New Year Goal! Branding Your Company!

Image source: My Daughter Emillia 

*This post was originally published on March 8 2018 and updated on Dec 24, 2019.*

This isn’t a post on how Nunn Design branded themselves. It is information on “how to brand ones own business.” We’ve intentionally used fun graphics, done by my daughter Emillia, to help you digest such a challenging topic and to help you make this about you and your company.

Penguin Steve has identified a need that everyone in business has; how to set ourselves apart and make ourselves recognizable and noteworthy. The branding of your company can help set you apart from the rest.

I’m not even going to pretend that I know everything about branding and how to do it well, but I do know that there are a lot of books and information out there for free on the internet. What I can highlight is the terminology typically used for branding and why it is important to set a goal this year to learn more.

1. Brand or Brand Positioning.

In order for people to find you and want to purchase what you have to offer, your business needs to position itself in a way that attracts buyers. This is referred to in marketing as the “brand positioning.” Everything you do within the company is set-up to support you in this position.

Having a clear “branding position”:

• Sets you apart from others and makes you different.
• Helps you to stay focused on what you are creating and the style in which it is executed.
• Helps you to stay on trend and relevant with what consumers want to buy.

2. Branding.

“The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.”
Source: The Business Dictionary

3. Brand Strategy.

“Your brand strategy will identify the following three core components of your business and can then be used as a blueprint when it comes to developing your marketing strategy and tactics.

• Purpose – Your business must have a functional and intentional purpose.
• Consistency – Without consistency, a business will struggle to survive.
• Emotional Impact – Emotion is what helps customers connect with you, a brand strategy helps you develop the emotion that you are going after.

Source: Lauria Lake of the balance

4. Brand Equity.

Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity. The added value a strong brand brings to your company’s products or services allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product–and customers will pay that higher price.
The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment.
Source: Entrepreneur

5. Brand Identity

The visible elements of a brand (such as colors, design, logotype, name, symbol) that together identify and distinguish the brand in the consumers’ mind.

Source: Business Dictionary

How Do I Brand My Company?

All of the above terms are thrown around in defining a brand and describing the process of branding. To get clear on the “how to” part of executing these terms, you will want to dig deeper. Branding doesn’t happen overnight. It is something that happens with time and tweaking. It also isn’t “done.” A company may want to rebrand to keep itself relevant and attractive to the buyers that it is wanting to sell to.

Books to Read!

Here are some resources to get you started:

• Top 10 Books on Branding by Creative Market
• Top 5 Books on Branding for 2017 by Silk Cards
• 6 Best Branding Books for Entrepreneurs by Motto

Free Online Articles!

The links that were listed above in the section where I was defining branding are all great free online resources. Here are some others:

• Hinge Marketing does a great job of walking through the 4 key ways to create a powerful brand position. I highly recommend reading the full series of linked posts:

Elements of a Successful Brand 1: Brand Positioning
Elements of a Successful Brand 2: The Tagline
Elements of a Successful Brand 3: Personality
Elements of a Successful Brand 4: Brand Promise

• Flourish & Thrive Academy. Tracy and Robin do a great job of working with jewelry designers. It is well worth taking a moment to see what all they have to offer!
• FreshSparks has a blog that has great information worth reviewing.

I hope that this blog post will help you to understand that just being an artist and enjoying making things isn’t enough to build a successful business. It takes a clear understanding of the power of developing a strong brand that will set you apart.

Let Us Know!

Do you have any favorite books and articles that have helped you in your branding process?

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