How do I Brand my Business Effectively ? - Branding Consulting

The brand happens when you describe what you do in terms that build you into the partnership with your client - either based on what they tell you they want, or things you see happening that they haven't yet identified.

How to Create Brand Identity - The goal of branding is to create in the mind of the end user the belief, or curiosity, that something special exists that didn't exist before. The brand happens when you describe what you do in terms that build you into the partnership with your client - either based on what they tell you they want, or things you see happening that they haven't yet identified.


Three ways to brand your business :

Personal Brand - Your brand is created by you and the people at your company. You emphasize the image of your company and de-emphasize the product. If you ask your end users, they will easily be able to identify your "people brand." The most notable example of this is IBM. You can't help but picture blue suits, white shirts and red ties. You can make a conscious decision to change your personal brand if it isn't what you would like it to be.

Product or Service Brand - Brand is simply by virtue of the product or service being differentiable. The implication is that the service aligns with something the consumer wants - either by fulfilling a need, or solving a problem. Revlon is an example. They sell beauty, not cosmetics.

Market Brand - You brand by virtue of the target market that you take the product or service to. Your expertise and your specialty need to reinforce your target market. You won't find a Rolex advertisement in Fishing or Popular Mechanics, but you will in Skiing and Fortune.

Your brand will only have power if it is constantly reiterated and reinforced in the marketplace by everything you do - advertising, promotions, word-of-mouth, PR, etc. (Touch Points)

The goal of continually positioning your brand is to situate your product or service permanently in the mind of the consumer. The realities of your product or service have no bearing on the decision to use your brand. The only decision-making criteria that counts is what your customers believe.

So what Ever you do.......Don't be Generic!

If you do not create brand identity for your product or service, you are selling something generic. Positioning your product or service to be "brand identifiable" is measurable in the eyes of the customer.

For this to happen, your customers must:

1. Understand what makes you different

2. Articulate it to others

3. Value your brand and be willing to pay more for it

4. Embrace it and defend it when it comes under attack

If the customer can not differentiate your product or service on these criteria, then you will fall into a large gray, amorphous category - generic.

The goal of branding is to create in the mind of the end user the belief, or curiosity, that something special exists that didn't exist before.

If your Brand is ..... not working!!!!

Contact us today and start Marketing and Branding your Business!!

FloodLight Consulting - 250-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights

How many Business Cards will you be handing out in the hopes of building your Business?

At FloodLight Consulting, we know that if you build your website with a marketing strategy in mind as a first step, this will lead to a better strategically designed website, leading to better website construction, design and Internet Implementation.



A website, built with a positive marketing strategy and message, will speak to your clients, generate a response, and greatly assist with its appeal to search engines and visitors alike.

A website that speaks to your clients’ challenges, with content that offers solutions to their issues, including testimonials about your services, will engage them to contact or purchase your product and/or services.

The importance of your website cannot be overstated, as 80% of buyers visit a website before contacting a business; this is due in part to the web’s influence in buying patterns since2005.

Your potential clients make decisions quickly as to whether they call you or ultimately buy from you.

Think of your website as the hub for your Marketing and Branding activities. No matter what marketing style you are using—direct mail, email, referral generation, PR, cold calling, etc.—this style is driving buyers to your website. Your website is the portal by which clients and prospects are using to learn more about you and your services.

They are searching for information to validate you as a professional in your field.

Your potential clients have a need for your service and your website must offer a solution to their problems. You must be able to speak to the challenges that your clients are facing.

If they find what they are looking for, they will take action. They go to your website to form an impression of you and interact with your brand.

Donald Robichaud

President

FloodLight Consulting -Grow Your Business - 250-768-9415

http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/

http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

Branding

Branding strategy, global branding, online branding, corporate branding, digital branding, product branding, internet branding, web branding, branding logos, corporate identity, advertising, marketing, branding, design, identity, brand

Promotional Products - What are they? When is the right time to use them?

I have just read this great article on promotional products from the blog of Falkins Advertising Specialties and I have posted for you to read,

Donald Robichaud

The greatest value of Promotional Products comes from their ability to get an effective, targeted marketing message in front of the prospects and clients you have to reach, without the wastes high costs associated with other media.

The definition of “Promotional Products”, is any useful item showing off your company logo, name or advertising message, however the best promotional products don’t just brand, they generate actual, measurable results.

WHAT IS A SUCCESFUL PROMOTION?

• An audience-appropriate product. – The most compelling marketing message in the world is lost on the recipient if the promotional item is not appropriate to your target audience.

• An effective message. – Very often, a promotional product shows only a company name or logo without any strong benefit statement, advantage or call to action. It usually costs no more to add these things to the imprint, but it can have a dramatic effect on the entire campaign.

• Targeted, Qualified recipients. – Very few companies can afford to market to everyone, so each promotion should be geared towards your target audience.

• Timing is everything. – A perfect marketing message delivered either too soon or too late does not produce positive results. I.e.: Calendars!

When you imprint an audience-appropriate product with an effective marketing message and deliver it to motivated recipient at the proper time, you dramatically increase your likelihood of success. Falkins Advertising helps our clients to master the four factors of a successful promotion!

WHAT ARE THE MOST POPULAR PROMTIONAL PRODUCTS?

There are over 650,000 items available providing a wealth of choices to fit any target audience and message.

According to the PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) the top 10 promotional product categories in North America are;

1. Wearables 29.3%
2. Writing Instruments 10.6%
3. Desk/office. Business accessories 7.6%
4. Calendars 7%
5. Bags 5.9%
6. Glassware/ceramics 5.5%
7. Recognition awards, watches/clocks etc. 4%
8. Magnets/buttons/badges/stickers 3.5%
9. Automotive accessories 3.5%
10. Sporting goods/leisure products 3.3%

If you would like to enhance your image and achieve a stronger bottom line through the use of promotional products please contact Bruce at;

Falkins Advertising Specialties
"Promotional Products to Brand YOUR Business"
Tel: 250-317-4333
FAX: 250-448-5730
bruce@falkinsadvertising.com
www.falkinsadvertising.com

A Guide to Choosing Colors for Your Brand

A Guide to Choosing Colors for Your Brandby Dmitry
One of the key elements of building a strong brand is color selection. Every color has a different feel and various associations. By choosing a color or a combination of colors for your brand identity, you will take on those associations. Colors will evoke certain emotions and feelings towards your brand so it is vital to choose a color that will represent your identity effectively.

Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.

Why Color Matters
If you own a color in your industry, this color will symbolize your product. This can act as a great identifier. For example, if you sell physical goods, your packaging will stand out from the competition. The color will also be recognizable on any promotional media and your logos.

Where to start?
There is a great new tool which can help out with color selection called Cymbolism. It’s an interactive survey of color and word associations. Every page loads a new word, for which you have to select a color you feel best represents it. The results are then aggregated and you can see most popular associations either by color or by word.

To help you select the right color for your brand I’ve aggregated the results from Cymbolism, and also provided examples of logos that use each color: (Click on chart for full view )

These aren’t the top ten words that represent each color, these are just the words that happened to have been entered and processed by Cymbolism and came out on top. Having said this, the sample size is quite large and the selection should give you a decent indication of what a color stands for.

I’ve also included some multi-colored examples at the end. Some brands choose not to associate themselves with one color. Instead of two or three colors, they choose four or more. This represents variety. This makes sense for brands that are platforms or marketplaces as they host vast amount of different applications or goods.

There are also two more colors that haven’t made it on the list: black and white. These are arguably not even colors, and they will go well with pretty much everything you choose. White you probably shouldn’t use because you won’t be able to print the logo on white paper unless the white is used on a darker background. Black is a good complementary color to use and a lot of brands choose to have the text set in black because it is neutral and serious.

How to select your color
Look through the table above for a quick overview of what each color stands for. Some questions to ask yourself:

What color do you like?
What color represents your brand’s personality?
What color suits the characteristics of your product/service?
Color’s aren’t tied to any particular industry — though some may be better suited for some services/products than others. You should aim to pick a color that will represent your brand’s personality best. One that will give your customers the right impression the first time they see it.

You aren’t limited to one color. Some brands like eBay choose to go with many colors to represent variety — but you can also choose a couple of colors that work well together.

Consider differences in cultural interpretations of your color. For example in the Western world, white is considered the color of purity and peace, however, in some parts of Asia white is the color of death. Make sure the color you select will give the right impressions in the markets you’re present in.

At the end of the day, the color you choose should be something you like, not just something you worked out through a formula. The brand colors tell others something about your company, but it is also something you should get behind and enjoy. If you don’t like the colors in your logo, then you won’t very happy seeing it every day on your stationery, your website and your product packaging. Select something that represents your company, but at the same time something that you like as well.

Click Here the rest of the article

The importance of Branding

Branding is perhaps the most important facet of any business-beyond product, distribution, pricing, or location. A company's brand is its definition in the world, the name that identifies it to itself and the marketplace.

A model may be beautiful, but without a name, she's just "that girl in that picture." Where would Norma Jean be without Marilyn Monroe, or who would imagine Coca-Cola as just a soft-drink manufacturer?

A brand provides a concrete descriptor to customers and competitors alike, a name for a product or service to distinguish it from anything else. Bob may run a hobby shop, but trying to advertise as "The hobby shop a guy named Bob runs down the street a ways" is financial suicide. Each customer will have to describe the shop, who Bob is, and what the shop does every time someone asks about it. This makes the process of recommending a good hobby shop too much work for the average customer, and far too much work for a user looking for hobby shops on the Internet. A customer looking up Bob's hobby shop will have an easier time of it if he or she knows to refer to it as "Bob's House of Hobbies," and the customer can then refer others to Bob's hobby shop by name, increasing the potential advertising exponentially.

Developing a brand involves more than just picking a catchy name and placing an ad in the newspaper-a brand is more than a unique string of letters denoting a particular product; a successful brand is a mnemonic trigger that makes a consumer feel a certain way when the brand is thought of.

For those who drink cola-flavored soft drinks, which is more appealing on a hot day: a cold cola soda, or an ice-cold Coke? Coca-Cola has spent 100 years developing their particular brand of cola-flavored soda as a refreshing beverage and a seminal representation of a market segment. Coca-Cola has used a combination of direct marketing, give-away techniques, and multi-product cross-branding to achieve maximum brand recognition and visibility in not only its immediately competitive market, but in markets as diverse as Coca-Cola branded race cars and house wares.

Brand loyalty is an integral part of building a brand, as consumers usually have a choice of products in the same market segment, and so a successful company will come up with a way to keep consumers re-buying their product or coming back to their location rather than going to a competitor.

These brand loyalty-building efforts may come in the form of coupons, incentives such as many grocery chains' technique of "grocery discount cards" or "loss leaders," meant to draw consumers into the store, where they will hopefully buy products along with the discounted fare at a higher profit ratio.

In exchange for these discounts and grocery cards, many companies collect information about buying habits and average spending amounts, the better to tailor advertisements and better-focus future promotional efforts. Once a consumer is hooked, brand loyalty tends to result in higher sales volume, as well as loyal customers being less sensitive to price changes of their favorite brands (within reason, of course), as well as less sensitive to competitors' incentives. Studies have shown that it takes 5 times as much money to gain a customer as it does to retain one. That's 5 times as much money as could have been spent on other things.

A brand is who your company is, and what it is selling-it is as important as naming a baby, and should require the same amount of effort to develop it, but if done well, can mature into a successful and profitable adult.

© 2005, Wholesale Pages UK. All rights reserved.

William King is the director of UK Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Suppliers and Pakistan Property Portal . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Three Brand Identity Myths That Will Bring Your Business Down in Canada

This is one of the best articles that I have read that explains why your branding is very important and why should not be taken lightly. It come from Yahoo Small Business

Don

Donald Robichaud Floodlight Consulting By Erin Ferree "Brand identity" is the combination of consistent visual elements that are used in your marketing materials. A basic brand identity kit consists of a logo, business card, letterhead, and envelope. It can be extended to include a Web site, brochure, folder, flyer, or any other professionally designed pieces. Having a brand identity is extremely important to your business's success. However, many business owners have misconceptions about brand identities that can damage their businesses.

My cousin can design my brand identity

There are some very significant areas of your business that should be left to the professionals. First of all, while your cousin may have been "great in art class," this does not mean that she has the knowledge and expertise required to create great graphic designs. Designing a logo, business card, or Web site is much different than painting a picture or making a collage. You must make a brand logo scalable, meaningful, and symbolic. Second, having a professional designer on your business marketing team ensures that your projects will be a top priority. I have many potential clients who start their designs with a friend or relative and are then "put on the back burner," leaving their project to drag on for months. After much frustration, they hire a professional and are amazed at how quickly things are completed. Finally, would you trust a friend to do something really important for your business? Would you ask her to do something that requires unique skills, like making a client presentation for you or giving a speech? Probably not, unless she is a sales professional or a professional speaker. Would you trust a friend who is "good with math" to do your corporate taxes? If you wouldn't trust an amateur with an important business function, then why would you trust an amateur with your brand identity, the key to your marketing success?

Designing a custom brand identity is too expensive

It's true that having your marketing materials designed is an expensive proposition. But it may be even more expensive if you do not have a high-quality, custom brand identity professionally designed. There are many effects that will harm your business, including the possibility that your clients will not respect you or take you seriously, among others. A strong brand identity quickly pays for itself. For most businesses, if just two or three new clients call you over the course of your lifespan because of the equity that your brand identity creates, your logo and brand identity design package would be paid for. When you have a top-notch brand identity, new customers will contact you because they remember your logo, have held on to your business card, or are impressed by your brochure. And it's likely that many more clients than the required few will contact you and your business will grow and flourish from the (relatively) small initial investment in the brand identity. Consider also that a brand identity is a sustainable expense. Once you have had a timeless logo and set of marketing materials designed, you can use them for years to come. And, once you have a strong logo, creating consistent, targeted marketing pieces and programs is an easy addition to your existing system.

 I do not need a brand identity

If you are a professional in business, you need a brand identity. You wouldn't consider being in business without other important business essentials -- your own computer, perhaps, or a business name or bank account. A brand identity is another of these basic business essentials. It's the central requirement for marketing and promoting your business. There is nothing that looks less professional than not having a professional brand identity. If you do not establish a clean, high-quality, and consistent look and feel to your materials, you will have a much more difficult time gaining the trust of potential clients -- and signing them on to use your services. All of the Fortune 500 companies have a logo, and for a good reason: it makes them look more professional. If you want to be perceived as offering a high-caliber service, you have to look polished and "put together."

What's Next do I need to brand my business in Canada?

Does creating brand identity for your product or service have any merit?

Would your market share be positively affected by a different positioning approach?
At FloodLight Consulting we work with Entrepreneurs, Small and mid size businesses assisting them with their Sales, Marketing and Branding of products and services.

What they say, how they say it and when to say it!

What our clients like best is that we help remove the bottle necks in their business and change the way they think and feel about Sales, Marketing and Branding which helps to increase sales and profits.

FloodLight Consulting specializes in Sales, Marketing and Branding programs for Entrepreneurs and Small to Medium Business (SMB). FloodLight core competencies were designed specifically to meet the operational needs of any business relying on standard communication practices.

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If your Brand is ..... not working!!!!
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Contact us today and start Marketing and Branding your Business!!
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FloodLight Consulting - 250-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

What are the benefits of branding my business?

• Branding helps to unlock profitability
• Branding prompts consumer selection
• Branding builds name awareness
• Branding increases the odds of business survival
• Branding produces long term loyalty
• Branding differentiates you form the competition
• Branding allows you to introduce new services more quickly because of the trust you have created
• Branding builds a positive image of your business

Not Sure that you need help to brand your business?

As a business coach “I'd like to learn about your situation and priorities for building your business and if appropriate, to explain how FloodLight Consulting might approach these issues, then if there looks as though there might be some common ground, to agree how we could move to the next stage."

The next step is yours !!

Give us a call or send an email for a complimentary coaching session where we will assess your needs.
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Donald Robichaud
FloodLight Consulting
250-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/