What is Branding?

This is not an article about how to brand herds of cattle with insanely hot rods at ranches, so if that’s what you were attempting to Google, you’ll have to click “back” on your browser and find another article. This one is about advertising. With so much of it constantly surrounding us on a daily basis, you would think it would make us each into mini branding professionals, but alas there are very few people who know what it takes to run a successful advertising campaign. This article will provide you with the basics of branding your business, an “Advertising 101” for everyone that groans when commercials come on.

First things first – before you can even begin to think about starting an advertising campaign to properly brand your company, you will have to figure out exactly what sort of company you are. What do you sell? What services do you offer? What makes your company better than your competition? These are all valid and important questions you will have to consider carefully because your answers will affect how your customers view your company. It will be virtually impossible for anyone to create a sizzling new logo design for you if you don’t know what your company stands for.

Let’s give an example, shall we? Let’s say that John Doe just inherited some money and wants to open the ice cream shop he’s always dreamed of owning. He wants to sell funky flavored ice cream that everyone will go wild about. He knows he wants to cater mostly to kids and teens and so he has decided to open his shop near a local high school. He’s thinking about even adding something trendy to it like some sofas and computers to keep kids wanting to “hang out.” He’s calling his company Doe’s Funky Ice Cream. John knows what his company stands for. He wants to exert a playful and fun image. He also has a perfect target-market and a location.

So what’s the next step? John will have to have a logo designed. He’s going to need something fresh and original to capture his youthful market and bring them into his ice cream shop. John’s logo will be the thing that speaks to his customers before he gets a chance to and so it will have to say many things in one small and simple image. It will need to be the kind of logo that his customers will want to buy stickers of and post in their lockers. He’ll need something original and fun. Once he has a logo designed, the branding opportunities are almost endless. He may also want to invest money in stationary including business cards, brochures, and matching envelopes/stationary all bearing his new logo and company information. He can also go a step further and get his name and brand out there onto the Internet. This will require an attractive website with an innovative design; probably even something interactive to keep his customers addicted to spending time there and, more importantly, excited to tell their friends about. Finally he can also pay to have his logo and company information printed in the YellowPages, some local magazines and maybe the town/city’s newspaper.

This can seem like a daunting task to the average new entrepreneur and, to be honest, it really is! This is why finding a friendly and talented advertising/design firm is so important to the success of your business. Starting a new business requires so much work from you already that the last thing you want to do is tack on calling newspapers and magazines while trying to teach yourself website design and understand how Color Psychology is affecting your logo. Save yourself the hassle and check out www.logotree.com today. We understand branding is more than poking cows in an abandoned field and you have better things to do with your time.

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