

Business Name & Branding

Importance of a Business Name

An effective branding system starts with a great name. Unless you can put a name to your company that will distinguish it, you cannot proceed with creating a brand. It is similar to a newborn child, who must first be named before he or she can create their unique identity. Only then can you proceed with succeeding methods that are aimed at creating your mark in the market and enabling your business growth.

Creating a Name

Naming a company or brand is not as easy as naming a newborn child. Indeed, multiple factors come into play such as producing a name with a good recall on the consumers, the type of product you have in your business, its features and usage, and other benefits that consumers can experience from using it. That is just one aspect of what you need to consider when naming your product or brand.

The other end of the formula requires you to envision yourself in the mindset of the consumers. How is the product useful to me? And what benefits can I get from using it? Add to that all other competing businesses that offer the same product as you do. These are all pointers you need to look into if you want to get a share of the market and increase sales production.

Do's and Don'ts

Creating a business name can be confusing sometimes, either for lack or excess of ideas that make it difficult filtering them out. Below are a few tips you should consider when naming a business:

• Opt for memorable and catchy names instead of generic ones that are difficult to register in the minds of the consumers.

• Never use names that literally describes the product. Go for creative ones.

• If possible, do not use geographical names because it limits the scope of your business. However, this is an advantage if your product is associated with a given locale or affinity.

• Refrain from restrictive names to save you from trouble in the future in case you want to expand your line of business.

• Keep them short so as to produce memorable names.

Name as Part of Branding Strategy

A business name is not just a name; it represents your business identity. And in the business community, the way you represent and project your image is crucial in determining success. This is because perceptions, more than the actual value of the product or services, is essential in helping consumers decide on whether to buy that product or not. On top of the brand itself, it makes association with the company and its reputation. That is why most businesses spend and invest most of their efforts on building a trusted business reputation that will strengthen the trust of consumers on their company.

Your business name essentially determines how far your company will go in this endeavor. When people encounter your business or brand, you have only a meager amount of time to catch their attention. If you fail to do so, then you would have lost a potential customer. More than just intriguing, a good business name is one the compels your target market. If you can produce one, then it will surely catapult your business to your desired commercial success.

A good business name is not just a superficial aspect involved in branding but rather a legitimate business factor that must be taken into consideration.

How Can You Measure A Brand?

Measuring a Brand

Every business involves its own share of tangible and intangible assets, but brand is one of the most basic areas that business owners focus on. In a recent marketing research, it was revealed that brand equity played a vital role in determining its market value. Therefore, measuring a brand is one of the first steps undertaken by the head of the company if they wish to incur higher revenues.

How To Measure?

There are several elements involved in trying to measure a brand and its market value. All these factors intersect with one another such that they impact one another in evaluating the importance of a given brand and its value in the market. There are several variables involved such as whether you are weighing more importance on pricing or is more interested in enlarging your share of the market. That is something that you need to figure out amongst your organization first. Then, you can take into account the following brand value measures to reach your desired goals.

Price Premium

You need to evaluate your own brand and put yourself in the mindset of the consumers. How much are you willing to pay for that brand? Most recognized brands typically place higher premiums on their product as compared to other similar products from unknown brands. There are several marketing aspects to consider here but you can establish your brand by trying to lower your price to get a bigger share of the market. You have to conduct a thorough market research though before you come up with any decisions, so you have a basis for your evaluation.

Customer Satisfaction

To come up with a tangible data about this, you might have to conduct a survey. This will enable you to track down goods or services that appeal most to consumers. You can also take note whether there are any repeat purchases. This will enable you to effectively measure your brand's value in the market.

Perceived Quality

Based on the level of satisfaction and benefits derived from the use of the product, consumers will have their varying perceptions when it comes to the quality of a given product. But even this one entails several variables such as consistency of delivering quality products or its performance in comparison to competition.

Perceived Value

There are two ways to look into this one: in terms of money and benefits. However, these two are interlaced. Meaning, consumers determine the value of a product for its money based on whether it delivers the kind of benefits that the product promised and the consumers expect from it.

Organization's Reputation

Even though it is not directly concerned with the product that a customer is in the process of buying, the reputation of the company behind the product impacts their buying choices. Is it a credible organization? Is it something that I can trust? Building that reputation comes in part of a business' effort to build a strong brand.

Awareness

To achieve this, most businesses often work on establishing brand recognition. Brand recall oftentimes lead to purchases since most buyers opt to buy something that is familiar to them, as opposed to an unknown product or brand. You need to work on protecting your brand though as a few mistake can destroy the brand that you have built.

Establishing a value for your brand proves to be difficult and a lot of hard work. And yet, money is only a meager factor in the entire formula. Only when a brand has established itself well enough such that consumers are willing to pay for it, regardless of the price, does it achieve its true value as a brand.

Business Branding that Drives Sales

Importance of Business Branding

Business branding is not just a one-time process. Rather, it is something you work on and build up over a period of time. After all, branding reflects your reputation as a business enterprise. Along with your efforts to create and manage your brand is the efforts of trying to build and protect your relationship with the customer base.

One of the best ways to establish the prominence of your brand in the market is by remaining consistent with the message that is conveyed by your marketing efforts. Refrain from claiming to produce bold and large scale promises. Your customers will easily remember when you fail to deliver in those promises. You could easily lose that reputation that took you years to build. Therefore, you need to pay attention to exactly what you need to do (and what not to do) if you want to turn that trust you have created amongst your customer base into increased sales.

Campaign for Brand Awareness

Since every brand is distinct, you must also utilize varying approaches in communicating the brand's message across to its target market. This part entails immense creativity and a certain level of sensitivity to the needs of your prospected customers.

If you are not sure how to do this, you can take hint from other highly successful brands in the market. Study how they utilize their brand and what strategies they employ to get more people drawn into their brand. For instance, you can work on an emotional campaign, which is something that is rather difficult to do. But once you are able to establish that, then you could potentially increase your sales. One important thing to remember when you are using an emotional campaign is to always speak the truth about what your product is about and what it can do that will benefit your target market.

Tips for a Successful Emotional Campaign

If you decide that you want to appeal on your customer's emotion as your business branding strategy, then you need to consider various aspects that'll make it work. One way to effectively do that is share a story. This story could be fictional or not, but it should have some relation to the brand you are trying to campaign on. The idea here is to be able to produce some sort of personal improvement or progress by using the product.

If possible, base the emotional campaign on the brand itself, not just on the product. That way, you'd be able to produce a distinct campaign that will easily set you apart from competing companies. Then, whatever this message that you use in your campaign, try on remaining consistent with that. You can use different methods and campaign variations, but the message must remain the same in all of your brands.

After you have finalized your campaign, verify every bit of detail that is included in the campaign, whether you are using it for TV or print advertising.

Preserving Business Reputation

The brand recognition phase is over and now you have to utilize ways to preserve your company's reputation. It must involve taking notes and analyzing of your company's actions and how the customers perceive those actions, in relation to their satisfaction about your brand's performance and some other related factors.

Again, sensitivity to your customer's needs and using your brand to address that is one of the most effective measures toward business branding. As you go forward in your business efforts, try to learn more about effective business branding strategies to expand the reach of your brand in the market.

Business Branding Strategies and Tips

Employing proper business branding strategies could spell the success for your business. Although it might be an intangible aspect of your business, it is basically what convinces people to buy or avail of your products or services. And when you garner enough sales, then only then can your business thrive.

What is a Branding Strategy?

A brand is not just a logo or a name, it represents your business identity. Therefore, it is a crucial part of the startup process for any business. Branding strategies are employed to provide the fundamental steps and recognize the valuable tools that will help create a strong business brand. In general terms, a strong brand is one that people recognize and believe to deliver good quality. Have you ever found yourself at the grocery choosing one product over the other because it is the more recognized or trusted brand?

It is therefore a branding strategy's objective to recognize what could turn your business into a trusted brand name. How can you make people trust your brand and its reputation? What should you do to communicate the objective and mission of your company? What is the message you are trying to send out to produce loyal customers? A sound business branding strategy will aim to find answers to these questions before you can establish a brand for your company that would excel in the market.

Create Name, Logo, or Website

Coming up with a name for your business goes hand in hand with creating a logo that will identify your company. When it comes to logos, always opt for something unique. Logos will be utilized in your advertising and marketing campaigns, so it must be well-recognized.

For beginners, think of a logo that will readily hint consumers about the nature of your business – such as whether you are in the food, automotive, or telecommunications business. Hence, choose images that are associated with the nature of your business and the products they will be used to represent.

Slogan or Tagline

Once you have the logo that you want, you can think of a slogan that will reinforce the message you are trying to communicate to the consumers. As long as you keep this part brief and straightforward, then this can be an effective branding tool for your business. This tagline will serve as an additional touch to the main message you are trying to give, thus giving you an edge over your competitors and highlighting the unique experience or service that consumers will be able to avail of.

One advantage that you can get with including a tagline is that it is not permanent, unlike the logo. Therefore, if your company wishes to employ a new marketing strategy, you can readily change your tagline to highlight this new marketing ploy. A tagline then opens up several opportunities to expand your marketing campaigns, as compared to the static nature of company logos because they are the ones more difficult to establish.

Colors and Images

As with logos, colors and images can be used to establish the identity of your business. Colors depict a corresponding set of emotions as well. Therefore, you need to carefully pick out exactly what type of color you are going to use in your logo in accordance with the image and personality of your business. Try to conduct a little bit of research about the different qualities of color types so you can determine exactly what best to use for your company.

Unique Services

When communicating your company brand into the market, highlight the services that only you can offer. If you can guarantee a service that none of your competition can, then you create an edge on your customers over the same businesses. Then, you can use that as a chief marketing strategy to draw more people into your business. An example of this would be a time guarantee on your delivery services, if you're in the food business.

Learning how to effectively employ these business branding strategies will help boost your company's campaign and be that much closer to your desired business success.

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Building A Business Brand Through Company Image

http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Brand-Initiative-Companies-Corporate/dp/0787998303

Business and Image
In order to establish a strong business brand, you also need to create a strong business image. This will be used by potential customers or consumers to assess their own expectations about the company. There is a crucial moment in every marketing strategy that is aimed at attracting the customers' attention about your product and you achieve this through your company image and brand, which is also why it is of extreme importance.

More than any type of impression, you want to create a positive image on your customers. This will help ensure that you are among the top of their list when considering buying a product similar to yours. This is just the initial phase and eventually the confidence of your customers on your brand will soon come into play.

Creating a Professional Logo

In the world of business, the logo represents who you are as a business. Hence, it should be able to capture and reflect the nature of your business at its most basic level. Identity and reputation should be followed thereafter.

As a reflection of your company, your objective is to design a logo with a professional touch because it is what creates the initial impression on the mid of the consumers. These first impressions are almost always impossible to undo, so you cannot risk coming up with a mediocre design. If you are unsure how to execute a design, it is always best to hire a professional to do it for you. This will help you attain a more consistent design for your logo that reinforces the message that your company is trying to convey. In fact, most businesses (big or small) allot an investment for this and you should as well.

As simple as it may sound, designing a logo is an intricate process, which is why you need a professional help realize your vision and visualize your business concepts. Among the elements that must be considered and combined effectively are colors, shapes, light, space, and so much more. Make sure to include this in your brand planning process.

Business Input Into The Design

Although you leave the designing job to the hands of a professional logo designer, this does not mean that you (the business owner) is eliminated from the formula. This is your business and it is your vision, therefore it is the most essential element in the logo creation process.

The process involves you gathering information and producing creative ideas that will be utilized by the designer in coming up with the design. Hence, careful planning and brainstorming of ideas is an essential step to take before jumping into the actual design process. You two must work in a symbiotic manner – you can share your business input to the designer for them to translate a graphic representation of your ideas, while they can propose designing elements that will jive with your business identity.

Where To Get Creative Ideas?

When dealing with the technical aspect of marketing strategy, often the challenge is to produce creative ideas for your design. The key here is to stimulate your brain to arouse creative thoughts that will make your brand stand out and still maintain that professional image.

Here are great tips you can try to squeeze out those creative juices:

1.) Spend time reading to be able to get inspiration from various reading materials.

2.) Search the web and observe various sites you visit. Look at how the design are produced and what kind of reaction it elicited on you.

3.) Ask your employees or other staffs for ideas. You can turn a small idea and develop it into a valid design concept.

Image is such a vital element in the business brand, which is why it is your main objective to create a professional design that is going to last.

Business Branding: The art of Internet Branding

Business Branding: The art of Internet Branding: "What is Internet Branding? Internet branding is one strategy that business owners can employ to establishing their position in the marketpl..."

Brand Valuation

What is Brand Valuation?

Over the years, brand valuation is being recognized as an important factor to be used in the analysis of marketing and finance efforts involved in the company. It falls under the intangible business assets category and is being closely looked into for ways to expand market share. Hence, many are undertaking new approaches that will boost efforts to increase the value of a given brand.

Since brand is a potent factor in every business, business owners are more interested in being able to translate that into financial terms. This is where brand valuation comes in. It is closely associated, if not directly related, to consumer perceptions about a brand and its list of products or services. However, aside from monetizing that value, business owners also utilize the impact of brand valuation as a way to determine areas that need to be improved to boost performance.

Determining Value of Brand

As a corporate asset, a brand is essential in helping increase the company's bottom line. If you can create a solid brand that increases your company's value to shareholders or consumers, then it will help increase your business potential. The concept of brand value remains quite hazy though, given the fact that no clear method has been established to measure exactly the value and worth of a given brand, especially because it is an intangible asset.

Still, there are a few who remains unconvinced as to what a brand really means. It could be the symbol that represents your company such as a name or logo. This then becomes a symbol for what the company stands for and promise to deliver. That definition of the brand is where value comes in as a brand is expected to deliver the expectations it has created to the consumers. To be able to do that takes commitment from the internal operations of the brand.

However, one cannot precisely give an exact value for a brand. There are direct and indirect processes involved though that enables a company to come up with a definite price for the brand, based on the investment put into developing it.

Direct Valuation Methods

To come up with a direct valuation method for a brand, it takes into account all investments put into the brand while also considering inflation. Other direct methods of value measurement used are Franchise Valuation and Awareness Valuation. When business owners plan on releasing a new product into the market, they typically include into the product value the advertising budget for that given product to increase awareness among consumers.

Indirect Valuation Methods

This is a more complicated process of determining the value of a brand than the one above. One process involves assessing the probable profit earnings that a particular brand is projected to produce. This method takes into consideration the effect that a brand has on the actual sales and profits acquisition. Another method also employs the use of the brand name in considering how one arrives with a value for the product.

Basically, all these methods are merely educated guesses to be able to account an efficient method for putting a price into the brand. Despite all existing debates about what the best method to use in computing brand value, or if brand value does offer any significant impact at all in the sales department, is something that will be settled only with the help of proper strategy. A brand is primarily not just a logo or name, but it is the set of values exhibited by your company for a consistent period.

So, as long as you have established the quality of your brand, then brand valuation should be easier to figure out.