Sarah Orchard
Every person and product or service has an image or ‘Brand’, as much as we would like to think that this is not the case. Often our own personality creates an image and perhaps your business trades on this if your skills are the service you are selling
However, Branding isn’t just about your company logo – it goes far deeper than that!
Branding is about how you position your business to your customers. The key to successful branding is consistency in what you say and do in your business. Your actions will create perceptions with people about your business. If you are not consistent your business will seem a bit schizophrenic! A lack of consistency is very damaging to your brand.
Branding is not a one-off exercise when you start up your business with a decision on a business name and designing your logo.
Your brand is made up of several elements including:
- Your business name
- The names you give your products or services
- Your logo
- Any slogan or strapline you use
- Your company website
- The style and quality of your stationery and promotional materials
- Any product packaging
- Your premises or where you meet your clients/customers
- Signage at your premises
- Company vehicles
- How you and your employees dress and behave
- Where and how you communicate
Before you can start designing and developing the above areas, you will need to start by defining what you want your business to stand for. These are your ‘Brand Values’. The easiest way to think of these, is as the words you would want your customer and potential customers to use if asked to describe your business. It would be the first three to five words they would say. For example, when customers are asked to describe Virgin Atlantic Airways they might say – contemporary, fun, challenging, customer-focused and innovative.
Once you have defined these you need to think about what you will do to make people associate these ‘Values’ with your business. This will help your business stand apart from your competition and develop a brand image. You can then start to work with a designer to translate these values into the look and feel of your logo, website and other physical things that help to communciate this to people.
You will need to regularly monitor your brand by getting feedback from your customers and potential customers on how they feel towards your company and the image you are communicating.
