If you understand the basics of corporate banding and identity, you may be eager to use this powerful marketing tool to promote your business. A branding strategy helps you develop a plan that develops a unique image for your company and then positions that image for customers to see. Once customers see your company as filling a useful and unoccupied niche, they are more likely to do business with you.

Branding affects every aspect of your business, from logo design to your company uniforms (or lack thereof), because it must be consistent across all your marketing efforts in order to be successful. If your company stationery presents a professional, formal image, for example, while your company website looks very informal, your corporate banding and identity plan may not be focused tightly enough. To get the most value from your corporate image, follow these three simple steps:

1. Understand your brand position by conducting corporate branding research.

2. Hire corporate branding consultants to find a unique niche to fill.

3. Rely on corporate image experts to introduce your new brand to the marketplace.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Hire corporate branding companies to learn how customers identify with your company

You can't develop a corporate branding strategy if you don't understand how your brand is positioned in the current market place. The only way to get this information is with specialized market research that uncovers what customers think of your brand now. You can use this information to start developing a plan to take your brand where you want it to go.

I recommend: Power Decisions Group offers research services to help you understand your branding positioning in the marketplace. The company uses thorough qualitative research to bring you detailed information about your brand. Steiner Marketing offers comprehensive brand research designed to help companies optimize their branding strategies.

Work with company identity consultants to develop an original branding angle

Making the most of corporate branding and identity means that your brand must be different from the competition and must fill a specific niche in your market. Company image consultants will work with you to really get to know your business so that, together, you can develop a niche that will set you apart from the competition. When developing something that you can offer your customers, consider your competition and look to fill a need that the competition leaves unaddressed, or ask what your company can offer customers that other companies cannot.

I recommend: What's Up Interactive has corporate identity consulting services and branding strategy creation services to help you determine what your best specific strategy might be. Walker Sands offers one-day Rapid Branding Sessions, allowing companies to effectively develop niche branding.

Find corporate branding companies to position your brand in the market

Once you understand your current brand position and develop new corporate branding solutions to reposition yourself, you still need to implement your strategy. To do so, you must find the right markets in which to present your new image and you must develop specific marketing materials and designs that make your brand image tangible. Marketing companies specializing in branding implementation can help you develop the right marketing materials or can even handle all the implementation details for you so you can focus on results.

I recommend: Cohen Dreyfus offers branding implementation and deployment services that use your branding strategy to position your brand in ideal markets. MVI is a marketing company that takes branding ideas and converts them into completed designs that you can use in your marketing materials.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Making the most of company identification means making your brand congruent across all aspects of your business. You want your employee approach to match your mission statement, which should match your website. Do not make the common mistake of just focusing your branding efforts on your ads. Check all aspects of your business--including your telephone service and your website--to make sure every part of your business projects the corporate image you're trying to build.

A logo or trademark is more than just a name, word or design. Or at least it should be. Your logo or trademark represents your company's identity and can be an effective tool in creating a brand and a buzz for your business.

If you've gone through the trouble and expense to create a logo for your business or register a trademark, it makes sense to leverage that investment into creating and promoting your business brand. It doesn't matter if your business is really small. Even a one person business can be a brand.

When used consistently, your logo or trademark will:

1. Increase awareness of your company
2. Build confidence in your business
3. Create a loyal customer base
4. Help customers make buying decisions

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Think outside the box

Place your logo on every piece of communication with your customers, including signs, business cards, stationery, brochures, Web sites, emails, direct mail pieces, invoices, receipts, labels, shopping bags and more. But that's only the beginning. To get the most branding bang out of your logo, be creative.

I recommend: Find a list of ways to use your logo to promote your brand identity at brandlogic.com.

Create a logo usage guide

Consistent usage is one key to successfully promoting your brand to consumers.

I recommend: When creating your company's logo usage guide, think how the logo will translate for all media of communication, including the Web, print, event signage, direct mail and promotional items. The style guide should address proper usage of PMS colors, fonts and clear space around the logo. Check out logo usage guides for the best brands of the world or get your own branding guide.

Get your logo on the road

You don't need to have delivery trucks or vans to make your mark on the highway. You can rev up your company's visibility by placing your logo on vehicles.

I recommend: Place removable magnetic logos on your vehicle and on your staff's vehicles as a way to build your brand.

Promote your logo

Place your logo on promotional items and giveaways as a way to build brand awareness. Choose items that your customers will use on a regular basis to get maximum exposure.

I recommend: Order promotional items that reflect your customers' lifestyles or that support a cause you think is important to your customers.

Sponsor charity events or local sports teams

Promoting goodwill also promotes good business. Community sports leagues and charity events are always looking for sponsors. Donate cash, equipment, or volunteer your employees' time in return for your logo appearing on team uniforms, event banners or other promotional materials.

I recommend: Find out if your logo is suitable for embroidery on team uniforms at Team Sportswear, and contact your local chamber of commerce for upcoming events in your area.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When providing your artwork on disk or via email to a designer, printer or other media, attach your logo usage guide to ensure consistency.
• •  Limit your logo to less than four colors and identify them clearly using the Pantone Matching System. Otherwise your red could turn out orange and your blue could look purple in print.
• •  When providing your logo electronically, make sure you attach the entire font file including the screen and postscript versions to the user. Otherwise you may end up with a bitmapped logo.
• •  Have your logo available in EPS format for print materials and in JPG and GIF format for your website.
• •  If your logo or part of your identity is trademarked, make sure to include the ™ symbol and include instructions in your logo usage guide for it.

Corporate branding and identity creation is the process by which a business distinguishes itself from competitors. It involves developing a unique corporate image through marketing, advertising and public relations. While companies once focused only on advertising, now many businesses recognize that they must present an image or “public face” that customers find appealing. Just as you try to present your best face when dealing with customers, your company's branding must create a positive, and lasting, first impression.

Without a corporate branding strategy, your company will haphazardly develop its reputation. Implementing a solid branding strategy ensures that your company will put forth the image that is most beneficial for your business. The right branding strategy will be congruent with your company’s mission and objectives. If you want to take control of your business’s reputation and identity, consider:

1. Understanding the basics of branding so you can develop an action plan you can actually put to work each day.

2. Working with company naming services or branding services to develop new angles and niches for your business.

3. Hiring a brand management company to monitor your branding success and to alert you to any problems that threaten your company reputation.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Learn the corporate branding and identity basics to understand your options

Many companies fail to take advantage of corporate branding solutions because branding and identity seem so nebulous and abstract that business owners aren't sure where to start. Branding is not abstract at all. It simply involves researching your current company image, developing a unique niche or need that your company can fill and then re-educating customers so they can see what your company can offer.

I recommend: Epiphany Marketing has a step-by-step guide that walks you through the process of developing a corporate image. The company even offers a free one-hour branding workshop to those who sign up online. John Williams has written an informative guide to corporate branding and identity basics. It's a good resource for learning how branding can work for you.

Hire corporate branding companies for professional branding results

Developing a great corporate identity, or branding yourself, is challenging, especially if the concept is new to you. Hiring branding professionals allows you to learn more about branding and to enjoy a well-developed and thorough branding plan. Many companies can even implement your plan for you, so you can focus on running your business while someone else takes care of building your company's reputation.

I recommend: BrandSolutions offers a number of services, including branding consultations, brand research and brand implementation. Brand Identity Guru offers services to businesses in need of developing their own branding strategy.

Find company identity management solutions to deal with potential problems

Even if you do everything right and develop a great brand name, how can you be sure that the brand is not destroyed by an unhappy customer or disgruntled employee? Brand management--sometimes called identity management or reputation management--is an umbrella term for services that monitor how your brand appears online or in print, which allow you to respond quickly when an attack on your company name takes place.

I recommend: SERM International offers a number of reputation management and brand crisis services, including online brand management and social media reputation management. DONE! Reputation Management offers public relations relationship management, brand reputation and online reputation management, among other services.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you have not developed corporate branding solutions or a branding plan for your business, don't think your business has avoided developing a corporate identity. Your company has a reputation, whether you know it or not. That reputation may be based on a few customers' interactions with your employees or encounters with your products. Branding allows you to take control of your company identification and broadcast it in your terms.

Whether you’re a successful, established business or the new kid on the block, your corporate brand and identity will make you or break you. Consumer psychology dictates that most people purchase things based on emotion, so if customers have negative emotions regarding your company logo, for example, then chances are they will steer clear of any products that bear that logo. To help you better understand the importance of a strong corporate brand and identity, here are some key terms to get you thinking.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Corporate branding

When a company attaches its name to a product or service it is practicing corporate branding. Branding is one of the most important ideas in marketing, as it is what gets your company's name out there.

I recommend: Get back to the basics with this article on corporate branding from wiseGEEK.

Brand loyalty

Once you have branded your products or services with your name, then the idea is that once your customers get to know your company and products, they will look for your company name on other products that they want to buy and brand loyalty is born.

I recommend: Brandchannel has an in-depth discussion of brand loyalty and what drives the consumer to keep coming back.

Corporate identity

Every company has a personality, and that personality is its corporate identity. It's 'who they are' as a company that makes them identifiable when up against competitors.

I recommend: Who better to find out what corporate identity is than a company that specializes in it, like Corporate Identity Designer.

Touch points

Touch points are the tangible things in the idea of corporate branding. Branding is the general umbrella term for the act of incorporating different touch points into your company identity like a logo, advertisements, stationery, product packaging and the uniforms of employees.

I recommend: eye-SPEAK delves into the importance of incorporating touch points into your corporate branding plan.

Corporate brand equity

Are you a well-established company with a history of successful products or services or are you a start-up company? If the first statement is true, then chances are you have built up some corporate brand equity, or 'positive feelings,' in the minds of your customers. The result is that they take to your products or services faster than they would to the products or services of that start-up, which has very little brand equity.

I recommend: If you’re looking for detailed information on corporate brand equity, read this helpful article at Article Dashboard.

Positive brand image

You may have the same product or service as the next guy, but the only way to grab a large part of the market share is if you have a positive brand image. This means that the customer has to associate something positive with your product - quality or prestige, for example - to want to be a repeat customer.

I recommend: Rockbridge Associates explains how a positive brand image helps your company.