Brand Marketing 101

Whether your business is large or small, branding is one of the most important aspects of successful marketing. An effective branding strategy will give you the edge in today's competitive markets. Your brand is simply a promise you make to your customers. It tells them exactly what they can expect from your product or service.

The core foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand.

Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. In order to have a strong brand quality you need to strategically position your brand in the heart and mind of your customers. This requires you to precisely define your brand.

Defining your brand requires you to answer these key questions:

1) What is my business mission?

2) What are the features of my product or service?

3) What are the benefits of my product or service?

4) What qualities do you want your business to be known for?

This may be a hard and time consuming job, so you might prefer outsourcing this job to another firm.

Once you've defined your brand it is now time to start your branding campaign. Here is a simple guideline to follow:

1) Get a great logo.

2) Write down your message.

What do you stand for, what values do you want to communicate about your brand?

3) Integrate your brand.

Your brand must extend to cover every aspect of your business.

4) Develop a tag line.

Write a remarkable, concise and meaningful sentence that best describes your brand.

5) Be true to your brand.

Remember what we said earlier, your brand is your promise. You must deliver your brand message and keep your promise. Otherwise customers will not return back to you.

6) Be consistent.

The above mentioned steps need effort and time, so you must remain consistent for your business to thrive.