The Art of Successful Branding

By: Dina Giolitto

Branding: it’s a term that carries great weight in the world of
advertising. Successful branding is best illustrated by the
world’s most prominent corporations, but it’s no less important
to the small business owner. Your Brand is your identity; it’s
every single puzzle piece, fitted into the big picture of your
company. From your name and logo to your business philosophy and
corporate mission; from your advertising campaign message to
your design elements; from your products and services; all that
is owned, produced, stated, sold and marketed by your company
falls under the broad heading of your Brand.

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.

Dina Giolitto:
Dina Giolitto is a New-Jersey based Copywriting Consultant with
nine years' industry experience. Her current focus is web
content and web marketing for a multitude of products and
services although the bulk of her experience lies in retail for
big-name companies like Toys"R"Us. Visit
http://www.wordfeeder.com for rates and samples.