Does your Business have a strong Brand Foundation?
In construction, a strong foundation is built in layers: sand, gravel, steel and concrete.
Your brand foundation is no different. Skimp on any of the ingredients — strategy, messaging, visual identity or people — and your brand is likely to be weak and unstable.
4 Basic Levels for Building Your Foundation
- Strategy — Is the vision, clearly stated, that explains how your business will attract customers and talented employees. How are you different? What powerful need do you fill in the marketplace? Strategy provides answers. A good strategy makes everything else easier.
- Messaging — These are the words you use when you write and talk about your company and its services. The ideas and tone they convey should come directly from the strategy. It must be easy to understand, relevant to your potential clients and believable.
- Visual Identity — Your visual identity comprises all of the visual components of your brand, including colour, shapes, images, typography, and layout. A brand’s visual tone and attitude should align with the strategy. The visual identity can create a strong emotional reaction. Potential clients will be attracted to your company even if they can’t articulate why.
- People — In a professional services company your people are your product. How they behave has a profound impact on your brand. Selecting the right people is important, but guiding them through all the day-by-day and hour-by-hour decisions they make is the key. A strong brand can help employees understand what is expected of them.
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WHY CHOOSE A SMALLER AGENCY OVER A LARGER ONE?
There are a lot of criteria to use in choosing an agency, but agency size should not be one of your decision factors. Remember that bigger isn’t always better and here’s why:
Individualised Attention
Your project will receive a great deal of individualised attention at a small agency.
At larger agencies, it’s common for employees to be responsible for dozens of clients which could result in them displaying little or no personal interest in the client or its marketing efforts, causing staff to complete the bare minimum amount of required work and then move onto the next project.
If employees have too much work on their plate, it prevents them from fully immersing themselves into each of their client’s projects because they are splitting their time between multiple clients competing for their attention.
It is common for smaller agencies to provide each client with personalized attention from every employee because they have fewer clients allowing each employee to become fully focused on every aspect of their client’s needs.
You’ll also be in direct contact with the creative directors, designers and the owners themselves .The small agency depends on it’s clients for it’s own success, therefore the small firm is highly invested in pleasing it’s clients. Their investment in your campaign is essential to not just your success, but also theirs.
Flexibility
Small agencies thrive on creativity. Staff of smaller agencies is expected to be experts at their jobs as well as grow in other directions to benefit each particular account.
With less corporate hierarchy, job definition is blurred as each individual staff is encouraged to reach client based goals rather than focus on defined job role goals.
In contrast, larger agencies tend to have corporate hierarchy, specific job descriptions, ways of doing things, and profit margins goals stemming from a legacy system. Even though all agencies are tasked with finding ways to develop and execute creative ideas, the big firms might face the constraint of a legacy system steeped in quantifying a specific type of deliverable.
Culture/Personality
In a small agency you have a dedicated team of people that want your success as much as you do.
An agency is about the people that work there, the team that is on your project. You are paying them for their time, talent and creativity. Do they represent you? Do you know them? Chances are you will meet 25-50% of the team in a small agency pitch, whereas you might meet only 1% of the big agency team at their pitch.
Choosing the right agency is kind of like hiring a team of people all at once. If you like the people that came to the pitch, you can be sure they represent the people that will be working on your account if you are going with a small agency. The culture and personality of a small agency can match or mirror your own company.
Quick Turnaround
Despite the resources that a large agency may have, small agencies will do anything to make sure their clients are satisfied, even if it means going the extra mile. Larger agencies sometime have a whole process to get in the work queue; so quick turnarounds are not always feasible.
Price/Budget
The more people that work for a company, the bigger the overhead ultimately resulting in higher project quotes than those from the small marketing firm. Smaller agencies provide a better bang for your buck.
If you are looking for a standard marketing execution and normal distribution channels, you might be best choosing any agency that can offer you the price you desire.
If you are looking for a fresh look in your industry, want to stand out from the rest, and risk breaking the norm, consider giving a chance to the smaller firm. The best agency for you is the one that gets you, the one that wants to see you succeed.
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5 Things Every Small Business Should Know About Branding
Make your mark!
The whole concept of branding is foreign to many small businesses. They view it as something that only matters in the ivory towers of global corporations.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Branding is all about making your business memorable, and it’s the small business rather than the big one that’s likely to get lost in the shuffle. Here are five core concepts that small business owners should know about branding.
1. Repetition and consistency are paramount. Any parent knows that when you say something once it seldom sinks in. And, parents who send mixed messages confuse the child … and perhaps themselves! The same dynamics apply to branding: the market needs to see the same imagery and the same message again and again and again.
2. Sales reps can undermine your consistency. Even in large organizations, sales reps tend to develop their own way of talking about the company they represent. However, if every rep tells a different story, your customer base will ultimately have many different impressions of what your business does. This may cause customers and prospects to overlook key products and services — and perhaps look for them elsewhere.
3. Branding is more than just a logo. Every business should have a logo, but just as important are a consistent color scheme for the website and brochures, a strong tagline, and a consistent set of talking points for sales and marketing communication. Branding should dive deeper into the details still, in terms of consistent font styles, product/service descriptions, item numbers, and any other data and imagery customers see.
4. Branding is far more than window dressing. Far from it: Effective branding reflects and projects the core values and key differentiators of your business. A strong brand tells customers what you stand for and why they should buy from you. Are you the cheapest? The best quality? The most reliable? The most innovative? Your imagery and messaging must get to the heart of what you do.
5. Branding must be focused. Continuing on the previous point, you must confine your branding to a few critical concepts. No amount of branding expertise can communicate that you’re the cheapest, best quality, most reliable AND the most innovative. The more you dilute your message, the harder it is to remember and the less important it sounds. This is counterintuitive for sales people and small business owners who feel compelled to tell the whole company story every time they have the floor.
6 Reasons To Invest In A Professional Company Logo Design
In today market you have to stand out!
Your company may not need a professionally designed logo. There are countless businesses that operate profitably without one. That said, it’s important to understand when having a unique brand mark is beneficial – and even necessary – and the reasons that make it so.
Here are six reasons to have a professional logo designed for your business. The following factors offer compelling motives that may spur you to invest in a memorable, relevant, and scalable brand mark for your company.
#1 – Stand Out From Your Competitors
If your business is the only one operating within your industry or space, a logo may be unnecessary. Your customers and prospects are probably familiar with your company, and aware of the benefits you offer. But most companies compete with others. Consequently, there is a need to stand out from the crowd, especially when doing so means attracting a larger slice of your market.
A unique logo design helps to project your brand in a way that differentiates you from your competitors. This is valuable whether you’re trying to establish a foothold as a new entrant, or strengthening your position within your space.
#2 – Complement And Support A Long-Term Business
If you’re running a business as a short-term venture in order to earn extra income, a professional brand mark might be excessive. You’re unlikely to rely on customer loyalty or a compelling brand story.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to develop your company to fulfill a long-term goal, invest in a logo. A well-done design will help inspire trust, position your business as an authority, and promote brand recognition in your space.
#3 – Increase Brand Recognition And Memorability
An effective logo helps your target audience to identify your company. The artwork drives memorability and recall. Your customers will think of your business and everything it stands for – both good and bad – when they see it.
For example, consider the retail giant Target. While the company’s name evokes a host of impressions, so, too, does its emblem, the bright red target. Here, the retailer’s logo is as powerful as its name.
#4 – Face-To-Face Interaction With Customers
Do you or your employees interact with customers personally? Do you speak with them face to face? If so, prominently displaying a memorable brand mark on t-shirts, uniforms, ID badges, and even hats, will strengthen your customers’ trust in your business. It also subtly encourages brand awareness, and improves their recall.
#5 – Passive Advertising With Giveaway Items
Giveaway items are an effective strategy for keeping your company’s name in front of your customers and prospects. Coffee mugs, alarm clocks, sticker printing, staplers, and calendars offer lasting value, and are likely to be kept rather than discarded. They passively advertise your business.
By imprinting your corporate logo on these items, you’ll enjoy ongoing exposure to those who have expressed interest in your products. When the need arises, they’ll be more likely to contact you rather than your competitors.
#6 – Establish Your Brand Identity Within A Crowded Market
If you’re entering a market where several other companies compete, carving out a slice of the audience poses a challenge. For most business owners, it’s an uphill battle, and especially so during the startup phase. The more quickly you can establish your brand, the more successfully you’ll foster recognition and awareness. Hence, every advantage is worth considering.
Few tools are as effective as a professionally-designed logo for building and cementing a company’s brand identity. A well-crafted brand mark symbolizes the business behind it. It helps the marketplace identify the company’s products and values. It instills trust, and conveys a sense of authority and superiority.
Does your company need a professional logo? If any of the six reasons above strike a chord, the answer is likely yes.
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