What exactly is branding? Branding is a way of pre-selling a product (or service) by establishing relevant associations and images in the prospect's mind. If this sounds broad, it is. Many aspects of your company can achieve your branding objectives. But, to keep this simple, let's discuss the more important branding elements, and how you can improve them.

#1 Improve the looks of your brand
Logos. Colors. Fonts. Shapes. Icons. These elements of a brand should command your eye's attention. They should be distinctive, memorable and consistently used across all your marketing efforts. Hire a professional firm to establish these images and guidelines for their use.
We've found that all visual elements of your brand should reinforce your positioning. If you're positioned at the high end, it doesn't make good branding sense to have a 'cute' logo.

#2 Your name starts it all
How different would you be if your name was Clem or Matilda? A company or product name sets the tone for future marketing efforts. If the name is well crafted, your marketing messages carry that much more impact.
Names can be generated from word plays (The Best Little Hair House for a salon), invented words (Xerox), initials (IBM), founder's names (Johnson & Johnson), and several other ways. Make sure your name is distinctive and memorable, crafts the right image and can be protected.

#3 Improve the sounds of your brand
Taglines. Music. On-hold messaging. Names. These branding elements appeal to our ears; sometimes they don't. One company I often phone plays grunge rock over its on-hold system. I don't know about you, but I believe there's more to music than 3 bad chords and rotten lyrics. I hate being on hold with that company! And their relationship with me suffers ever so slightly each time I call.

#4 Own a word
A branding strategy helps 'break it all down' for the prospect. And if you can break down your business to one word, and own that word in people's minds, you win. What one word do you think of when I mention these brands?

• Federal Express
• Volvo

A lot of people would answer 'overnight' and 'safety'. See if you can boil your company down to one word-then try to own that word.

Want to know more about branding? Email contact us at lipe@emergemarketing.com or (612) 824-4833 & we'll get you a complete copy of our special report on this topic.