Branding – How to be at the forefront of your customers minds

• What is your competition doing? And why are they doing it? Have a look at close competitors and see which parts of their business they are highlighting. Is it speed? Innovation? Value for money? What do you want to say to your customers with your brand? You need to decide this quite quickly, as it will be needed when you’re looking at advertising. What are the benefits of your business? How are you better than all the others our there? In which way are you different? All of these things are key when looking at a brand. As stated in the beginning, your brand is what your company says about you, using the contact made with customers with either face to face, spoken or written contact. You need to make sure you know what you want that message to be, and that this stays in your mind at all times.

• What can you afford to spend? Often, when first starting out, you might be looking to minimise your initial outlay. That’s OK, but if you do have some money, even a little, prioritise it, based on the message your want to give to your customers and the way you want them to get it. No point in spending all of your cash on a colour coordinated website if your customers are all in the same town and not ordering or booking you online.
• Where are your customers? In the case above, you’d be looking at a T shirt with your logo on, some business cards, maybe some leaflets and some letters on your car. Your money would be best spent making sure your brand materials (T Shirt etc) are of good quality, matching and display your key details (how to contact you and what you do).

There are so many aspects to looking at a brand for your new business, these are but a few of them. However, the good news is, there’s a wealth of material available for you to look at. And of course, you should take advantage of the knowledge and experience of others where you can. Check out www.entrepreneur.com or www.businesslink.gov.uk for more information on marketing and branding in general, and, if you need a logo or a business card, try www.vistaprint.com for details of their own low cost ‘logo designer’.