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Effective Branding for Increased Success

Guest post by: Anne Bachrach

Article Overview: Business branding isn't a complicated process, but the success of your business branding relies on the relevance, quality and consistency of its design. Most business owners fall short when branding their business because they try to overcomplicate the process. However, if you follow the basics of business branding and resist the temptation to lose the focus of the message, you should be well on your way towards creating an effective brand.

Effective Branding for Increased Success

If you want to understand how to effectively brand your name, you first need to comprehend the basics of business branding. Business branding isn't a complicated process, but the success of your business branding relies on the relevance, quality and consistency of its design. Most business owners fall short when branding their business because they try to overcomplicate the process. However, if you follow the basics of business branding and resist the temptation to lose the focus of the message, you should be well on your way towards creating an effective brand.

The most important basic factor in branding your business is conveying a message. You only have a few seconds to capture the attention of potential clients, and in those few seconds, your brand must clearly convey several points. Make those few precious seconds count by making it easy for your audience to comprehend your specialty with just a glance.

Stick to these 4 Basic Rules of Business Branding and watch your business grow.

Business Branding Rule #1: Choose colors wisely

It may be your desire to choose colors that are most appealing to suit your personal taste, but they may not always be the most ideal for the success of your business. Advertising and marketing firms understand the emotions that colors convey and always choose the colors of their marketing carefully. Here's a quick reference for the emotions conveyed by common colors.

Red: Very emotionally intense color. Associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Use it as an accent color to stimulate people to make quick decisions.

Orange: To the human eye, orange is a very hot color, so it gives the sensation of heat. Represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. Use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design.

Yellow: Yellow is the color of sunshine and produces a warming effect. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety.

Green: Symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety and has great healing power. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.

Blue: Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite.

Purple: Symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. Conveys wealth and extravagance and is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic. Light purple is a good choice for a feminine design; use bright purple when promoting children's products.

White: White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. Considered to be the color of perfection and conveys safety, purity, and cleanliness. Use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products.

Black: Associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. It usually carries a negative connotation, but denotes strength and authority. Combined with red or orange - other very powerful colors - black gives a very aggressive color scheme.

Business Branding Rule #2: Let the logo do the talking

In those crucial first few seconds of grabbing a client's attention, your logo must convey a clear, concise message that is easily understood. For example, if you fix computers, consider including an image of computer and stethoscope to convey that you're a computer doctor. Or, if you own a hair salon include an image of old-fashioned vanity lights and shears.

Get the idea? The key is to identify at least one tangible icon that represents your business. The slogan should do the talking, while the logo is visually supportive of the message of the slogan.

Business Branding Rule #3: Keep the slogan short and sweet

Remember, you only have a few seconds to grab someone's attention. That means you have about two seconds to convey your message. The brain can process information at amazing speeds, and you'd be surprised by how much information can be conveyed in a split second - but only when it's done properly.

Your slogan should always be attached to your logo, appearing directly below or next to the image. Make your slogan seven words or less - again short and sweet. Be sure the slogan says what you do without making it sound dry and uninteresting. For example, let's say you are a business coach. You could create a slogan that clearly and concisely conveys what you do - without having to provide a lengthy elevator speech. Here are some examples:

• "The Small Business Guru"

• "Take Your Business Global"

• "The Home Business Coach"

• The Referral Coach^TM - already taken

• The Strategic Coach^TM - already taken

• The Accountability Coach^TM - already taken

Business Branding Rule #4: Consistency is king

Now that you have your logo and slogan, it's important to stay consistent. In every piece of marketing from your letterhead to advertising spots, the logo and slogan should always remain consistent.

If you've hired a professional graphic artist or marketing firm to create your business look, they should have provided a digital file with your logo and slogan in a variety of positions and sizes (to accommodate different sizes and methods of media). Once your design is set, do not waver from it. Ideally, keep the logo/slogan layouts to no more than three different layouts to accommodate different media such as website, letterhead, and print and web advertisements.

Make sure that both your print marketing and online marketing are consistent. The design and color scheme should remain true to your website theme. You'd be surprised how many people will type in your URL when directed through an advertisement, only to get thrown off by a website design that looks nothing like the ad. When you don't make the effort to keep your branding consistent you run the chance of confusing your potential clients - hence, losing revenue.

Action Steps

1. Review Tip #1. Does your current logo reflect the type of image you want to portray? If not, hire a graphic designer to design a new logo and choose appropriate colors. Ask a friend or colleague for a recommendation, or go to Elance.com to find a freelance graphic designer. Expect to pay $75 - $250 per logo.

2. Review Tip #3. Does your slogan really grab your ideal client? Put yourself in your client's place. What slogan would make you want to hire you? Refine it, if need be, to reflect the most focused message possible that invokes immediate action.

3. Review Tip #4. Does your marketing contain a consistent message and design? If not, follow your company logo (design and color) and make necessary adjustments to all marketing pieces, including your website.

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Article Tags: accountability, branding, business owners, business success, results, sales



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