Your Brand is Your Identity
Your brand is the way you distinguish yourself from your competitors.

• Sell unique products
• Sell a broader range of products than anyone else in a particular market niche?
• Do the type of customers you serve share common characteristics?
• Do you have community ties, a rich business history, unique company culture?
• What makes you different from other businesses that sell the same products or services?

"Your market position or Brand, is the place you occupy in the mind of your prospective clients. It`s how they think of you as compared to your competitors."

Steps Toward Brand Success...read more No one can truly predict what makes a brand a success, however, every company can take three steps to protect their brand and the products it represents...read more   1. Product Quality Quality talks – if a product works, then it has a certain degree of merit that puts it ahead of competition. If a company puts the time and effort to get a quality product onto the market and markets the brand in such a way that the actual qualities are stressed, people will remember. 2. Know About the Brand’s Use Get to know not just what a product is and who is buying and why, but what is being done with it in the market, this is crucial to proper branding. 3. Be Prepared to Take Responsibility for the Brand Are you ready to defend and take responsilbility for your products quality, liabilty and integrity... if you are you can over come any thing thrown at your brand, and counter with what you will do to prove it. A brand is a powerful association for people to make, and that like any part of a business, it requires information and action in the proper degrees. So What Does This Mean to Me and My Website Normal advertising just informs the consumer about a product and a company’s brand identity. With digital advertising, the consumer can be more involved in the brand image. In this interactive domain, a company can listen to consumers who make comments on their website or blog and act on negative feedback before it becomes uncontrollable. They can try out different advertising strategies to learn which products they should continue to develop and which new features a product should have. Effective digital branding allows you to identify a singular position and establish your own distinctive voice in the marketplace and incorporates all of the above-mentioned branding points. You’ll be promoting a quality product. You’ll use social media strategies to keep informed about your brand’s image and you’ll take responsibility for your brand, to guide and shape it to its best advantage. Branding takes time and thought. Digital branding takes time, thought and an interchange with your consumers. Engaging your customers in your brand in a relevant way is the key to successful online branding.

Simple Steps

	Define Your Unique Position
	Your Brand Identity
	Your Web site and Marketing Communications Collateral
	Distinguish Your Offerings from the Crowd
	Direct the Use of Your New Brand So That it Can Reach Its Fullest Potential

TIP: Why and what are potential customers looking for in a service or product you offer? Turn it into a slogan or even a start of your mission statement!

• Company Slogan
• Branding Guidelines
• Company Colors
• Your Logo
• Business Card

Distinguish Your Offerings
First look at who your competition is - don't make the mistake of thinking that what you do is completely unique. Spend a minor amount of time searching the internet and you will soon find there are more competitors than you think.

• Who are your five nearest direct competitors?
• Who are your indirect competitors?

So, once you have found your competitors—or at least those companies that your clients have you quote against—then figure out what their Brand Definitions are and how your business is different. Here are some factors to observe:

• Is their business growing, steady, or declining?
• What can you learn from their operations or from their advertising?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• How does their product or service differ from yours

• What’s your brand promise?
• What do you want to stand for?
• What is it that you say you’ll do? Responsiveness is a big part of your brand promise.
• What’s your company tone and manner? There are snap judgments based on how you, your company present your ideas and respond to situations.
• What are your company policies and approach to issues? It is important that you promote positive dialogue and service oriented policies and communications.