Think of a few brands. What comes to mind? For most people, they’re probably brands that you interact with on a regular basis or maybe something with a catchy jingle that’s permanently implanted in your brain:
Brands make businesses memorable and good brands link a business and its name or products with the benefits the customer receives.
A good brand will implant itself in our prospects’ and customers’ memories in either words, logos, jingles, slogans, or a combination. A great brand will be recalled when a customer wants the very thing your brand claims.
If your business is selling green widgets, you might have a picture of a green widget and a slogan like, “Green widgets are the only widgets you need.” Then, repeat that brand over and over and over again. Soon, when customers think that they need a widget, they’ll think of green widgets and go to your store to make a purchase.
Brands can help our businesses but it’s easy to let the opportunity slip by without even noticing. In fact, branding sounds like a big business thing to do, and the stay-at-home entrepreneur may be content with his or her URL and a handful of products. But branding isn’t just for big businesses. You can brand, too. In fact, you should brand, too!
There are two things you should brand. The first thing is your business itself. Spend the money and get a logo and a slogan and put that on every piece of mail leaving your office. Put the slogan on your voicemail and the logo and slogan on t-shirts, your website and your office door.
The second thing you should brand is some of your products. If you sell green widgets, and you sell big ones, consider branding one to make it more memorable. For example, your website might make that claim that you carry “small widgets, medium widgets, large widgets, and The Biggest Widget Money Can Buy,” as a way to make your biggest and most expensive widget a little more unique.
Car manufacturers do a great job of this: General Motors, for example, has their own brand but then each division within the company has their own brand: Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, just to name a few. And, each car is branded, too: Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontiac Solstice, Buick Lucerne. Mentioning anyone of these brands – whether the company, its divisions, or the individual cars – evokes images in your mind. That’s exactly what you need to accomplish in your business, too.
Creating a brand is easy once you’ve selected a few items in your product line-up to brand. Determine what makes them special and spin it into a logo and slogan. Or, gather together a few items (including a popular item and a poorly-selling item you’re trying to clear from inventory) and brand them as a package: “WidgetPak4!”
Marketing your new brands is easy as well. In fact, once you have a few brands, you’ll probably find that marketing is even easier than before. Your company’s brand needs to go on everything and you will probably find additional opportunities to promote some of your products. For example:
Green Widgets-R-Us.
Green widgets are the only widgets you need.
We’re the home of the popular WidgetPak4. And, remember, our website is the ONLY place you’ll find The Biggest Widget Money Can Buy.
What can you brand in your business?
