Living and trading in a global marketplace, where goods and services are bought and sold outside of local and national boundaries, places the ownership of an easily identifiable brand among the most valuable assets any business can possess.
“Coca-Cola” is famous all over the world, yet without proper branding, the words Coca-Cola would be meaningless. Of course, many decades of highly visible advertising backed by millions of dollars has given Coca-Cola the status it now holds, but how do you begin to replicate that as a more modest business with a minute fraction of that kind of budget to work with?
The place to begin is in a close analysis of the values that exist at the core of your business – the company creed. This encompasses both the vision that has driven and directed your business from the outset and the value it offers, which differentiates you from your competitors.
In many respects, it is the task of your brand identity to capture and broadcast the ‘spirit’ of your company by establishing its place in the hearts and minds of the people it was created to serve. This is best achieved in the development of a company motto, strap-line or slogan that underpins all advertising messages and promotions and works alongside a specific visual image in the form of a logo to make your business stand out in a clearly defined and memorable way.
You can find great examples of this winning branding formula both on-line and in the high street, for example the unmistakable Apple Logo alongside its Think Different slogan, BMW’s Ultimate Driving Machine and Nike’s Just Do It.
At Bob, we have been building brands for more than twelve years and if recent market trends have taught us anything, they have brought home the ever growing importance of creating not only unique visibility through branding, but also a clear signal of that company’s position within its market sector.
Thanks to the explosion of information and advertising now available on-line, the ability to capture a prospective customer’s attention has become more vital than ever. Information overload and memory retention have made this increasingly difficult, but a solid branding strategy provides the most stable foundation, on which to build and develop a platform from which your sales message can be seen and heard.