Posts Tagged ‘ Brand ’

What is branding?

Branding is a set of qualities and characteristics that are associated with a person, product, company, or organization. Successful brands rarely have negative associations; brands with negative associations are rarely successful.

What does branding have to do with you?

In a word: everything. We all have a personal brand (whether or not we are aware of it) that either works for us, or against us.

In this regard, the first step in personal brand construction is to develop brand awareness.

This first step is also crucial because it forces you to see yourself as others do. Being aware of what you are subtly and unconsciously conveying to people is the key to controlling the magnetism of your personal brand. It’s also a changing mechanism for altering any negative perceptions that people may have of you.

What do people say are your most positive qualities? What first impressions do people normally have of you? What frequent comments do people make about you? How are you often described as a worker? What remarks or criticisms do people consistently have about your work?

Present these questions to people who are willing to give you honest answers.

Once you receive the answers to these questions, you will have taken a courageous first step in getting in tune with your brand awareness. Once you’ve completed this first step you will also be able to truthfully identify the benefits you are able to offer others.

William Bridges, author of Creating You & Co. and Jobshift, says employers pay for results and what you can produce for them. And those who are succeeding are the ones who know what they have to offer and what they are capable of doing better than some of their competitors.

Once you’ve developed brand awareness, the second step is to evaluate your brand viability.

Brand viability is the process of identifying a list of qualities and characteristics that will enable you to succeed in your professional endeavors. For example, if you are a salesperson, communication skills would have to be at the top of your list. Other qualities might be persuasiveness and resilience.

If you already possess the qualities that you listed, great. If not, don’t fret. You will simply have to cultivate them. If the qualities needed are just not within your reach such as being punctual (and you are always late) or dealing with stressful situations (and you have a quick temper), you should look at the other qualities in your list and determine if they are strong enough to compensate for the qualities you may lack, or re-evaluate your career choice.

The qualities that you list are going to be what you use to attract and retain loyalty from customers or favoritism from employers – but they have to be sincere and tangible. Sincerity is an emotion that you can not underscore – or fake for too long. We analyze information based on data, but most decisions are emotionally driven.

Effective branding engenders trust and loyalty. It will help you get a job, save your job, or win jobs that you bid on.

Step number three is to position your brand.

What is positioning? Al Ries and Jack Trout , who are the foremost authorities on Positioning, stated in their book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, “Positioning is not what you do to yourself. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position yourself in the mind of the prospect.”

In other words, how do you want people to perceive you? You’ve already identified the qualities you’d like to be associated with, but now it’s time for you to do something that will cause you to be perceived in that way.

It’s through consistent actions that brands are built.

Consistency (repetition over a long period of time) is what gives people faith in your abilities. It creates expectations.

A track record that shows what you are capable of is far more credible than telling someone what you are capable of. One fuels credibility, the other invites skepticism.

You can not establish a brand without first positioning it. Seek opportunities to position your brand once you’ve defined it.

The forth and final step of constructing a solid brand is to manage your brand.

Effective brand management consists of striking a balance between what your brand can deliver and the promises that it makes to your target market (employers/clients).

Do you know who your target market is? Do you know what they really desire? The key is to cater to them and their desires while fulfilling needs. Once you work hard to establish a brand that will earn you that reputation, your brand will yield profits for you in a multitude of ways.

Gian Fiero is an educator and speaker who lectures throughout the country. He is also an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University. His specialty topics include business and personal development.

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Markets today have become extremely competitive where business organizations are vying against each other to grab the attention of the clients. The current business scenario demands innovative advertising strategies to reinforce brand presence. Companies cannot afford to relax on the past laurels. A blink of the eye and your organization will find some of its valuable clients being poached by the competitor. That’s why it has become extremely important to constantly remind the shoppers about your organization and brands and there is no better way than handing out promotional products to do it. Promotional gifts help you remind your clients about your business and reinforce brand presence.

Promotional products like bags, mugs etc., are highly useful items in home and in office. People use it frequently many times in a day and therefore these items can help you get client’s attention frequently. These promotional products can be customized easily with your brand names to make it just right for advertising. Customized promotional products help organizations in creating an everlasting impression for brands in the minds of clients thus providing repeated reinforcements for the company. Moreover, these promotional items offer a lot of space to promote your brand. You can use the advertising space to fit in your brand details so that every time the client uses your gift the brand name doesn’t get unnoticed. Ideasbynet, our online shop, offers you promotional products at competitive prices. We also offer customization services wherein we emboss the organization’s logo and other details on these products.

In addition to the recipients to whom you have handed out these promotional products, other persons who come under your client’s contact or visit his home are targeted through it. So a single product targets many people thus giving more exposure to the brands. Promotional products remain in use for a longer period of time and all that time they reinforce your brand presence. As these promotional products are available in different varieties it gives you an opportunity to select the best gift which will appeal to your clients. In short, the advantages of promotional gifts easily outweigh its costs thus making it a feasible medium to reinforce brand presence in the market.

Ideasbynet, our online shop, houses a huge and impressive collection of business gifts manufactured in different materials and are available in different sizes, forms and style. You can also select from our exclusive selection of recycled promotional products as per your client’s profile. We will also help you select the right promotional gift for your clients. To know in detail about our promotional products, visit us at www.ideasbynet.com and make the presence of your brands felt in the market.

Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK’s largest online source of promotional products and promotional gifts. He has taken the UK gift market by storm by the application of modern business thinking and the latest search engine marketing techniques. For more details on promotional products visit ideasbynet.com

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Brand vision has evolved from brand positioning. Where positioning is defined as the specific niche in which a product sees itself as occupying in the competitive environment and by differentiating its superiority to competitors, the brand vision is what the company ideally wants to reflect outwardly.

Brand Vision
One key way to achieve the vision is to provide innovative solutions to market needs. Traditionally brand vision was driven by team workshops with each person contributing to the combined vision of the company. Although this route might be ideal for teambuilding exercises, it often resulted in mixed messages and confusion with regard to the brand positioning and mission. It is critical to any brand that its employees reflect the vision accurately and consistently. They are representatives or extensions of the brand after all.

David Taylor, author of “Brand Gym” and “How to Energize Your Team to Drive Business Growth”  believes that brand manifestos are a better way to work on the vision for your brand, allowing you more freedom to express yourself, and what you really want to “fight for”. Through this process you will discover your guiding principles, beliefs and the issues you want to take a stand on.

Inspirational Brand Vision
Every brand is different. It takes a lot of understanding to get their message across. By using creative brand communication strategies it is easy to gain the attention of your consumer. David Taylor’s approach is straightforward and no-nonsense to ensure that you end up with an inspiring vision and a hands-on action plan to drive growth.

The key to creating a brand manifesto is to engage not just your head, but also your heart and gut feeling.

Creative tips to assist the creation of a brand manifesto, include:

If you were on a protest march in the street to fight against something, what would you write on your banner? And if you were to flip this into a positive and fight for something, what would you write?
What is the bigger role your brand can play in everyday life? What sort of “legacy” would you like to leave behind after 5 years on the brand.

Communicating the Vision
By introducing brand visioning to employees it assists to build engagement, energy and alignment.

David Taylor’s Brand visioning process scrutinises the following areas of business:

Searching for true insight: creating a springboard for visioning by using different ‘insight catalysts’ that cover consumers, markets and competition
The visioning journey: creating a compelling brand purpose, a big idea and a rallying call; combining product ?sausage? and emotional ‘sizzle’
Test-driving the vision: bringing the vision to life by exploring it within your business and with consumers
Brand-led business: translating the vision into a business building mix that covers ‘hero product’ innovation, communication and internal engagement

Once the brand vision is clearly understood it is easier to create the brand communication strategy. The brand communication strategy in turn is used as part of the marketing strategy to drive sales and company growth.

Taylor’s guide to the essential steps of achieving persuasive brand communication are as follows:

Understanding the brand and setting objectives
Getting the team right
Keeping the brief and briefing tight
Getting the most from production
Brilliant brand activation
Developing and executing the campaign

Brand vision is the inception of any great marketing communication campaign. Know and understand the vision for your brand, live it and make it exceptional.

David Taylor is the brand vision and communication thought leader for Shoulders of Giants, a smart business thinking website, showcasing various brand experts discussing communication topics spanning a variety of brand communication and business related topics.

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Brand name,in a nutshell,is the essence of your business.If we follow the dictionary of business management brand is “a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the sellers and to differentiate them from goods of competitors”.Simply speaking,brand is the image of the company developed in the mind of consumers.It helps customers to identify the company’s products or services from the others.

In this highly competitive business world it is essential to develop good marketing strategies and follow them religiously.Therefore,brand identity marketing is an essential part of the business.But there is a thin line between brand identity and corporate identity that one needs to understand in order to develop effective branding strategy.

Differentiate between Brand Identity and Corporate Identity

Brand identity is the total proposition that include the performance quality,services and support along with the promisesthe company makes to its customers.The brand can be perceived as a set of values that helps to acquire a place in people’s mind.Brand image is how people see the brand while brand identity is very much what the company wants their brand to be perceived by the consumers out there.

Corporate identity,on the other hand, can be translated into the visual aspects of a company’s existence.Building or reviving corporate identity entails modifying and modernizing logo,image designs and security aspects while keeping the core of the brand– that is,the name and image to its customers as it is.Unfortunately many companies get lead astray by various business consultancies while building their corporate identity.It is a misconception that changing logos,posters,advertisements and outlet designs of the company will help in popularizing brand.

Develop Brand Identity

There are several aspects of building and marketing brand identity.Systematic and practical approach can definitely earn you a good name to stand out in the constantly varying consumer world.To promote brand identity you can buy ‘brand kit’ that comprises logo,business cards,letterhead,envelope,brochure and most importantly website.All are uniquely designed to create distinct identity of your company.

Create a Personality

Branding can be given a personality to represent the business.If you are the sole owner of your business your brand name could reflect the positive sides of your personality while for joint ventures focus would be on consumer psychology and the quality of products and services.

Identify Unique Qualities

While exercising brand identity development find out and highlight some unique qualities of your products or services that will make you stand out in the crowd.

Remind Customers

Branding strategy implies creating an impression of your company with consumers and potential customers.Repeated use and display of the brand name definitely helps in constantly reminding consumers about your company and might kindle the desire to buy your products.Internet branding opens up multiple avenues to reach target audience and convey your product message in a cost-effective way.

Professional Approach

Apart from the creative side the brand needs to maintain corporate professionalism.Professionalism entails quality.Quality is the ultimate thing that the customers look for in your products and services.So,there is no better alternative to good service and quality products.

In reality,brand is that intangible association between company and the consumers that develops with time and creates a difference to the customers’ view towards the company.Changes to visual aspects of the business are not enough to change customers’ opinion regarding quality of products and services of a company.Such changes can only increase awareness and assure people about the company’s concern about it looks and presentation.Therefore,the key factor behind the success of brand is evolution and not revolution.

Steve is a media professional and writes for different online publications on media and advertising industry. For more information on branding strategy and brand identity marketing,he recommends you to visit http://www.brandweek.com/.

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