# Branding Tips



## Notthegrlnxtdoor (Aug 21, 2011)

I run across some different articles about branding just thought id piece them together and share!




Building Your Brand

It starts with your overall philosophy. What is your brand all about? What does your brand represent? Then think about your brand as its own entity, separate from yourself and your business partners. How does your brand talk? How does it act? Who would it hang out with on a Saturday night? Most likely your brand will be alot like yourself, and that's the way it should be. It would be pretty hard to try and create a brand you don't truly believe in. If you're a computer nerd you definitely shouldn't try to create a punk rock brand. Well, unless you enjoy jamming to punk rock too, and in that case, a punk rock-tech geek brand would be quite interesting.


Tips

-Own your brand, don't let customers own it. Pay attention to what your customers want but don't let them get in the way of what YOU want your brand to be. Maintain control of what you want your brand to mean.

-Just as mentioned before, your brand should be something you truely believe in. If you don't believe in your brand, how do you expect anyone else to?

-Make sure your brand is clearly communicated. Every thing about your brand should communicate your philosophy.

-It's important that your business partners also understand and believe in your brand. Build the brand as a team.

-It is said that it takes up to 12 times of a person seeing, hearing, or reading of your brand for it to really make an impression. Find as many ways as you can to make your brand visible to potential customers.

-Have a strong, well defined logo that symbolizes your brand. Also have an overall complimentary design for everything about your clothing line.

-Keep employees involved by regularly taking the time to discuss your brand and how your business is doing.

Remember that your brand represents the whole customer experience, not just your signage or stationery, and cannot be changed overnight.

-Regularly review your customers' experiences of your business. This will provide an early indication of any elements of your brand that are underperforming.

-Take immediate action to correct this underperforming element. It might save a lot of money and maybe even help you decide if you need to rebrand your whole business.

-Keep a blog on your website. Updating your blog often with your everyday adventures lets customers know the lifestyle your brand represents.

Keep the brand alive! With these tips you should be on your way to developing a lovable brand that'll skyrocket your business.





The brand formula

What's a brand?

I think it is the product of two things:

[Prediction of what to expect] times [emotional power of that expectation].

If I encounter a brand and I don't know what it means or does, it has zero power. If I have an expectation of what an organization will do for me, but I don't care about that, no power.

Fedex is a powerful brand because you always get what you expect, and the relief you get from their consistency is high.

AT&T is a weak brand because you almost never get what you expect, because they do so many different things and because the value of what they create has little emotional resonance (it sure used to though, when they did one thing, they did it perfectly and they were the only ones who could connect you).

The dangers of brand ubiquity are then obvious. When your brand is lots of things (like AOL became) then the expectations were all over the place and the emotional resonance started to fade. If the predictability of your brand starts to erode its emotional power (a restaurant that becomes boring) then you need to become predictable in your joyous unpredictability!

If you want to grow a valuable brand, my advice is to keep awareness close to zero among the people you're not ready for yet, and build the most predictable, emotional experience you can among those that care about you.





Observe the 1-9-90 rule. This new rule, pioneered by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li in their seminal book Groundswell, is quickly becoming a standard: 1% of your population will create content, 9% will comment or engage with it, and 90% will just browse. Voyeurs rule the online world, so keep this in mind.





Have you ever asked yourself why a competitor's business gets more attention than yours? The answer just may have to do with the elements that go into how memorable the business is. And that has to do with branding.

But exactly what is branding, anyway? Think of branding as predefining what a company is all about in the minds of its clients. Good branding differentiates your products and services in a positive way that really sticks in the minds of potential customers.

Let's say you are getting ready to run errands on a busy Saturday morning, thinking about the groceries that need to be bought, the dry cleaning that needs to be picked up, and the packages that must get to the post office before noon. The trip to the post office reminds you that your favorite aunt's birthday is next Wednesday. You need to add buying and mailing a birthday card to your list of things to do. Without a moment's hesitation, you know exactly where you will buy the card: the local Hallmark store. Why did you think Hallmark?

The answer to that question has everything to do with Hallmark's branding and two key elements of that branding are:

a logo design that’s attractive, easy to read and memorable;
a great tag line.

Assuming your own product is fabulous, it all comes down to image. Graphic design can play a huge part in that image. But what are some key things to consider?

The First Key Element of Branding; Create a Great Logo.

You have given a great deal of attention to your company name and believe it speaks to who you are and what you do. Great! Now you need to wrap a graphic image around that name to carve out a prime piece of real estate in your target customer's mind. That is exactly what a great logo design can do.

7 Logo Design Tips

Keep in mind that a powerful logo design:

has a strong, balanced image with no little extras that clutter its look;

is distinctive and bold in design, making it easy to see at a glance;

has graphic imagery that looks appropriate for your business;

works well with your company name;

is done in an easy to read font;

communicates your business clearly; and

looks good in black and white, as well as in color.

Hallmark's memorable crown logo is one of the reasons that Hallmark comes to mind so quickly when you need to buy a greeting card. It is simple, bold, looks good in either color or black and white, and bespeaks the quality required for something to be stamped with a hallmark, so it works well with the company name. While the image might not have communicated the nature of the business when it was first created, it certainly does now!

The Second Key Element of Branding; Create a Distinctive Tag Line.

A tag line is a three to seven word phrase that accompanies your logo. It expresses your company's most important benefits and/or what you want your customers to remember about working with you. Think of it as the words you want to linger in your target customer's mind about you and what you have to offer.

Great tag lines appear to be effortlessly created because they just seem to flow. In fact, creating and refining one takes time, just like designing a great logo. The benefits of taking the time to craft a great tag line lie with the tag line's stickiness. Great tag lines stick in your memory.

The Hallmark tag line, "When you care enough to send the very best," appeals to the human desire to be viewed as having good taste and an appreciation for luxury. If greeting cards are a commodity, then Hallmark has found a way to differentiate itself as the choice for quality.

The Hallmark company was founded by J. C. Hall, so the name Hallmark was a natural. It was also brilliant from a marketing standpoint. Hallmarks have been used for centuries as a stamp to denote quality, purity, and genuineness. Could there be a better way to attach the image of quality to a product? The tag line capitalizes on that image well with words that stick in the mind and exemplify good taste.

Creating a great logo and distinctive tag line are critical in creating a brand that provides the perfect image for your company and great ones just might be memorable enough to give your company the beach front property in the minds of your customers that leaves them thinking only of you.


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## Notthegrlnxtdoor (Aug 21, 2011)

i also found a great video on youtube 
John Moore | marketing strategist and speaker - YouTube


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## smcroyal (Jul 10, 2011)

Great video u posted on marketing, i think this will really help


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## HollieB (Aug 8, 2011)

Speaking of branding... a little note of funny advice:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YBxeDN4tbk[/media]

I have seen so many horrible business cards that are run of the mill and cheap. They really make a difference when they look good! Please don't have a crappy business cards!!!!


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## JohnnyBlaze1984 (Jun 7, 2010)

Awesome info!


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