All About Branding Your Business

When you’re getting ready to open a new business, one of the many things you need to put some time into thinking about is branding. When you mention branding, most people immediately think of their logo, but in reality, it’s much more than that. Branding is a large part of what sets your business apart from others in the market.

What Makes a Brand?

In short, branding is what helps a customer recognize your business. While a logo does play a large part in this, there’s more to consider. What colors are best to use? Red tends to convey strength and boldness, while yellow brings out feelings of happiness, and purple sparks the imagination. The colors you select must prompt an overall feeling for your brand that spreads out from the logo to your marketing materials, packaging, employee uniforms, and business space, whether physical or online.

Branding also informs the voice of your business. Do you use contractions with a light and entertaining tone, or do you focus on a more extensive vocabulary and a tone dripping in luxury? Your business branding must be memorable, and for that to occur, it needs to evoke a feeling in your intended customer. 

Branding and Customers

Your brand doesn’t only attract your intended customer, but it affects them as well. To pin down how this happens, complete some market research. Some questions to ask yourself include:

  • Who’s my ideal customer?
  • What solution does my product or service provide them?
  • What makes this customer want to work with me instead of my competitor?
  • How do they make buying decisions?

Once you can answer these questions, you’re well on your way to understanding your customer and how to build your brand around them.

DIY or Outsource?

Once you’ve done the mental work of figuring out your brand, begin putting it out there. This comes in the form of creating a logo, website, marketing materials, product packaging, and other related items. Making the choice whether to do this yourself or hire a professional can be tough. Unless you have quite a bit of experience, working with Olive and Ash Design to create your logo and more is a good idea. This is like your business’ name tag, and you want it to be everywhere and look good. You can create many marketing materials on your own afterward, using templates or logos your designer provides. 

If you want to sharpen your skills and do it all yourself, consider a return to school for a business or marketing degree. With many accredited online programs available, it’s simple to fit in classes and learn more. Many offer competitive tuition and sometimes scholarships or grants that make it economical to do, as well. 

Get Started With a Brand

When you’re ready to build a new business, don’t forget about your brand. Once your company has a certain feel or reputation through its brand, changing it is sometimes difficult.

If you need more information on branding, check out the blog of Olive and Ash Design, located in beautiful Villa Park, Illinois. It specializes in providing branding services to clients and has many great examples and ideas to help you.

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