The Beginner’s Guide to Branding a Small Business

The Beginner’s Guide to
Branding a Small Business
By USB-FlashDrive.com

The Beginner’s Guide to Branding a Small Business
Branding and communications are essential ingredients for success when
building any business. Experiencing success in business is not only dependant
on how great, inexpensive or luxurious your product or service is. It’s about
time, investment and a strong branding strategy to deliver consistent quality.
Communicating your message accurately and in an engaging way may be
the difference between failure and success.
Here are some fun, easy facts about branded materials:

Fun Facts

What is a brand, exactly?
A brand is a company’s ‘promise’ to a customer. A company’s brand should
communicate to a customer what they can expect from the products /
services, as well as how one company differs from others.
Why is good branding vital?
According to research, 75% of purchase decisions are based on emotion. As
branding is primarily what influences a customer’s perceptions and feelings
toward a company overall, this statistic highlights the undeniable
importance of branding a new business effectively.
How do you brand a small business effectively?
While there are incredibly talented agencies out there who specialise in
this, in the case of a start-up, funding is often limited. consider investing
time in progressing with branding your company in-house, with the help of
these guidelines.

Step 1: Do Your Research
The best place to begin is by ensuring you’re
not barking up the wrong tree from the get
go. Conduct market research to establish
who your target market actually is. This
means researching who is actually interested
in what your business is offering (and not
who you assume is interested), their age
group, demographic and any other relevant
information. Also conduct a competitive
analysis to learn about what other
companies similar to yours are offering, and
determine what makes your company
unique and better than the others.

Step 2: Define Your Brand Archetype
Archetypes, or common recognisable
characters, have been used to help brand
many successful companies. Some examples
of archetypes include “the hero”, “the
helper” and “the adventurer”. Adopting an
archetype isn’t intended to dictate the entire
identity of your brand, but rather help you
flesh out your brand’s image and persona in
a more streamlined manner. Major brands
who have taken this approach include
Microsoft (who identifies themselves as “the
boy / girl next door”) and Apple (who
consider themselves “the visionary”).

Step 3: Personify Your Brand
Similar to adopting an archetype, it’s
extremely helpful when branding a
company to personify your brand in detail.
Our personality is what determines what
decisions we make with regard to our
actions, our appearance and our speech.
Having a solid, detailed understanding of
who your company would be as a person
will help you make more consistent branding
choices across the board. This will contribute
to a stronger overall brand. It’s also helpful
to have a list of brands with which you’d like
your brand to be associated, and keep this
in mind when planning marketing and
branding events.

Step 4: Define Your Brand Distinction
Competition may be tight, so it’s crucial that
your branding spells out what sets your
company apart from the rest. Your “value
proposition” describes why customers should
choose you. Reasons may include the fact
that your prices are the best or you have the
widest range of products. This needs to be
expressed in some form; on your website,
social media or otherwise.

Step 5: Create an Outstanding Logo
A logo serves as the visual foundation of your
brand. A great logo goes a long way. Brainstorm
ideas with a few people and get their ideas and
feedback on yours. It’s advisable to hire a
professional to create your logo once you have
an idea of what you like. Consider these key
ingredients for a great logo:
• Is it visually attractive?
• Is it original?
• Is it appropriate?
• Is it simple?
• Is it functional? (Can you use it on a letterhead, a poster and a business card?)
• Is it timeless? (Have you used elements that are time/trend sensitive and that
will seem outdated quickly?)

Step 6: Refine Your Brand Language
All copy associated with your brand should
adopt the tone your brand would like to
project.

Step 7: Create a Catch Phrase
Select a brand message or catchphrase that
you would like your brand to be known for.
This phrase should be closely linked to your
company’s mission statement and simple
enough for people to remember.

Step 8: Embrace Uniqueness
Embrace the current popularity of originality
and authenticity with consumerism.
Numerous chains are currently trying to
create a more independent appearance in
order to capitalise on this. Play up your
independent operator status.

Step 9: Design a Conceptually Brilliant Business Card
Most recipients of business cards will not give it
another look. In most cases, these cards are fairly
standard and the content is predictable. This is an
excellent opportunity to make your company
memorable by creating a card with some “wow”
factor. For example, one law firm created fake
folded million-dollar bills as business cards. The
lawyer’s photo was featured on the back side of the
note, along with contact details and a call to action.
Why not consider doing something completely different? Design a USB Flash
Drive as your “business card” and ensure your business is front of mind for
your prospects at all times.
(Tip: Make sure your drive offers a storage capacity worth keeping!)

Step 10: Be Consistently Consistent
Consistent branding improves brand equity.
Brand equity is the additional value given to
your business’s products that gives you
license to charge more for your branded
product than what identical unbranded
products command. Consider the example of
a price of a can of Coke versus the price of
an unbranded can of soda. The value in
brand equity lies in the perceived product
quality or the customer’s emotional
attachment to a product they are familiar
with.

Step 11: Start With Friends and Family
Endorsement from family or friends is more
valuable than your company’s owned media
assets. This is because customers will always
trust the opinions of their family and friends
more than somebody who is trying to sell
them something. As a result, it’s essential to
consider your current customers first and
foremost while branding. This may include
employees, clients and friends. Generating
excitement and positive regard for your
brand amongst this group of people will help
the message spread more effectively.

Step 12: Build An Online Presence
Popular websites have what is referred to as an
e-presence. E-presence is an essential ingredient
when it comes to effective branding today.
Growing a company’s e-presence is made easier
when the following elements are in place:
1. Great design: The website looks professional,
visuals are consistent with the brand in terms of
overall look and feel, corporate image is reflected,
and the layout is well planned.
2. Easily navigable: Users can find what they
want on the site quickly and easily – ideally in 4
clicks or less. This can be done in a number of
ways.

3. Recognisable: The site is advertised on other sites
in the form of banner ads. This helps potential
customers to recognise the logo, catchphrase and
colours that represent a brand.
4. Reason to visit: Specials and promotions are
featured on the front page of the website and
these change regularly.
5. Fresh content: A blog is active on the site and
posts are published regularly. This can help build a
brand’s reputation as an expert in its respective
industry. Posts should be unique, insightful,
informed and offer readers something of value
(entertaining, informative, valuable opinion etc.).
6. Be active on social media: Make sure your social media platforms –
ideally the ones your brand’s target market use most often – are kept
up to date. These are used to engage with current and potential
customers.

Step 13: Be Honest About Your Weakness
Authenticity is essential when it comes to the
values of a successful brand. Brand authenticity is
boosted by honesty. If or when things don’t go
well, it’s crucial that your brand voices the reality
of the situation and actively works toward
solving the problem. Branding a business can feel
like a daunting task. Working through this
approach step by step will help to give you an
idea of what needs to be done, and how to
achieve this.
However, non-profit small-business advisory groups or Small Business
Development Centers are able to offer companies their expertise. If you feel
that your start-up could use the extra support, then consider reaching out to
one of these organisations. Either way, effective branding has the undeniable
ability to make a big difference to a small business, so be sure to leverage this
powerful tool and watch your business reap the benefits.

What NOT to Do…
Use this list to ensure you don’t unknowingly jeopardise your brand...

Good luck with your branding endeavours.
Use this guide to brand your business, promote your services and help others
get to know your values in a simple and authentic way.

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