The Brand Identifying the brand of your business requires the most thought and care, yet many businesses simply don't understand its importance. A brand sets you apart, highlights what YOU do, appears on EVERY piece of marketing you do and if strong enough will provide a point of recognition without your business name. Particularly independent retailers lack a general understanding of branding, they may have seen an opportunity to start a #lifelong dream of opening a clothing shop, cafe or newsagents etc. Perhaps even buying an established business from someone else. If you are one of these people don't despair, the chances are the reason the people before you were selling was because it made an okay amount of money, you may have even increased profit slightly by introducing new lines or expanding existing ranges (if your happy with this level of earnings read no further!). Behind every GREAT business is a GREAT brand followed by a GREAT leader who understands its importance. The brand of your business needs to.... 1. Identify who you are and what your trying to sell or the service you are providing. Many of us I'm sure have played the famous logo game, where identifying a particular companies brand against their logo has passed the hours or minutes of the day?! A game which has provided us with entertainment and challenges particularly when we don't immediately recognise a logo, because its strength has been less strong than others in its field? You need to evaluate whether your brand would be recognised in a sea of others offering the same or similar products. Your business is going to be built on its brand, so a strap line needs to highlight what it does in less than 5 words. i.e. TESCO - every little helps (this strap line highlights that this supermarket WILL save you money and understands its customers needs). TIP: Have a look around at the shops you use, ask yourself why do I use them? Your strap line doesn't need to be a sentence, it could be three descriptive words such as grow, achieve, succeed etc. TIP: why not put together your own logo game with family, friends, other business owners or future customers. Use your companies strap line, mission statement, company name or ethos and see which brand they feels identifies your business the best. Its easy to become blinkered when picking or deciding upon a brand which is why its important to carry out market research (will come to that topic later!). 2. If possible simplify your logo as much as possible, keeping lines and detail to a minimum (gone are the days when logos had to be intricate and literally spell out what and who you are). 3. Once you have identified your new brand, evaluate your company name (does the cap still fit?). Its easy to let the logo take over and the name to mean nothing when in fact they need to complement and work together to strength your overall business. 4. At this point of the evaluation stage, its also a good idea to ensure your brand and logo can not be miss interpreted as a business offering a completely different service. 5. Your branding is going to be (and needs to be) the foundations in which the rest of your business is built and its strength and chance of survival within a highly competitive market (build your foundations out of sand, the house will fall down!). 6. Once you are happy with your brand, get feedback from like minded businesses by posting on linkedin.com (business networking site). I can not highlight the importance of the use of this site enough (will also come to this topic later!) it will provide you with FREE business ideas, put you in contact with suppliers, help with brand recognition and provide you with support when your business hits a rocky stage. TIP:get your business a linkedin page! 7. So the feedback from family, friends, other business owners and the impartial people on social media sites was GREAT, what next? Now you have to see what it would look like in the flesh. Contact LOCAL businesses (remember they are just like you, need support from local customers), these are also more likely to be able to provide you with heavy discounts in return for a good testimonial on their website etc. Get a small amount of promotional material printed (just letter heads, cards or flyers) don't waste money on large runs of print or signage at this stage, if the look isn't right, the font isn't what you hoped etc, you will be left feeling deflated and a few £'s lighter! 8. The printer has delivered your material your happy with it but is everyone else? Go back to your market research (so many businesses fall at the first hurdle because of lack of market research) in the words of Lord Sugar from The Apprentice "listen to your focus groups, they are the people buying the products, your just the people selling them!" He of course is right, if the customers don't like it they WON'T buy it! 9. The market research is good, your family, friends and future customers LOVE (not just like!) the brand, Its time to start promoting your business (not just your products or service- yes there is a )business (nt!)