7 Steps to Building a Better Brand

Who are you as a company? This presentation is about defining your company image – Your image represents who you are and what you stand for

Step 1 - Defining your value and your audience What is your company value? Why do people buy your product or service? Who is your target audience/those that you serve? Why is your company better?

Step 2 – Colors, typography and graphics When choosing your colors, typography, and graphics, look for those elements that convey your value – Design elements play an important role for how you are perceived in the market Are you a friendly and approachable company? Are you a strong, stable, secure company? – Whatever you want to be align your logo, colors, type and graphics around that ideal.

Step 3 – Brand Guidelines Create Brand Guidelines, or a document that not only expresses how to use the logo and other trademarks, but that expresses the value proposition, mission statement, colors for print and web, and types of graphics Many people in a company can use these guidelines including marketing, sales, product development, support, executive staff, human resources, IT, and the list goes on…

Step 4 - Resources All lot of work goes into building a brand, so don’t lose momentum after launching a new brand Take all of the graphics assets, logo variations, graphic files, brand guidelines, office templates etc… and place them in an area that all employees can get to Intranets, portals, wikis, and password protected sites on the net work great Don’t forget to get the word out and soon you will see everyone using the resources

Step 5 - Consistency Consistently represent your brand across all impressions Whether it’s a web site advertisement, a press release, a company T-shirt, a datasheet, or a product, use the same logo, colors, type, graphic families and soon people with identify your brand

Step 6 – Review and Renew It’s important to assess your brand every few years – Ask people what they think about you as a company – Ask them about your brand and how it makes them feel or more importantly – how they act If need be, make modifications until you get it right A good brand can last 5-10 years or a lifetime

Step 7 – Make it fun Have fun developing and sharing your company brand with the world It takes a little bit of strategic planning and focus, but once you do the legwork, your brand can create value and sales for years to come