Branding Is Certainly Not a Carefree Topic

Branding is certainly not a carefree topic. It is a critical element of any business. All too often logo design is treated as being interchangeable with branding. Although they go hand-in-hand, they are not the same. Many businesses overlook the true potential of what a brand can and will accomplish, settling for just a logo. So, what sets a brand apart from a logo. Why is the jump from a logo to a brand so difficult? Why do you need a brand, not just a logo? Let’s explore.

SOME DEFINITIONS
In order to gain a healthy understanding of the differences between a logo and a brand, some definitions must first be established.

A logo is a business’ identification in its simplest form via a recognizable mark or symbol.
On the other hand, a brand is the emotion behind what someone feels, sees and tastes when they interact with your company on any level. At the core, branding is an emotional experience.
The progression is clear: a logo must come before a brand.

WHAT IS A BRAND?
A memorable logo is important; it paves the way for effective branding. However, a brand is more than a logo. It’s more than just visual identification. A brand is the emotion behind what someone feels, sees and tastes when they interact with your company on any level. Your brand is the image behind what your business believes and strives to accomplish. As a result, your brand becomes your personality and along with that personality comes numerous associations. Therefore a brand bears much more responsibility than a logo.

Brilliant branding takes courage because it is something that is constantly being formed by the public’s perception. Although a designer lays the foundation of a brand visually, the brand’s audience is what truly shapes it. Therefore, it is imperative that the foundation is laid correctly by falling in line with your business’ image and goals.

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When It Comes to Branding, Know Your Audience

Know Your Audience

It’s pointless investing time or money in developing your brand without first ascertaining what will resonate with your audience, and to understand your customer’s habits, wants and needs it is essential to talk to them; knowing your audience is the first and most important task in building a brand.

Color and design matter

Your visual identity, including your logo, is a consumer’s first encounter with your brand, so it must create the right impression.

Unless you’re a graphic designer, avoid the DIY approach and invest in a professional designer to create and develop your logo.

To keep your brand identity consistent across all media channels, create a set of brand guidelines containing detailed information on the color palette, fonts, and tone of voice to be used in your branding, along with other elements such as how your brand should appear on staff uniforms, marketing literature and advertising materials.

Finally, don’t ruin your brilliant branding by giving your brand a bad name. A brand name can have a detrimental effect on your overall brand awareness, so choose it carefully. A brand name must reinforce the key elements or objectives of your business because, ultimately, the more it communicates to your audience about your business and what it provides, the less effort you’ll expend trying to explain it.

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A Website Presence Can Give You The Edge

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While having a website may seem like an unnecessary cost if you're not a prolific internet user yourself, a recent survey showed as much as 70% of the population now has access to an internet connection - that's a big business opportunity you'll be missing out on if you don't have a web presence. Even if your business' website lists little more than your address and opening hours, maintaining a web presence could give you the edge over more technophobic competitors.

Why you need a website
-If you get it right, your website will be the best tool you have for promoting your business. Your website will essentially become an online shop-window, accessible to customers all over the world, which means the better it looks and more and up-to-date it is, the better impression it will make on consumers.
-Whether it's three o'clock in the morning or Christmas day, the internet never closes - which means your business is open all the time, without any extra effort from you. If you choose to have an online store, your customers will be able to dictate when they want to buy, rather than limiting themselves to your opening times.
-If you are locally based, having a web presence will open your business up to new markets outside your local area, giving people from across the world the chance to browse your products or services.
-A well-designed website will make your business appear more professional. In fact, a well-considered website can fool customers into thinking your business is larger than it is and could even level the playing-field between your business and its more established competitors.
-If you're starting a business on a shoestring, the costs of putting together a website will be cheaper than buying or renting premises, and could attract business from further afield than a high-street based business would.
-Feedback is often a difficult thing to attain and more often than not, feedback on your business will be limited to the negative. The internet allows you to enter into a dialogue with your customers, though: use surveys, questionnaires and feedback forms on your website to do market research and find out exactly what your customers' expectations are.

How important is the design of my website?
Very. For many of your customers, your website will be their first impression of your business. Your website gives your customers an idea of what the business is about, who it is for and who runs it. You wouldn't go to a business meeting without looking your best - and your website should be exactly the same.

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Know What Your Brand Means

Know What Your Brand Means

To build your brand, you need to know what your brand equals or what you want it to equal. Write down all the characteristics that describe what you are and how you would like to be perceived. Once you compile that list, you could fine-tune it and make sure you have full command of your brand in order to reach your customers and, more importantly, your potential customers. The adjectives and characteristics that make up your brand ideally differentiate you from your competitors and provide a clear understanding of what your business is not only capable of doing, but also what it is known for, and how you successfully sell your products and services.

Communicating your brand positioning is not just about the adjectives you choose to support what the brand equals. It also involves the methods and manner in which you are communicating the brand to the general public and, more importantly, to your target consumers. This has to do with the messaging and communication of the brand to others.
To aid yourself and your employees, you might create phrases, copy and descriptions that hit the bull’s-eye when communicating with customers or clients. It may help not just to know what the brand stands for but also how to properly communicate that in order to avoid brand confusion. Create a checklist of points to touch on while engaging with customers, to stay in line with the brand and what it represents. It might include situational encounters where a customer makes a request or has a question and the employee has a guide to the appropriate answer or response.

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If We Build It, They Will Come

Different websites will have different needs and will therefore require different features to be added that are important to the success of those sites. For instance, an Ecommerce site that sells products may need some kind of inventory control feature to ensure that the items listed for sale are actually available and in stock. While critical to the success of an Ecommerce site, this feature would be pointless on a site for an accounting firm that is promoting the services they offer, but not actually selling physical products online.

Today, more and more consumers use the internet to search for the products or services they need. Your small business will gain credibility by having a website. Without one, potential customers will go to your competitors that do. If you already have a website but it is "home-made," having it professionally redesigned will provide your business with a professional image which will inspire even greater confidence. For home-based businesses, this is particularly beneficial since you do not have a store front to promote your products or services.

Regardless of a site’s needs, however, one feature that is critical to all sites’ success is mobile-friendliness and responsive design support. So why is responsive web design the most important feature that you can add to your website? Here are 4 key reasons:

1. Supporting the Multi-Device User
2. One Site to Rule Them All
3. Improved Search Engine Rankings
4. Future Scalability

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You Can't Afford to Skip Branding

"But … We Can’t Afford to Do Branding"

Actually, you can’t afford not to. Sure, branding can get incredibly expensive if your idea of branding is a nationwide television and print campaign. But it doesn’t need to be.

Here are 4 tips you can start on today to help your small business create, build and reinforce brand:
-Start with clarifying what your brand stands for. What’s that “one thing” you want customers to think of, when thinking of your company? Are you the most knowledgeable? — that is, your representatives can help the customer choose options in a complicated product environment; Speed — such as your 10-minute lunch menu, or same-day delivery, or fastest time to create a customized solution; high quality — especially when all the competition is low quality;

-Think it through. If you or your team are confused about that “one thing” that sets your company apart, customers probably will be, too.

-If you’re not sure what this is, find out. Schedule a strategy session and hash it out with your team. Do a customer survey to ask existing customers what they value most. Start asking new customers what made them choose your company or product or service.

-Try to limit it to one thing or at most two things you want your brand to be known for. If you end up with a laundry list of 20 things, go back to the drawing board and narrow it down. Customers don’t choose a vendor for 20 reasons. It’s usually one or two reasons that push them over the decision edge.

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Avoid Branding Pitfalls

When you think about great branding, Coca Cola’s distinctive red and white lettering, Nike’s swoosh and Adidas’s three stripes likely come to mind. But as a small business, imagining the level of investment that’s gone into these iconic images can make the thought of undertaking your own branding initiative seem overwhelming.

It’s actually easier to do than most imagine. Just make sure to avoid some common pitfalls and branding mistakes.

1. Not understanding the power of brand
2. Forgetting to establish defined brand guidelines
3. Overcomplicating your brand
4. Falling into the vague branding trap

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Running Your Own Business Is No Easy Task

Running your own business is no easy task, and your to-do-list is guaranteed to never end. This said, you shouldn’t use this as an excuse to take short cuts when it comes to having online visibility. Beginning with your website, it’s vital to position yourself online with a strong, professional destination that gives customers the impression you mean business and the motivation to want to engage more with your business. With this in mind, consider these five reasons why having a strong website is important.

-First Impressions Count
-Window Shopping Isn’t What It Use to Be
-No Website Means Losing Business

By now it’s clear that if you don’t have a website, you’re missing out on opportunities for customers to identify who you are and if they want to spend money with you.

Having a professional, polished looking website that functions easily and offers customers easy navigation, strong photo images, professional quality content and an overall experience that engages them enough for them to want to do business with you is key.

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A brand is not just a logo; it’s a reputation

A brand isn’t something only large, well-known companies have. It is a necessity for any person or business — from freelancers to international e-commerce sites — to establish themselves as an authority in their industry.

A brand is not just a logo; it’s a reputation. It’s a way to attract and communicate with your audience. Because people are often exposed to your brand before actually interacting or doing business with you, it also acts as a way of setting expectations.

To effectively brand yourself, you first need to understand the different components involved, why they are important and how to properly implement them. Below are some of the essential aspects and steps involved in successful branding, regardless of your industry or budget.

- Clear mission statement
- Unique value
- Quality logo
- Professional website
- Personal style and voice

Identify what questions your target audience is asking, and provide them with consistent communication to position your brand as an invaluable resource.

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Responsive Websites

The key to making the most of the web is making your business as accessible as possible, letting people interact with you in a way that suits them, whenever they want to. Your customers are online 24/7, and as such they expect to be able to interact with businesses and organisations whenever and wherever they are online. Of course, that doesn't mean having to have a presence on every single online channel; it means being clever about selecting the ones that are most important to your audience.

-Be accessible
At the most fundamental level, this means a basic, professional looking website with easy to find, relevant information about your business. At a more advanced level, that could be a fully-blown booking tool that lets customers schedule their own appointment or booking with you, essentially giving your businesses a 24/7 receptionist.

-Think multi-channel – but focus on the ones that really matter
One of the first things to consider is through which online channels to make your business visible. Yes, your website is your flagship, but you need to get your brand to where your potential customers are. As a small business, you likely don't have either the time or resources to do everything, and investing in a fruitless channel can end up being a costly mistake. Think hard about where your customers are spending their time online, and focus your efforts accordingly.

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Branding Creates Customer Loyalty

Branding is what creates customer loyalty. They say it is what keeps consumers loyal and buying repeatedly. But let's go further. Branding is what helps a prospective buyer call to mind a particular company when it comes time to buy. In other words, branding also helps with awareness.

In a world of infinite choices, branding that helps people remember YOUR company is more important than ever. Today consumers have a seemingly endless choice of retailers, products and services available at their fingertips online, or at the local strip shopping centers or shopping malls.

If consumers are shopping for something, what do they do? Go to Google, where billions of Web pages and yellow page listings are available.

Not only are there many choices, but some of the decision factors that traditionally separated and defined companies are today transparent and without much difference. Take, for example, pricing. Pricing is easier to discover and compare than ever before. In certain industries there may be very little price difference.
When all prices are the same, what makes the buyer choose one over another? Nuances and qualitative factors may make the difference.

For small businesses, what sets apart the business may be factors such as high quality, craftsmanship, personalized customer service, superior knowledge to help customers make the proper product selections, and similar qualitative factors.

I4 Advertising Agency can help you brand your business and create a website for your small business.

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6 Reasons Your Small Business Needs A Website.

How often do you do a search online for a particular business, only to find that they don’t have a website? How often do members of the business community hand you a business card with just an email address? In today’s business world it’s amazing to see just how many small businesses still do not have a web presence. Here I share
6 reasons your small business needs a website.

-Professionalism
-Visibility
-Sales Tool
-Convenience
-Market Expansion
-Changeability

The bottom line is this – whether you are a small business owner, inventor, entrepreneur, artist, author, musician or band, you need a website. Increasingly people are turning to the internet to find information. If you aren’t there how will they find you? Without an effective internet presence, your competitors are the winners.

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Why Your Business Needs A Website (or update)

Like many small business owners, you may believe your business cannot benefit from having a website or that a website is not within your budget. Or maybe you think because you don’t use a computer, neither do your potential customers. These are misconceptions. These 8 reasons show why your company NEEDS a professional website, no matter what size your business.

1. Your small business will gain credibility
2. A website saves you money
3. It will let you keep your customers informed
4. It is always 'open'
5. A website can target a wider audience
6. It gives a way to show off your work
7. A website saves you time
8. It improves customer service

It's an internet world and the world is on the internet. About 80% of consumers use the internet to search for products and services they need before they make a purchase. Most customers today will assume your company has a website and may search for your business only to find you do not exist on the world wide web. Most of your competitors probably already have a website. Don't let them snatch your customers away by not having your own company website.

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Avoid Branding Mistakes

When you think about great branding, Coca Cola’s distinctive red and white lettering, Nike’s swoosh and Adidas’s three stripes likely come to mind.  But as a small business, imagining the level of investment that’s gone into these iconic images can make the thought of undertaking your own branding initiative seem overwhelming.

It’s actually easier to do than most imagine. Just make sure to avoid some common pitfalls and branding mistakes.

1. Not understanding the power of brand
2. Forgetting to establish defined brand guidelines
3. Overcomplicating your brand
4. Falling into the vague branding trap

i4advertisingagency.com | 407-416-1515 | www.facebook.com/i4advertisingagency