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Branding USPs etc Its a Bit More Complicated Than You Think

Written by: Lee Lister

Article Overview: When you mention branding the really inexperience entrepreneur tends to think of their logo, whilst the business person who has read up a little thinks of their USP (unique selling proposition). The overall thinking tends to be that you slap your logo on everything, mention your USP a few times and you have branded your company! If only it was that simple.

Branding USPs etc Its a Bit More Complicated Than You Think

When you mention branding the really inexperience entrepreneur tends to think of their logo, whilst the business person who has read up a little thinks of their USP (unique selling proposition). The overall thinking tends to be that you slap your logo on everything, mention your USP a few times and you have branded your company! If only it was that simple.

Let’s start at the beginning. A logo is a graphic that is associated with your business – think of McDonalds “Golden Arches” or Nikes “swoosh”. That’s the easy bit. When you start to look at your brand it is also the colours and fonts that you use on your company marketing, advertising, documents and web sites. Do they all support your logo?

Your USP is that which sets you aside from your competitors, makes you memorable to your customers and uniquely identifies your company. A simple example would be Dominoes “Get the Door”. They were the first pizza company to deliver pizzas and are still remembered as such. The company’s years of experience and passion for delivering hot and fresh pizzas has earned it numerous awards and the loyalty of millions of pizza lovers around the world and this remains its USP.

Your company’s brand has to be visible within every single thing that your company does or produces. Your brand is the all-encompassing collection of business principles, business strategy, sales, customer relations, appearance, attitude, products, services, advertising, copywriting, Web site design, brochures…in fact your entire company.

Think about the greatest brand in the world for example – Disney. Think Disney and you think characters such as Mickey Mouse, films and Theme Parks. Then they are wholesome, family orientated quality producers. Is that their USP?

When you phone the Walt Disney Company you are greeted by a professional, friendly, helpful person. When you visit one of the Walt Disney World locations, the staff are helpful, the facility is clean, the environment is family-oriented and the accommodations are first class. So you trust them to be like this, you happily take your children to their films and Theme Parks knowing they will be safe and well looked after. If this was not the case, the Disney brand would have faded away many years ago. In fact they work very hard to maintain their image and brand. This is what you need to do.

When deciding upon your company brand image you need to consider the following:
• What do you want you want you company to be know for?
• What do you want your customers to think of when they think about your company?
• What do you want said about your company?

Give this a good thought and then write down a few sentences to describe your company brand. Now focus your promotional efforts, your USP, your logo, marketing plan and business strategy on this brand. Lastly train all your staff and set up your business processes to reinforce this branding and image and start building your business recognition.

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Article Tags: business person, business principles, design brochures, dominoes, entire company, inexperience, marketing advertising, mcdonalds golden arches, mickey mouse, nikes, pizza company, pizza lovers, pizzas, quality producers, single thing, unique selling proposition, walt disney, walt disney company, walt disney world, wholesome family



Related Forum Posts
Re: This is Marketing Warfare! - Hey GT, I guess this was from a while back, and it'll test your memory a bit but could you possibly elaborate on Unique Selling Proposition? Can you give us some examples of good USPs?
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
New Small Business Topic - Hello everyone, I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section? Here's a list of what we currently have: Angel Investors Branding Bank Loans Business Coaching Business Plan Franchises (New) Insurance Legal Marketing Public Relations Sales Small Biz Loans Venture Capital
Re: Direct Mail Postcards - [quote="jvprosperity":2r71nzqq]Kevin, your situation is very common. Get's me wondering if advertisers are just being lazy and "blanket" areas with advertising hoping that some will stick and get people to respond. mathew1 used the word "targeted" alot but I think that's what most advertisers are either not doing or not going deep enough in their targeting. I disagree that direct mail is more important to small business. Yes, it get's done more often within small businesses but that's 'cos of a small budget and them being forced to utilize it to it's fullest. Big Business focus so much more on Branding and Image Management since they have larger budgets but they also do a fair bit of direct mail and other methods.[/quote:2r71nzqq] Hi Andy, I'd say "naive" is a better word. In fact, "blanketing" areas with unwanted solicitation/ads is costly and will only hurt small businesses in the eyes of consumers (who will resent it).
Re: Direct Mail Postcards - [quote="Kevin":k7jhujz8]But how do you prevent people from just throwing out your direct mail as unwanted solicitation? Anytime I get direct mail, I toss it out. I've noticed solicitors using cheap tricks like printing the message in "hand writing" to make the letter seem more personal. Who are they trying to fool?[/quote:k7jhujz8] Kevin, your situation is very common. Get's me wondering if advertisers are just being lazy and "blanket" areas with advertising hoping that some will stick and get people to respond. mathew1 used the word "targeted" alot but I think that's what most advertisers are either not doing or not going deep enough in their targeting. I disagree that direct mail is more important to small business. Yes, it get's done more often within small businesses but that's 'cos of a small budget and them being forced to utilize it to it's fullest. Big Business focus so much more on Branding and Image Management since they have larger budgets but they also do a fair bit of direct mail and other methods.


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