HOW TO BRAND OR WHY BRAND AT ALL?

How to brand, why brand and should I brand at all, are all very valid questions to ask, if you sell your own product or service.

If you do, then giving them a recognizable name and logo can, over time, increase their value. And that’s good isn’t it?

Before we move on to how to brand, let’s look at some of the reasons why anyone should want to brand their product or service.

You brand as part of your advertising plan, as part of the impression you need to create for your name, product or services. With a good brand image, your product or service becomes associated with quality and value. A good position to be in for any product or service as well as a valuable one in a competitive field.

Brands that are powerful will drive your product or service to success, but learning how to brand, to achieve a powerful brand, needs work.

What you need to be able to brand.

1. A business that is up and running with long term potential. Branding products or services is for the long term, if you are to succeed.
2. Goods or services that are in demand or are likely to be, preferably ones that stand out from the competition.
3. The resources to be able to advertise, promote and market your brands. This can be expensive as not only do you have to create a brand, you also have to maintain the brand.
4. Be prepared to protect your brands against theft or competing brands. You need to trademark register your brands, slogans, brand logos, advertisements and marketing materials. Protect your proprietary patents, copyrights, trade secrets and all intellectual property.

The establishment and protection of good brand names does not come cheap, but the equity value of a good brand name can be worth many times more than the annual earnings of the business itself. Protect, protect, protect!

Why brand, you might ask yourself? Is it really worth all the trouble? Yes it can very worthwhile, so learn how to brand.

Here are some of the major benefits of branding.

Branding and its benefits.

• Obviously the value of the brand name itself is a good incentive to develop and protect your own brands.

• Using one good well known brand name to advertise a subsequent newly branded product can be worth a great deal. For example if something is advertised as being manufactured by the makers of Mercedes cars, it instantly has perceived quality and value. As you build more brands your old brands help advertise your newer brands.

• By branding a product or service, you effectively create a monopoly of your brand. Similar products can be produced but none of them can bear your brand name.

• As some protection against competition. In the global context competition can come from anywhere and quality or superiority of product is no longer a protection. Branding products or services makes them defendable.

• Many brands, of similar products manufactured by the same manufacturer, on the same supermarket shelf are all competing with each other, but also help keep out competitors trying to enter the market.

  Competition amongst your own brands can increase your overall market share. In an ever competitive world, branding is one way of helping you increase sales and at the same time protect and extend the lifecycle of your product.

You have decided to manufacture a widget. You think that it will have great potential and be popular worldwide if branded and marketed properly. Here’s how to start.

• Be it a product, a service or the name of your business, getting the name right is important, in fact very important.

  Decide what makes your product unique, what owning it will do for people, what name will instill confidence, optimism and be difficult for the competition to trump.

  Brainstorm various suitable names, how will they look on TV, on billboards, at the cinema? Will they sound right on people’s lips, on the radio and in print? Is the meaning of the name inoffensive in your and other people’s languages?

• Now you have your name you must secure the corresponding Web domain name. If it is not available, see if you can purchase it from the present holder. If you can’t, then drop that name and look for another.

  This is important; in today’s world you cannot market a brand name without owning the Web domain name.

• Now that you have chosen a great name and secured the domain name as well, you can move onto selecting a slogan for your brand.

  How to brand your product or name includes thinking up slogans that match the brand name.

  Think again of what your brand promises and come up with a slogan that fits, a slogan that tells about what you are selling. Short (4 or 5 words), sweet and to the point. Make it memorable.

• Add to your branding efforts by designing a bold and beautiful logo. A good logo gives the impression that it fits the brand product or name. If you are selling running shoes, your logo needs to give the impression of speed!

  You might need professional help in coming up with different brand logos, but always remember one thing. Test your logo designs on real people, before deciding on one. If they all say that your logo reminds them of a tortoise, you had better change it or else you won’t be selling many running shoes!

• Branding is the art of getting customers/people to associate your product with its brand name, slogan and logo.

  All your publicity, advertising and merchandising must expose your brand. A good strong brand in itself produces free advertising.

  When people read your name, hear your slogan or see your logo and instantly know what they represent, you have successfully branded your product or service.

Learning how to brand for best effect is a continuous process of exposure, exposure of your brand to the world! The name needs to be built up over time, by investing in advertising your brand, slogan and logo.

Protecting your property.

Developing and building any new brand is time and money consuming. Competitors will be only too happy to ride on your success if you allow them.

To prevent this happening, you must protect your brands, slogans and logos from the very moment that you decide on them. That is before you even introduce your brands to the world.

This protection is vital, so please take note.

Branding of good products or business names is very worthwhile and can add substantial value to your business. Learning how to brand is never wasted time.

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