by Stephen Tremp
I remember in the early stages of my digital marketing days leaning back in my chair and staring up at the ceiling wondering, “Branding, can there be any other word that challenges business owners like myself who need to develop a winning identity?”
Through many successes and failures I discovered your brand is your identity. It’s a system that unifies the following aspects which make up your brand:
Successful branding of your business allows you to stand out from your competition. It makes a memorable impression on your customers and clients and allows them to know what to expect from you.
A great brand gives you credibility with your audience and builds brand loyalty.
For this article we’ll focus on the fun stuff and develop the eye candy of your brand like your company name, logo, graphic images, taglines and emotional triggers. But remember, in and of themselves, these are not your brand. Rather, they are ways to communicate or symbolize your brand.
I’ve forgotten more definitions of branding than I can remember. However, I found one quote that has stayed with me. From Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon:
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
What is Branding?
Okay, let’s get right into this article. We’ll focus on:
1. Your company name and taglines (audio)
2. Your logo, fonts, banner, thumbnails and other graphics (visual)
3. Appeal to the logical or emotional needs of people
Notice we focus on appealing to three areas:
audio being your business name, taglines and blurbs
visuals which are your images
how the brain processes and retains information like logical and emotional desires
You need all three to create an effective brand that can:
trigger emotions
change a person’s behavior
influence a buyer’s actions
“So if you’re planning to do something with your life, if you have a 10-year plan of how to get there, you should ask: “Why can’t I do this in six months — Peter Thiel
Free is Good!!!
I’ll help you complete your branding in three ways:
1. Free
2. Low cost
3. Break out the credit card (just be sure to pay off any balance at the end of the month)
A well thought out and effective brand is one of the most important foundational platforms you need for a successful launch. Successful branding of your business allows you to stand out from your competition. It makes a memorable impression on your customers and clients. A great brand gives you credibility with your audience and builds brand loyalty.
Your brand does not say buy me now. Rather, it gives your company a heart and soul. It provides character, creates demand and pulls people in. The key to branding is understanding you’re making a promise to your audience of what they can expect if they purchase your product or service.
Business Name
If you already have a name, great! If not, please don’t stress trying to find that one amazing incredible word or phrase that describes you completely. Above all, have fun.
The automotive industry offers great insight into what’s in a company name. I can only think of one automobile manufacturer that tells me they make cars: General Motors.
Consider Ford. It’s a family name. So is Chrysler. Mercedes-Benz is rooted in family names.
Toyota Motor Corporation was founded by the Toyoda family, which uses ten Japanese strokes to write their name.
However, the word Toyota uses eight strokes and eight is a lucky number in Japanese culture. Hence, “Toyota” was selected for the company’s name. Don’t stress about your company name. Above all, have fun.
- Don’t rush the process
- Think about your audience
- Make it easy to spell
- Short is better than long
- Factor in search engine optimization (SEO)
- Enlist a focus group on social media
- Keep your options open
- Keep mobile in mind
- Don’t obsess over a descriptive name
- Make the name visually distinctive
Use a play one words like Wok and Roll. Run words together like Coca-Cola. Purposely misspell a word like Lyft. Or use a backwards letter like the recently deceased Toys R Us. Even though Toys r Us is no longer in business, their name was iconic for decades, anchored by the backwards R in order to give the impression a child wrote it.
A Good Tagline:
is memorable
includes a key benefit
differentiates the brand
imparts positive feelings about the brand
Examples:
McDonalds – “I’m Lovin’ It”
Skittles – “Taste the Rainbow”
Disney – “The Happiest Place on Earth”
Nike – “Just Do It.”
M&Ms – “Melts in Your Mouth Not in Your Hands.”
General Electric – “Imagination at Work.”
My Taglines:
I’ve been to the penthouse and the outhouse and every place in between. I know what works and what doesn’t work
Where science meets the supernatural (for my books)
#StubbornTenacity
Blurbs
A blurb is simply a short promotional piece attached to goods or services. It’s a selling tool. You can string together two or three taglines with commas or the word and. You can write them yourself or use reviews from people who bought your goods.
Logos
Your logo is a visual representation of your brand. Keep it simple. I suggest using a white or clear background. You’ll want to use your logo on your website, social media, email signature, packaging and all promotional material such as coffee cups, shirts, pens, etc.
Adobe Creative Cloud has a discount for teachers and students for $19.99 a month for the first year, $29.99 after that. This is the full Creative Cloud membership which includes PhotoShop, Indesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and much more. If you don’t need the entire suite of apps you can opt for the Photoshop Photography Program which gives you Photoshop CC, Lightroom, Lightroom mobile and Bridge CC, for $9.99 a month.
Adobe Teacher Student Discount
Characters, Mascots, And Icons
These are visual aids that help communicate who you are and how you can solve a problem or help make a positive difference in somebody’s life.
Yes, logos are very important. However, for many organizations a logo is an inanimate object incapable of conveying the personality behind their brand.
Characters, mascots and athletes help build a logical and emotional bridge between the company and the consumer. The Cheetos’ Chester Cheetah is all about personality. He’s cool. He’s smooth. He’s extreme. Cheetos doesn’t have a memorable logo, but they have compensated with an animated character and the slogans Chester Cheetah says:
- “It ain’t easy bein’ cheesy.”
- “The cheese that goes crunch!”
- “Dangerously cheesy!”
Here are great examples of characters and mascots that don’t need an introduction and they should be around for the next generation.
Colors
Colors have meaning. Remember, different cultures vary on how they interpret colors. This is a great video regarding color psychology in marketing.
Some companies like McDonalds have succeeded at both a logo (the golden arches) and character (Ronald McDonald). However, smart companies are aware of their changing environment. McDonalds has redirected their focus from marketing high-fat content food to children and changed their image to cater to high school youth and adults with a café environment and a healthier and more upscale menu.
The creepy clown sightings have also contributed to the demise of Ronald McDonald.
An icon is a direct representation of a concept, idea or operation that we see every day in the apps we use. The image represents what the app performs, like clicking the LIKE button on Facebook.
A good icon, like the thumbs up image, will be just as recognizable as the logo like the Facebook logo.
You may want to trademark your company name, logo, and tagline or patent something you made.
Oh By the Way
Marketers long ago realized if they can get the masses to not only buy their overpriced goods but also promote them for free, they found a goose that lays golden eggs. All they needed to do was to make it cool and fashionable to wear their logos.
Ironically, as I’m writing this script, I’m wearing a shirt wifey bought me that has the Nike swoosh on it. It’s a cool looking shirt. I wear a lot. Bam! I’m a walking billboard for Nike. And we paid them for the billboard!
Harley Davidson
This company takes their brand and logos and 10X’s them. What other brand do their followers religiously tattoo on just about any body part? I can’t think of any.
Summary
Your brand is the center of a hub that’s connected to every aspect of your business; websites, social media, video, publications, packaging, public relations and networking. Done right, branding will give you a major advantage in increasingly competitive markets.
Ultimately, your brand is the perception people formulate about your product or service through facts (such as packaging and color schemes) and emotions that appeal to a person’s ego, emotional state, their needs and their aspirations.
Okay, before we close out I want to take a moment and bring in a little humor. I’ve included a couple commercials from the 1960s that could not be played on TV today. I want to show you how branding and marketing has evolved over the years.
Remember, these shows were run in prime time when kids would watch them.