Branding Strategy

"What is branding?" This is the question we get probably more than any other. It's a tough question to answer because a lot of people talk about branding in ways that don't make sense, or are simply flat out incorrect. Branding is not your logo or your Web site or your customer service training or your company's yearly Christmas donation letter or what they said about you in the paper... but it is all of those things combined. It's what your customers walk away with after they've made contact with you. And it's not the same thing as when they first make contact as it is when they're walking out the door with their first purchase. Which is why you need to make sure your branding strategy ? from top to bottom, from inside out ? is up to snuff and smarter, better and faster than your competition's.

Your customers are paying attention to your brand and they want to love you. Do you have a lovable brand?

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If you've ever wondered what all this fuss about branding is, and why you should spend any time or money on your own brand, we encourage you to think about changing your existing brand, and imagining the fallout. Would your Direct of Marketing quit her job? Would your customers send you hate mail, expounding on just how much they loved the font on your old logo? Would your distributors reconsider their contracts because your 'new and improved' product or service is now sitting too long on their shelf?

If they wouldn't, it may mean you have a brand that people are not in love with. It means you have the opposite of love: indifference. And the market does not treat indifferent brands kindly. Indifferent products and services are easily replaced and compared on hard, cold factors such as price (a comparison you will ALWAYS lose, by the way.)

You don't want customers comparing you on the hard and cold... you want them dreaming of you in the warm and fuzzy land of Customer Loyalty. You want customers in LOVE, not LIKE. And good branding is how you get that.

What are some examples of well-branded companies? Apple does it right. Former PC users are giving more and more of their business to Apple and the stock price reflects that. Whole Foods, Charles Schwab and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream are a few others than come to mind. But you don't have to be a global or even national company to do your branding right. Chances are you've got a mom-n-pop right in your town or neighborhood that's doing a pretty good job of branding: first and foremost, they've probably got a great product or service. They might have a logo, or something that works as their logo, they might have a Web site, or at least some printed information about the company, and most of all, all the marketing pieces they do have fit together clearly, cohesively and if they're really good, memorably. They support whatever 'I've just gotta have it' aspect of their business that brings customers coming back, time and time again. Maybe it's convenience... or a secret recipe that's addictively good... whatever it is, they have customers in love... in other words, they have a brand and they're making sure people know about it.

Elevata can assist you with the following types of Branding Projects:

• Brand Audits
• Messaging/Positioning Development
• Competitive Analysis
• Market Trend Research
• Marketing Strategy

Make me more than just another company ? make me a BRAND!

DESIGN AND YOUR BUSINESS

CORPORATE IDENTITY SYSTEMS

WEB SITES

BUSINESS STATIONERY SYSTEMS

PRODUCT LOGOS

PACKAGING + POINT OF SALE

PRINT COLLATERAL

PRINT ADVERTISING

ILLUSTRATION, ICONS + DIAGRAMS

COPYWRITING

PRINT PRODUCTION

BRANDING STRATEGY

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