There are a few things that you should do at the very beginning of your business. Creating a solid brand is one of them. But even if you've already started your company, you still need to make sure your brand is clear and consistent.
It is important to understand that your brand is much more than the name of your company. Your own core values will be at the heart of your brand, and your brand will permeate every aspect of your business. Branding is not just for product based companies, either. If you are an individual who is selling your services, you need to be conscious of your brand. You can not determine your target market until you define your brand. And you can't effectively market your business until you can identify your target market.
I'll use an example I used in a previous post: Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.
Ben & Jerry's is a company with a strong brand. Their product and their company completely jive with who Ben and Jerry are. The company is progressive and socially conscious in the way they produce their ice cream, run their company and give back to society. These characteristics are reflected in their packaging, the names of their flavors and their charitable contributions. By creating a strong brand they have created trust and allowed themselves to stand out in a very crowded market.
Here are a few things you can do to help identify your brand:
1. List 5 words that you want your company to reflect.
2. Have your friends and family list 10 words to describe yourself and your business or product(s). Try to get at least 12-20 people to do this for you.
3. Highlight all of the overlapping words and rank them by most to least.
Now evaluate your results. See if the overlapping words match any of your preferred characteristics. If the results are close to, or exactly, what you want, congratulations. You are on your way to creating a strong brand. If there aren’t very many, or any, overlapping words, or if there are overlapping words, but they don’t match your list, this is a problem. You aren't sending a clear message, or at least not the right message.
This exercise will help you see where you’re at. If it’s far from where you want to be, don’t be discouraged because that is valuable information. Go back to the people you polled and get details about why they answered like they did. With this information you will know what needs to be changed, eliminated, or added.
Building a company that stands out has never been tougher, and it won't be getting easier. But you must stand out if you want to survive, so creating a strong brand must be a priority.
