[12.17.09]

Question: What is a Brand?

Answer: Your brand is much more than your logo. It is the consumer’s perception of your company, product or service. Your brand differentiates you from your competition. Your brand is the promise of what your consumer will get from you. You can achieve a strong brand by using consistent imagery and messaging, consistent positive interaction with your company, the quality of the product or service you offer, and of course, your logo.

Understanding what your brand should be doing is the first step to setting you apart from your competition.

Let’s use Apple as a case study. They have one of the most successful brands in history. People wait in lines for days to purchase a mobile phone or computer from Apple. They must be doing something right.

Apple uses consistent tone and imagery in their messaging across print, web and retail, as well as their iTunes store. Their brand makes them unique, and clearly separates them from their foe, Microsoft. Apple has created brand buzz by consistently designing innovative products that work well, have a design style that is hip and cool and that have a reputation as being reliable. Obviously, this works well for them. Look at the iPod line. They sell more in a quarter than Microsoft’s Zune sells in a year. Right or wrong, the consumer’s perception of Apple’s products is obviously positive enough for them to compete against and beat the giant Microsoft in the consumer PC market. That is a bit of inspiration to keep in mind when thinking of upgrading your brand.

A lot of people focus on their logo as their brand. This is completely wrong. A brand is the experience of the consumer interacting with your company. This not only includes your logo, but your website, business collateral, store fronts, products and customer service just to name a few. The entire experience that the consumer has interacting with you and your company. Strong brands win whether or not they represent a large or small business. Apple, compared to Microsoft is very small. But, they win in the consumer markets by having this kind of positive brand experience.

How should you brand your small business?

Research, research, research. Learn about the experiences that your customers have had with you. See what you do right and wrong. This is not expensive by any means. Many online companies offer surveys that customers can fill out. Using a service like Vertical Response allows you to send an email to a customer that has purchased your product or service to prompt them to give their feedback on their experience with your business. This can cost around fifty cents per customer.

Next is to understand that your brand is actually your consumers. Building a brand is NOT about using graphics and imagery that YOU like. It is NOT at all like redecorating your living room with colors, paintings, furniture that YOU like. So many small businesses make this mistake, and it is a big mistake to make. Your brand perception needs to speak to your consumers, not you. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple disliked the name iMac. But, eventually, he saw the advantage that Apple would have by using the name iMac, that ended up being so iPopular, that most iProducts Apple offers use the “i” prefix. You need to let go, and realize that you are not branding yourself for you, but sending a message to your consumers that will create hype for your product or service, and create sales. Plain and simple. Start synthesizing a strong brand for the new year.