Take a look all around. Now take a look at yourself. The world by and large has everything branded and that includes you. Don’t believe it?  Your shoes are probably Nike, your shirt an IZOD, your pants maybe Dockers. Wow, you are a walking billboard. Now look at your car, is it a Chevy, a Ford, a Toyota. Whoever manufactured it, it is branded.  But what about the most important brand of all; your own?

Whether you think so or not we all have our own brand so you may as well make the most of your branding opportunity. ’But I don’t need my own brand, I work for someone else.’ EVERYONE needs to build their own brand regardless of whether you punch a clock or work from home in your pajamas.

Corporate giants have known this for years. Building a brand increases visibility and the likelihood that an even bigger corporate giant will come alone and gobble up a company (at a tidy profit). Maybe Hollywood will want to buy the story for a movie or your favorite author will want to write the book. All this can happen, but first you have to build your own personal brand.

Building your personal brand is just something that needs to be done. Face it, even if you work for someone else you are by and large a ‘free agent.’ Being a free agent in a world that is filled with endless brands is a great opportunity to create, mold, perfect, and sell your own personal brand and the good news is that everyone has this unique opportunity. The better news is that many people are content with their nine to five lives and will never work on their own personal brand, so some of the competition is out of the way right off the bat.

Now the bad news. You need to understand how to build your own personal brand before you can conquer the world. This can be easier said than done and will require a good deal more than a megaphone and a voice. So where do you turn?

Big corporations get the picture. In 1993 when Phillip Morris decided to cut the price of the famous Marlboro branded cigarettes by 40 cents per pack on a Friday, the rest of the market felt a $25 billion decline in packaged goods as a whole on Monday. The consensus; brands are a dying breed.

Where else can you turn? The Internet is filled with all sorts of web sponsors that get the importance of branding. You know them too. Google, Yahoo, NASCAR.com; all branded websites. How branded is JoeSmith.com though?

Because the Internet allows virtually anyone to have an active website, virtually everyone in fact does have a website. Which sites get bookmarked, visited, add to a favorites list, and the like? The ones that are branded the best. A good web brand will tell your visitors that your website will not only offer them what they want once, but in fact over and over again.

Now think about another big tech innovation; e-mail. Here again anyone can have an e-mail address and really these days do you honestly know anyone who doesn’t? Which e-mails do you decide to open and which e-mails you decide to trash is all a matter of branding.

Personal branding, just like any other branding is a building of trust. When your brand becomes bigger and better so too does your reputation. All of the sudden people will want to visit your website and will even send their friends, family, and co-workers your links. All of the sudden people will want to open the e-mails you send and will even forward them along. Once the trust is there, the people know that your brand will offer them an incredible value that they can put their faith in.

Perhaps though the best example of those who know the importance of branding are professional service firms. They almost always follow the same business model; get hired by a client, show up to work for that client, and then figure out how to provide value to that client. They almost never have any tangible assets to speak of and most of them walk around in expensive suits sporting the latest technical gadgets such as an iPhone which they are always using.

Separation comes from the firm or firms that can figure out how to better service clients and have the ability to learn on the fly. All of the sudden as results get better and the name gets better. Last to follow is the reputation and the rest isn’t history. One client recommends you to another and so on and so on.

This is precisely what you must do; figure out how to stand out in a crowd of millions. You have to be nimble and learn things as they come your way. You have to be open to new and innovate ideas and can never get sedentary in your ways. You have to figure out what you can offer someone that no one else can. It is a sometimes long and arduous journey, but if you try hard enough and look long enough you can somehow find, create, mold, and then perfect the most important brand of all; YOUR OWN.

Mb

JPJ3QTHTVV4Z

Business cards have been around for centuries. In times past, cards were used to introduce visitors to a wealthy residence. In modern times, businesses began using cards to help people remember the company name and representative.

Many businesses do not think of business cards as a marketing tool. They pass them out to customers so they can call the next time. Letters are stuffed with the obligatory business card for the customer to put in his wallet. To me, these examples are lost marketing opportunities.

How much does your business spend on ad campaigns to the business name or product in front of a customer? Once you’ve reeled that customer in, she can become your business’s best friend. Hand her an extra card and ask her to give it to a friend.

Here are some common business card mistakes:

Using one side of the card. Most businesses use the front of the card for company name, phone, address, employee name, and a brief statement about services. Why not use the other side to tell the customer some added benefits about your company?Looking like every other card. You’ve seen a lot of business cards. Why not brainstorm and make your card stick out. You could use a bright color or a wild picture. The possibilities are endless. Some companies have used a dollar bill picture. This will definitely draw attention.

Talking too much about your great company. Let’s face it; your customers don’t really care about your history, your face, your building, etc. They care what you will do for them. Stress what is in it for your customer on your business card.

So what should you do? Design a professional looking business card with the company name, phone number address, and representative name. State in bold action words what your company or product will do for the customer. Tell your employees to hand out business cards to everyone they meet. You never know when those people will become your customers.Depending on your business, consider using a bold color or picture. Just make sure it isn’t tack or offensive. Just think outside the box. It may bring in a lot of customers for a low price.

Brief Chapter Overview:

We seem to be a species of seekers, forever seeking out new ventures, new adventures, new opportunities, the continual search for self. With all these hours waged in the pursuit of personal identity, clearly we’ve come to appreciate that it’s an important pursuit, at that. So, if the definition of self-identity is so highly valued, wouldn’t the same expedition apply to our business venture? Chapter 3 deals with “Brand Identity,” a clear and conceivable description of you and your business…one that will cultivate a very specific perception of your business practices and Mission Statement, if you will. As briefly discussed in Chapter 3, the jury is still out on a “catch-all” definition of brand identity. Suffice to say that the your brand, is you, so don’t take it’s creation or re-creation lightly!

An effective Brand Identity incorporates three fundamental vehicles of communication:

• Visual Component – this is the aesthetic piece of your brand identity, incorporating graphics and images utilizing an effective and catchy color palette that best captures your business.

• Written Component – The written component includes font types and sizes, writing styles and creativity. Remember, the fonts and writing styles you select should consistently reflect your overall image…in other words, it should “make sense”.

• Verbal Component – The foundation of this component is your “30-second elevator speech”. This is your opportunity to relay your brand verbally in a short, succinct and subtle verbal description of your Mission Statement.

That being said, if your Brand ID is doing it’s job, it has successfully encapsulated the purpose and function of your business, what clients can expect from you and your business, formulates a positive image of your business in the minds of your clients and begins laying the groundwork for relationship building with your clients. Your Brand Identity should create an authentic desire in the minds of your potential demographic, that, “yes….this is a company/individual I want to do business with”!

2. Bulleted Helpful Tips:
   Now that you’ve rolled up your sleeves and have settled into the task of identifying your business brain-child, don’t be swayed by what may feel like a daunting pursuit. Developing an effective Brand Identity is a serious activity, and the time and energy invested in the study can make or break your business venture. Buck up friends and never fear…you need not face the job alone…their exists a plethora of businesses who’s sole purpose is to help you actualize yours. One Stop Print Shop works diligently to help small and medium-sized businesses discover, re-discover or uncover your unique brand identity, and creates a promotional strategy, putting your unique brand identity to work by providing an number of effective promotional items baring your style. Regardless of whether or not you opt to hire a company in the know, or to go it alone, here are a few pointers to keep in mind before plunging in:

• Take into consideration the image or project you want to project;

• What style would you like to communicate to your clients? Are you conventional, hip, nostalgic?

• Who is your demographic, who are you targeting your services or product to? Youth, middle-class families, the elderly, women, men? I think you get the idea!

• How will your Brand Identity set you apart from your competitors, and while we’re on the topic, what are your competitors doing, anyway?

• How will your Brand Identity reflect your mission and the wants and needs of your client-base.

• Remember VVW! An effective Brand Identity should always include a verbal, visual and written component.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson contended that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. Suffice to say that when it comes to Brand Imaging, there is nothing “foolish” about consistency, in fact, one may say it is the skeleton of your marketing campaign, clearly it’s not Emerson’s!

3. Real-Life Example:

Sales for Hunt’s Boston varied office products was waning. The company realized that they needed to update their brand identity with a “hip,” new look to boost sales and reassert themselves in the market of inexpensive and fashionable office product, but did not have the luxury of marketing funds.

Working with an outside organization to help with copy and aesthetic, Hunt’s Boston implemented a new color strategy for their imaging. These changes were immediately applied to all their current product, as well as their promotional materials and administrative tools (i.e. letterhead, envelopes, invoices, etc.). In collaboration with their consultants, the lifestyle trends of their buyer demographic were surveyed and an effective color palette was generated. These new palettes reflected a new demographic Hunt’s was eager to appeal to, the youth markets. Their research revealed that a younger demographic was most interested in the small home-office environment or SOHO. As such, Hunt’s shifted their color palette and font palette accordingly, seeking to appeal to the 20-something’s in their market. The effort proved highly successful and inexpensive.

Hunt’s brand identity and it’s color “face-lift”re-established them as an innovative “trend-setting” company. Their brand awareness was increased and retail sales increased 30% across all Boston products.

4. Final Words (Where to get more info):

Great, so you’ve been armed with an appreciable amount of information about Brand Identity, but, as I’ve mentioned, this undertaking is not for the faint of heart…”knowledge is power” (can’t seem to avoid punctuating with quotes, can I)? So arm yourself with as much information about developing an effective Brand Identity now, before you get started, and while your at it, you may want to consider a bit of research into affordable organizations and/or individuals who’s own Mission Statement includes developing effective imaging for small businesses. I thought I’d give you a little jump start:

• www.youronestop.com

• http://www.womeninconsulting.org/consultants/articles/improve-brand-identity.html

• http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingglossary/l/bldefbrandid.htm

• Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands by Alina Wheeler

• The Brand Gap: Expanded Edition by Marty Neumeier

Finding the best way to reach customers is not limited by interactions, places or a large amount of money for a marketing plan. You can reach customers with simple things, such as writing sales letters. Finding the best way to craft together a sales letter and place everything in a way that you know will attract the attention from customers that you want is an easy way for you to begin reaching out to your customers through a simple set of words.

The most important part of sales letters is to make sure that they reach the customers you want. This means that they should be personal, conversational and are able to grab the attention of the customers with the words that are used. This first means that the way that you write the sales letter should represent the identity of your business with the words and allow customers to see that if they turn to your business, you will treat them as their customers. Using target words, such as save and amazing will also help to draw attention to prospects.

Once you are able to grab the specific tone of the sales letters, you can use specific tactics that will allow potential customers to want to be a part of your business. Offering potential customers offers for your business, such as discounts and products or services that are valuable to them will help you to make the personal link that you want to draw their attention. This doesn’t just include focusing on the value, but also asking customers to call or come to your business location for what they need.

Of course, this is always more effective with the right look to your sales letter. Using bright colors and images that draw attention to your sales letter will always help keep a professional look and will also allow potential customers to be drawn into reading what you have to offer. The image will always come before the reading, meaning that it is important that each customer is able to be drawn to reading the sales letter that you are providing.

Sales letters are an easy and effective guerrilla marketing tactic that can be used for potential customers in offering the best of your business. You can easily make sure that sales letters are effective by keeping some simple ideas in mind about the image presented through both the look of the sales letter and the words that are used. The result will be potential customers drawn to your business and more marketing opportunities that arise from low cost and efficient methods. For more information on how to reach potential customers, contact Mark Bove, Guerrilla Marketing Certified Coach and small business owner of www.gettingthewordout.com and www.youronestop.com.

Imagine that you see a set of buildings lined up on a street. All of the buildings have some unique products, but are mostly the same. It is up to you to decide what door you should go behind, and why. How do you decide on something like this?

As most know, competition in the business world today means finding something that will help you to stand out from the next door neighbor. It is as simple as creating something that will grab someone’s attention and get them in the door.

In the fast-paced world we live in today, customers often do not have the time to research and read through the constant stream of marketing assailing them. They will simply go into the first building that captures their attention. This means one thing to you as a business. A clear visual identity – be it a company logo or brand design – is able to express not just a company’s outlook but even its reputation. An identity system which conveys a sense of stability, innovation and quality is paramount to the success of a growing business in order for the business to continue to get the word out.

The importance of a memorable visual identity is often under-estimated, despite the fact that it is the first point of contact between a business and its potential client. This visual identity is the word that becomes your company’s message. A logo or brand design may appear on business cards, product packaging, pamphlets, websites, emails and letters. It is effectively the “name tag” by which the customer recognizes a company and its products in a store or marketplace.

Company logo design may seem a trivial aspect to business but it is the single marketing tool that will be common and reusable for all offered products and services. As a visual cue, it needs to be meaningful to customers. A clean and stylistic design is aesthetically appealing. An original logo image can be eye-catching and memorable. The challenge of designing a good logo is that it has to exemplify the essence of the business without appearing too complex or distracting.

A well-designed identity system is the foundation upon which a stronger relationship with the customer may be built. Brand recognition encourages the potential customer to explore products or services offered further. The visual identity system provides the customer with key ideas about your business. It needs to be supported with further information on products and services. An impressive marketing policy is thus a marriage of the visual identity and related verbal or written information; neither can be effective without the other.

If you would like more information or tips on the importance of a visual identity, contact Mark Bove.

In Part 1 of this two part series we talked about two major components of your business brand identity – visual and written. In this part we will tie these two things together and focus on how critically important it is to maintain consistency with your brand identity across all of your marketing materials.

Defining marketing materials
What are marketing materials? Marketing experts might quibble over this a bit, but from your customers’ perspective everything you produce is a marketing piece. Brochures, business cards, and advertising are obvious examples, but some of the less obvious examples include exterior signs, interior signs, employee clothing, vehicle signs, newsletters, invoices, receipts, and even the notepads sitting on your desk.

All of these things represent your business to the customer, so it is important that they all reflect what you want them to about your business. Every time a customer has some contact with your business, whether it is driving by your store or meeting with you in person, the brand identity and messaging must be consistent. If there is not enough consistency, customers will pick up on that (even if it is subconsciously) and they will begin to view your business as inconsistent, disorganized, or perhaps even not very professional.

Keeping your marketing materials consistent
There are some easy things you can do to keep your marketing materials (as defined above) consistent with your brand identity and with each other. For instance, you might start with the paper products you use for business cards, memos, letterhead stationery, signs, invoices, etc. Gather together one piece of each paper product and lay them out side by side on a table in front of you. What do you notice about them? Do the colors and textures complement each other? Or do they differ from each enough that they do not seem to belong together?

You can also look at the use of your logo and colors. Imagine you are a customer who has ordered something from your business and in your hand are an invoice, a business card, a handwritten note from the sales representative, and a business brochure. Taken together, do all of these things appear consistent? Is it easy to tell that they all came from the same business? Or do they have several different kinds of appearance and overall feel?

These are just two examples of why it is important to keep your marketing materials consistent with your defined brand identity. It can be hard to maintain consistency sometimes because there are so many different creative possibilities from which to choose, but you should resist the temptation to “do something different” just for fun. Remember that when you communicate a consistent message across many different individual pieces and across many different contact points with the customer, that message builds and builds in the customer’s mind until it is easily recognizable as yours. Help this process along by enforcing consistency across all of your materials.

The brand identity you create for your business is a critical part of how customers and potential customers perceive the quality and professionalism of your products and services. A poor brand identity will detract from the success of your business, but a strong brand identity can be just as damaging if it is not created and used with consistency. In this two part series, we will talk about the importance of establishing and reinforcing brand identity (visual and written) as well as the critical role consistency plays in all of your marketing materials.

Brand identity – the visual component
The visual component of brand identity is most familiar to most people. This piece of brand identity focuses on visual elements such as logo design, colors, web site design, and anything else associated with the visual look and feel of your brand. It is not as simple as picking a symbol and using colors that you like. Creating a visual identity can be a very detailed, intensely researched process if you choose. Very large companies, for example, will spend months and months doing research, working with test groups, and evaluating different elements before changing their visual identity. Sears, Kentucky Fried Chicken, AT&T, and NBC are just a few examples of companies who literally invest millions of dollars into creation and maintenance of their visual identity.

For most small business owners, the visual component of their brand identity usually starts with a logo design. It can be a simple as a word, a name, or initials, or the design can be much more complex, involving custom graphics and multiple colors. Think about the visual identity of your business for a moment, and look at it from the perspective of your customers. Is your logo attractive, easy to see, and simple to remember and recognize again? Are the colors pleasing and do they fit the image and character of your business?

If you see a problem with your visual identity, or you just are not sure if your visual identity is right for your business then you can seek professional advice. Marketing consultants, design agencies, and many full service printers can help you adjust visual elements to make them stronger and more in line with your business image.

Brand identity – the written component
This part of brand identity is often overlooked by business professionals. The written part of your brand identity has to do with the writing style and formatting rules you use in all forms of written materials. The style you choose should be consistent across everything you write, from advertisements to newsletters to promotional flyers and more. For example, if your brand identity is of a hip, modern, and youthful company you would not write in a style that is formal and traditional. You would use words or phrases like “use” instead of “utilize”, “get yourself in here” instead of “we invite you to visit our showroom”, etc.

The written component of your brand identity extends to nearly every kind of written material you produce, from form letters to business letters to internal memos to emails and more. The more consistent you are about using a writing style in all written communications, the more easily identifiable those communications become. Anyone who reads one of your pieces will be able to immediately identify it as coming from you, just by the writing itself.

Coming up in Part 2
In Part 2 of this series, we will focus on the importance of consistency in all of your marketing materials. Maintaining both your visual identity and written identity is a major part of your overall brand and business personality.

Imagine that you see a set of buildings lined up on a street. All of the buildings have some unique products, but are mostly the same. It is up to you to decide what door you should go behind, and why. How do you decide on something like this?

As most know, competition in the business world today means finding something that will help you to stand out from the next door neighbor. It is as simple as creating something that will grab someone’s attention and get them in the door.

In the fast-paced world we live in today, customers often do not have the time to research and read through the constant stream of marketing assailing them. They will simply go into the first building that captures their attention. This means one thing to you as a business. A clear visual identity – be it a company logo or brand design – is able to express not just a company’s outlook but even its reputation. An identity system which conveys a sense of stability, innovation and quality is paramount to the success of a growing business in order for the business to continue to get the word out.

The importance of a memorable visual identity is often under-estimated, despite the fact that it is the first point of contact between a business and its potential client. This visual identity is the word that becomes your company’s message. A logo or brand design may appear on business cards, product packaging, pamphlets, websites, emails and letters. It is effectively the “name tag” by which the customer recognizes a company and its products in a store or marketplace.

Company logo design may seem a trivial aspect to business but it is the single marketing tool that will be common and reusable for all offered products and services. As a visual cue, it needs to be meaningful to customers. A clean and stylistic design is aesthetically appealing. An original logo image can be eye-catching and memorable. The challenge of designing a good logo is that it has to exemplify the essence of the business without appearing too complex or distracting.

The establishment of a solid brand identity is regarded today as a requisite investment for a company. Companies such as Intel and Nike have created simple logo designs that have become instantly recognizable all over the world. The designs are considered part of the companies’ intangible assets because of their value through brand recognition. It is especially important for startups and small businesses to establish a powerful visual identity as soon as possible. By relating the product to the logo, customers will begin to associate the logo to other quality products offered by the company. The logo gains value over time with an increasing customer base and recognition. This is a simple way for you to remind your customers of who you are and to get the word out.

A well-designed identity system is the foundation upon which a stronger relationship with the customer may be built. Brand recognition encourages the potential customer to explore products or services offered further. The visual identity system provides the customer with key ideas about your business. It needs to be supported with further information on products and services. An impressive marketing policy is thus a marriage of the visual identity and related verbal or written information; neither can be effective without the other.

If you would like more information or tips on the importance of a visual identity, contact Mark Bove’.