To develop a healthy, thriving company is difficult under the best economic circumstances. How can it even be possible in the current economy? It is difficult, but thankfully, not impossible. The answer lies in company branding.
What is Branding? Branding refers to the entire process that is used to create in the consumer’s mind a unique name and image for a good or service. It is a campaign to make a business recognizable to people by a single logo or product, often done by combining the two. This company signature is then eternally linked to the quality of service and goods that company provides. The act of branding is the process that a business goes through to develop their signature and imprint it into the minds and memories of the public. Branding can be done on a small, such as within a community or town, personal branding for an individual, or a national brand. For example, some nationally-known companies who have had successful branding campaigns are Apple’s iPod, Nike’s swoosh sneakers, Kleenex tissues, and Coca Cola’s Coke. People refer to their portable mp3 players as “ipods” and they say they are going to put on their “nikes”. After a sneeze a friend will ask for a “kleenex”, and when offering a carbonated canned beverage people ask “do you want a coke?” Branding is when a product or service becomes synonymous with its company’s name.
How is Branding Done? The process of branding, of turning your company's products or services into synonyms with your business name, takes time, skill, and hard work. Successful branding comes about because of consistency. The first step is to have a good logo. A logo should be completely original and one-of-a-kind. Its uniqueness is important because when people view it, they should not have any other thought or subtle reminder of another business. It is also a good idea to incorporate, in some way, the good or service it is going to be paired with. It is always recommended that the time and money is taken to design a quality logo with the help of professionals. The next step is to have consistent advertising. Business is a numbers game. The more people who hear about a business, see your ads, and recognize your logo, the more calls and visits a company will receive. The importance of a potential customer seeing a logo is because humans tend to distrust things they don’t know. In saying that, the opposite is also true - people are much more likely to trust something they have seen numerous times (in this case a professional logo), regardless of the fact that they may have never actually, personally, dealt with that particular company before or made any purchases from them. Repeated exposure to a brand develops a preconceived idea in a potential customer’s mind of the quality the brand offers. The more a customer comes across a brand, the higher chance of that customer seeking out that brand when they have a need.
Branding Offers Protection The purpose of a developing a brand is to differentiate a business from its surround area and competition, to establish it as significant, sitting a head of all the rest, for the purpose of attracting and retaining loyal customers. This allows a business to grow and thrive. If that branding is compromised in anyway, the trust between business and customer is broken and is almost impossible to regain. That trust can be broken by the quality of business a customer receives dropping off, for whatever reason. Keeping that trust is the original business’ responsibility. But it can also be broken by a third party should an outsider use a similar logo. Since that logo is the indelible signature of a company, it is very important to protect it with a registered government trademark. This does two things: 1. A trademark prohibits another company from using it for their own profit, instead of the corporation it was specifically made for. 2. A trademark protects the original company from being associated with any type or quality of business or product they do not intend or give permission for.
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