What exactly is a “brand?” The term probably originated at a time when when ours was a strictly agricultural society. Ranchers take a branding iron to their cattle, as a way to signify they OWN those cows. Likewise, modern corporations choose a logo to brand their name into the mind of the consumer. Every time you label an ad or website with your company logo; every time you take a political stance on behalf of your corporation, you’re putting your brand into effect. And if a brand indicates ownership, then it should be your ultimate mission to dominate, or own, your niche. Brand your company. Own the cow.

How do you determine your style of branding? Analyze your audience. Zero in on the group you’re trying to reach. Are they male, female, or both? What’s the age group and economical level? What are their spending habits, their values? How do they TALK? What are they concerned about? What do they think they NEED? Where will their focus be in six months? And most importantly, how does your marketable product fit into the scheme? If you never really get to know your audience, you can read all the marketing how-to strategies in the world, and it isn’t going to mean diddly-squat for your business. It isn’t going to help you build your brand.

What’s the next step? Always, always, always put yourself in their shoes. Jump right into their heads, if you can. Think of your audience during the business-plan conception process. How do they communicate? What do they find visually appealing? Are you marketing to senior citizens? Use bigger fonts, a nostalgic tone, and a morally forthright attitude. Is it the filthy, stinking rich whom you’re trying to attract? Save the Crazy Eddie shtick, because money is no object here. Every bit of energy used to promote your brand should be focused toward winning over your key customer.

There will be a time when you completely lose sight of who you’re trying to attract. This, in turn, dilutes the power of your brand. You’ll be in the middle of writing an ad, when suddenly your head is racing with potential buyer types. This happened to me once during my writing stint with a digital media company who sold Santa Claus greetings. In my sales letter, which went on for pages and pages, there was no limit to what Santa could do! He could praise tiny tots for using the potty. He could play matchmaker to a couple of young lovers. He could patch up an argument you had with Aunt Freida in Topeka. All of this was great, but it was really convoluting Who We Were as a company, and our Santa was becoming a Jack Frost of all trades. It was no good! So we went back to square one. And through simple words and a more narrow focus on our original audience of children, we finally captured the Magic of Christmas that we had originally intended to be Our Brand.

Reflect your brand in everything you do; from your website design, to your public relations, to how you go about selling your product. Once you’ve done this, the next step is to create Brand Awareness. This is achieved through consistency. You can dream up the most brilliant ad campaign on the planet, but if you’re not consistent about putting it in place, you’ll never establish brand recognizability.

If the tone of your company is “fun, light and noncontroversial”, steer clear of anti-war demonstrations. If Arial is your font of choice, then don’t go switching it up mid-campaign and putting out affiliate program materials using Tahoma. If tongue-in-cheek humor is how you attract attention, don’t line your website borders with super-mushy personal ads. Ask yourself: will this resonate with my key customer? And use your logo and company tagline wherever possible—in your email correspondence, on your website, as your letterhead, on your business cards, in your advertising and on your product packaging. Remind people of who you are. Burn your brand into their minds.

To some extent, branding is following the herd… emulating respected companies that capture what you’d like to be known for. Still, a wise entrepreneur must never forget that today’s success story is tomorrow’s dot-com that went under. “What sold” for someone else may not work for your company. Just because Joe Baloney made millions selling with a bilingual circus clown doesn’t mean that will work for you… or that anyone’s even going to find it remotely interesting in six months. The market changes like the tide, depending on what direction society is going in. Where they were before, which way they’re headed, and wherever it’s likely they’ll end up… socially, economically, ethically, politically, culturally, intellectually, psychologically, philosophically.

How will you know that you’ve branded successfully? When people start listening to you. Not just hearing what you say, but letting you call the shots. You’ll know it when people start imitating you, too. You’ll start seeing knock-offs of your products and your company image. This may flatter you or it may annoy you, but when it happens, it’s your cue to lead the pack in a new direction. That’s how to stay on top of the Branding Game.

The day that you find yourself functioning as a real, live spokesman for a group of individuals, is the day you’ve achieved Brand Recognition. The day that you make the front page news headlines is the day you’ve become a household name. But a word to the wise: once your brand achieves true power, someone will try and take you down. Remind them that you own this cow.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

A true brand will make you stand out from your peers. When your logo and branding design are on track, people will get attracted to your business and encourage others for an active association as well.

There is something called brand identity and this is what gives your business, a recognition. A brand is not available in the open market that you can buy. It is the colour, logo design and style that make your business name unique.

There are other features associated with brand identity as well like trademark, name, exterior appearance and the idea communicated to the customers and onlookers. It is a combined effect that is comprehended by the customers, listeners and audiences while remising, speaking and looking. This emphasis can even be created while tasting, smelling and listening.

A brand prominence is established when it flawlessly connects with the world. Only successful branding will have a lingering effect on the customers. A true brand will also make you stand different from your peers. All things aside, when your logo and branding design are on track, people will get attracted towards your business and encourage others for an active association as well.

If you think of some well-known brands and bigwigs like Adidas, Channel and Dominos, you will at once visualise their logo, recognised feature or something you own from the brand. This is what a true branding should be like. These companies are aware of the basic associations and right from the inception they have always worked towards attaining greater perspective rather than stabilizing at one place. They have always known who they are, what purpose they serve in the world and have worked towards getting people’s attention at all times without fail. The businesses that have uncertain objectives and fail to communicate well the audiences are left behind in the long run.

To have a bright future you should be answering all the queries from the customers and make a place in their life so that they talk positively about you. Your brand needs to prosper and for that, you have to build it over the course of time. It is not attained all at once and hence patience and proper planning is a must.

So how exactly can you, make a brand? A lot depends on the visual elements and special care needs to be taken to make it perfect. At the very first stage, a good strategy is recommended with expert incorporation. In the strategy, you should be streamlining the entire process of how you will be working towards attaining your objectives and how you are planning to execute it. The content should also be striking and smart which will have the power to engage the audience.

Next up, let’s talk about the creation of your brand. Logo and branding design needs to be perfect and self-explanatory. It should be a perfect combination that can speak for itself and doesn’t require an additional interpreter. Certain elements need to be embedded in the branding design and process. Some of which include logos, suitable colours, font style, overall design, photo used, illustration, icon, video and choreography and most crucial the website design. Altogether, the combination should be unique, notable, lucid, and easily understandable.

Following these steps will definitely make the mark you always wanted to achieve.