Today we have a guest post from Ann Lee Carpenter, marketing expert, who gives us 10 useful tips for building our brands.
If you ask 10 different people what branding is, chances are, you'll get 10 different answers. That's because branding is less a tangible entity and more a state of being. Branding your business encompasses everything about your company image, from your company name to what your team wears when exhibiting at trade shows. And it's not just visual, it includes your slogan or tagline, the "voice" of your marketing materials, even how your receptionist answers the phone.
So how do you build your brand if you can't exactly define what you're building? In this presentation, I start at the beginning, with 10 practical tips for building your brand. Whether you're a start-up entrepreneur, a business owner with decades of experience, or a Fortune 500 corporation launching a new product or service, it's important to implement a clear brand strategy.
The ten tips I discuss in this presentation are centered on company name, logo, tagline or slogan, and fonts, colors and image use.
Your business has a formal legal name, but typically you have a common name that you use day to day. Be sure to use your name consistently, everywhere, from answering the phone, to your website content.
Is your logo made up of stock art? Is it amateurish or overly complex? Maybe it's time for a change.
The purpose of a tagline is to evoke emotion, paint a picture, project your company values or describe a benefit.
These elements are the visual representation of your tagline.
Ann Lee Carpenter is the owner of S'Pacific Image, a marketing consulting and graphic design firm, based in San Pedro, California. Ann presented "Building Your Brand: Ten Tips" as part of a on-going marketing presentation series entitled, "The Marketing Minute," offered to entrepreneurs at a monthly PortTechForum, a networking event for clean tech entrepreneurs hosted by PortTech Los Angeles (www.porttechla.org). As Director of Marketing for PortTech Los Angeles, Ann advises technology entrepreneurs on their marketing and branding strategies.
Posted on January 30, 2013 | Permalink | Join email list