One thing I realised very early on in business is the importance of brand. When you start a business, the accountants set up your corporation as a completely separate entity from financial point of view.
Your business is completely separate from you and it needs it's own personality - in marketing, this is known as branding.
The Brand is Alive
My first business quickly took on a life of its own. It rewarded and demanded (not quite an equal measure) all by itself, no matter how many controls we put around it. We soon learned that the best we could achieve was to steer in the approximate direction we wanted to go.
As time went by, as technology improved and became more affordable, our ability to steer exactly where we wanted to go became better and better. It also became very apparent that planning was everything. That old "fail to plan, plan to fail" chestnut began to be an ever present mantra.
In previous posts I have noted one of my favourite sayings; "success is when opportunity meets preparedness". Part of being prepared is that planning process. A good plan includes, in large part, sections covering sales and marketing. What will be sold, to whom, where, and what price it will be.
An overarching section should include your brand. How you look & act in your chosen marketplace and the lasting impression you make is all controllable. A carefully crafted brand should leave customers and potential customers with positive sentiment about your business. Planning is almost the easy bit though! I don't think we have ever spoken to any business about their brand and had them tell us they didn't care about their customers (but we have seen many business that don't appear to). Everyone's intention are good - but sometimes they simply do not have the bandwidth to make it happen. That's where business like ours can really help.
Not only can we create a new brand or dust off an old one, but we can also manage its development and use within an organisation. We publish guidelines, style manuals, graphics libraries and copy repositories - and act as a point of review for your marketing department to ensure the brand is protected.
We are pretty passionate about branding. We think you should be too.
About the AuthorMark Buckingham is a partner with Mark 2 Creative; a dynamic Sydney based integrated marketing agency. They are experts in branding and digital delivery, and are able to seamlessly merge the two disciplines together to deliver cutting edge solutions that set them apart from the competition. their imaginative and innovative approach provides clients with a real presence in their marketplace that gives them exactly what they need from their marketing – more business.