Want Better Marketing? Invest In Your Brand.

Let’s take a second to analyze the definition of brand.  Brand is a name, term, design, symbol or other feature that distinguishes one seller’s product from those of others. They are used in business, marketing, and advertising.

Now, think hard about what your brand is at your business.  Do you have proper branding? Is it consistent? Does it set you apart from others?  Does it say something about your business?

Here are some easy tips on how to get your brand working for you:

• Do Your Research: If you don’t have solid branding put into place, turn it into an opportunity to create and do it right. You must first do your research.  Brainstorm on what you feel best encompasses your business.  Is it an image or specific colors that must be used to best tell your story?  Look at what the competition is doing.  Research great marketing agencies or graphic designers.  Don’t settle for the first thing that you find.  It’s a process that is well worth doing your homework on.
• Don’t Be Cheap: Your branding is such an important part of your business. So, when developing your logo and marketing materials, consider them your most precious intellectual properties of the business.  Don’t look for the most affordable option, but weight the quality with the price.  It’s something that will hopefully be with you your entire time in business and the return on investment will be well worth the money you spent building it at the beginning.
• Be Consistent: Consumers are researching from all different mediums (websites, word or mouth, radio, T.V., etc.)  When you’re doing anything at all to market your business make sure that your branding is consistent across all mediums.  If you have an awesome logo and wonderful window decals to showcase who you are as a business, don’t settle for a low budget website that doesn’t encompass the same branding.  Same with your social media.  If they’re looking for you, they’ll probably be looking for your logo and familiar images, so if it doesn’t match up, you’ve got a problem!

• Don’t Change It: We can’t recommend this enough.  You’ve been in business for 5 years and you’ve already built quite a bit of brand awareness.  This is valuable.  Don’t change your branding so that consumers don’t recognize it any longer.  If you do make a change, it should be so slight that the consumer subconsciously looks over it, but is still positively affected by the change.  Learn from big companies within the market like Coca-Cola and Chevrolet.  You may notice a few subtle changes throughout the years, but you’ve never for a second forgotten who they are and what that branding stands for.
• Protect It: As soon as a pen hits the paper, it is already a piece of intellectual property that should not be taken.  However, this happens too often, and you should take every precaution to protect your brand.  Look into trademarking your logo.  This can be done with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Need help with branding your business, or strengthening your brand?  Reach out to Business House, LLC for your first FREE consultation.  With our talented team of graphic designers and marketing professionals, we’ll be sure to be your one stop shop where you can do it all and do it right!