Have you got a strong brand for your company?
A brand is not just your logo, it is your overall company image, it is you making a statement to your audience about who you are and what you stand for, it is something that builds trust between you and your customer, it can earn you respect and strengthen your proposition and it can make you stand out from your competitors.
- Image via Wikipedia
So, to the people who ask me “Can I not just stick my logo on something and becomes branded?” The answer is no!
You should have consistency across your company and marketing so that you are creating a clear identity for your business, in time, the awareness of your brand will increase and your audience will feel they have made an informed selection when using your product or service.
Your brand not only needs to be aesthetic but also needs to define your product or service, how you would like to position yourself within the market and what your unique selling point is or what you are promising to achieve.
Can people tell it is your company if your logo was not on a particular piece of marketing? If the answer is no then you are going wrong somewhere along the line.
We would know a BT advert without the BT logo on by the shapes they use and the style of photography. We would know an Asda campaign by the colours and typefaces they use. These companies have spent thousands on branding and creating the right image and are seen by a wide audience, but that doesn’t mean that a small business or a sole trader can’t apply the same techniques and principles when branding their company,
In fact, I would say it’s more important to do so if you are smaller and you shouldn’t pay the hefty price tag either, it’s all about questioning yourself about who and what you are and how you want people to see you and how you want them to feel.
So, next time you do any marketing or decide you’re going to do a DIY advert, stand back and question whether it is promoting the right look, feel and promise of your company.
Or, just get a professional in to look at your overall brand and advise you on how to go forward. I can recommend a good one! : )
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As you know, many micro businesses create “generic” styled brands which effectively advertise everyone in their sector, not just their own operations.
I only ask because I have tried promoting my writing and editing business under a variety of brand names, but keep coming back to the fact that my brand is actually me … especially considering that writing (plsu ghostwriting) and editing are such personally-specific skills that people use and hopefully recommend onwards.
What advice would you give to people in this category?
Twitter: SuzeStMWrites
'i am emily' is just me and I am my brand. I promote myself as a 'designer' which covers a broad range of specialisms but under that name I have my brand which is a tone of voice that runs through my site, a palette of colours that I use and a logo that emphasises my overall brand, which means that whether I am designing a leaflet, re branding a company or designing a website there is a consistent and that is me which has become my brand.
Design is also a specific skill and falls into a similar category to yours and I think it is important to remember that people buy you, so make your brand reflect your personality just as you would reflect your personality when writing. Your overall look and feel should shout 'the written word' as whatever type of writing you do it all comes down to the overall written word, this is where you need to stand back and ask what people are looking for and what is going to make them tick. Often, promoting yourself is the hardest job as you are too close to it but if you stick to asking yourself the who, where, what, why and when questions and stand back as though you were doing it on behalf of someone else it will become clearer and your brand will be born. Don't get hung up on names, you don't need anything clever, something obvious will come out of questioning yourself that will stick, like I did when I came up with 'i am emily' it seems obvious now but I went through various random names like 'pink pig' and 'little monster' before standing back and really questioning the who, where, what of my business and how I wanted people to see me.
I hope this helps, if you do need anything I'm always at the end of a phone or computer to run ideas past especially for a fellow blogger.
When I was The Nappy Lady, that was my business name, but it was also associated with me as a person. I know we have not been consistent over the years with proper branding, but I’m sure the new owner (a former member of staff) will put her own stamp on it.
I was lucky when it came to finding the name. I was intending to open a cloth nappy advisory and retail business based on the internet, and there were/are many competitors with very twee names like Cuddlebabes. TobtsBots, Green Baby etc. I toyed with other names in this style, but wasn’t happy with any of them. And then one evening I had a bit of a revelation and realised I could call myself The Nappy Lady.
Unusually for him, my husband was a little unsure. He didn’t think it would work. But I was convinced it would, because its generic nature did exactly what it says on the tin! Also, when parents are looking for cloth nappies, the term Nappy Lady will often be what they enter into Google. Also, parents wanting to get top up nappy items after having bought cloth from somewhere else (whose name they have forgotten) will also do a search for Nappy Lady.
I was right, and my husband was wrong. Almost accidentally, I created a well known brand – although of course our great support and advice has always been the backbone of it.
Actually, this summer we went to a week long camp and I made friends with a lady there. When I told her I was The Nappy Lady, she almost fell out of her chair and explained that I had “saved her life” with her now 5 year old son. I felt almost like a rock star by the time she had finished enthusing – it was a good feeling, I can tell you!