Business Branding Tip
Branding Basics
Your brand is a promise to your
customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services,
and it differentiates what your offering from your competitors. Your brand is who
you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.
Brand Strategy
Your brand strategy is how, what,
where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand
messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution
is also part of your brand strategy. What you communicate visually and verbally
are part of your brand strategy as well.
Frequent, strategic branding leads
to strong brand recognition, which means adding value brought to your company’s
products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what
identical, unbranded products have. An obvious example of this Coke vs. generic
pop. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand, it can charge more for its
product–and customers will pay that higher price.
Defining
Your Brand
Defining your brand can be
difficult, time-consuming, and uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least,
that you answer the questions below:
What is your company’s mission?
How will you differentiate yourselves from your competitors?
What do your customers (and future prospects) already
think of your company?
What specific qualities do you want them to associate with you company?
Do your research. Learn about your prospective
customers needs, habits and desires. Put
yourself in their shoes. Don’t think
you know what they think—KNOW what they think!!
Because defining your brand and
developing a brand strategy might be a little overwhelming at first, consider leveraging the expertise
of an Infinity Signs brand expert! Our calendar is just to the right on this very page; pick a time and date to personally visit with us about your brand.
Once you’ve defined your brand, how
do you get the word out? Here are a few
simple, quick and easy tips..
Create a great logo. Place it in the most strategic locations for your business. Work vehicles,
business cards, employee apparel even email signatures are a few great examples. Get noticed!
Display your brand messaging. What are the key messages you want to communicate about your brand? Every employee should be aware of your brand attributes so they can connect your brand with its audiences.
Integrate your brand. Branding extends to every aspect of your business–how you answer your
phones, what you or your salespeople wear on sales calls, your e-mail
signature, everything.
Develop a tagline. Write a memorable, purposeful and concise statement summarizing what your brand is all about. “Got Brand?”
Design templates and create brand guidelines. Use the same color scheme, logo placement, look and
feel throughout. You don’t need to be fancy, just consistent.
Be true to your brand. Customers won’t return to you–or refer you to someone else–if you don’t deliver on your brand promise.
Be consistent. I placed this point last only because it involves all of the above and is
the most important tip I can give you. If you can’t do this, your attempts
at establishing a brand will fail.
We highlight another brand image from an Infinity Signs customer -QC Kinetix
Infinity Signs recently completed a
project that they were very excited about. They received a request from Ben Rippey, owner and COO of QC Kinetix in Idaho. Ben wanted a noticeable solution to get his brand out and up at his business location, Infinity had the perfect idea.
With a quick design and proof approval, Infinity transformed Ben’s business facade into a billboard at a fraction of the price!
Ben and his wife couldn’t have been more pleased
with the results!
Since Ben had his logo ready for Infinity, no design was needed. Instead, Infinity installed some contemporary letters at his office to maintain his brand image and became more noticeable than ever!
Putting our training, equipment, and
support to good use, Infinity got the entire order produced and installed to
code on time! Ben and his wife cannot be happier
with their new letters and will be sure to use Infinity Signs again for more
signage in the future.
Andy’s Idaho
With Christmas and the New Year break officially underway, Andy recommends Gateway Parks tubing hills that create quite a thrill for kids, and adults alike!
“This is a great a place that kids
(and adults!) can and have an absolute blast outside,” says Andy. “There’s hundreds of people coming through here a day and it is amazing
to see all these families having a ball during the holidays.”
Gateway Parks offers 7 hour and a
half sessions a day & Andy definitely recommends going online to buy tickets
and to booking out a time available. $25
during the day, $20 for twilight (7:30pm – 9pm) and season passes for $159, the
season typically comes to an end in March.
Andy mentions that the locally owned
business also made a big investment this year adding more snow guns and
equipment. “With the warm weather we’ve
been having, this wouldn’t be possible without all the new snow machines. 11
snow guns are out there now along with extra water coolers, air compressors and
air chillers to help change the atmosphere to an outdoor winter wonderland. There’s even a Magic Carpet to tow you and
your family up the hill!!”
Also new this year is Murphy’s Mini
Donuts food truck. Gateway Parks continues to sell hot chocolate and they also
have a fire so family members that don’t want to go tubing can enjoy their time
at the hill.
Both the kids and the family members
alike will have a blast at Gateway Parks! Time to create some great family memories with the kids!
