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| BizBits | July 2006 |
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Skyrocket Sales With Effective Company Branding |
| Branding refers to the image, logo, or phrase that you can see and instantly know what company it represents. "Like a good neighbor..." Naturally you know I am talking about State Farm Insurance just like an S with a star next to it on a jacket or piece of sports clothing is easily recognizable as a Starter product. Branding does take a great deal of money. As a start up business, you may find this to be a dilemma. Yet, it isn't impossible to create an affordable brand. All it takes is a little ingenuity and an honest critic. If you are selling a product, perhaps a jar of facial cream, one way to perform branding is to place your photograph on the label or box. This will cause the satisfied customer to easily remember who you are, and where to go to find your product. Liquors often use branding to sell their products; Captain Morgan came up with a painting on the background of their bottle. It was a macaw flying over a shipwrecked sailor. No one had to remember the name - I can't remember it today - but everyone could remember, "I want the one with the bird flying in the background". It is important to create something original but somehow related to your product or service in order to brand it. What does your product do or what is the shape of the container it is packaged in? What colors are involved? Then, pick a spot to put a picture on and think of some clever phrase that people won't be able to forget. Branding is a lot easier when you have a group of people to brainstorm with. Try sitting around and tossing around options and ideas and make sure to note which ones make you laugh and seem easy to remember yet are still related to your product. Find places on the packaging, sales brochures, and label on which you can place a photo. An effective an relatively inexpensive way to test your branding is to create flyers and other marketing materials with the brand on them. Give them to complete strangers and try to gauge people's reactions. Build mailing lists by attending trade shows, or volunteering to speak at public events. Include how you started and discuss your product. Tell how you developed from a small business into a large business. This will generate a great deal of interest in your business. Provide a signup sheet to join your mailing list, and exchange business cards with other booth owners. Collect business cards from visitors also. Follow it up with more branding material in the mail, including a note saying how nice it was to meet them. The profitability of branding is undeniable so there is no question that it works. Some logos and phrases will be with us until we die. If people actually recognize what you sell or your face, then you already have opened the door to an opportunity to tell them more about your business and its potential benefits to them. Branding is a big part of the reason that Arnold Schwarzenegger is now governor of California. It is surely not the only thing that helped him win the run-off election, but you can bet that it did not hurt him one bit! |
| Ken Bidgood Copyright © 2006 All rights reserved About The Author: Ken Bidgood is the chief writer at Advertising XP, the #1 source on the internet when you're looking for fresh up to date advice and reviews to do with Business. While you're there grab our free mini-course on how to get loads of free targeted traffic. |
