Make a Stand with Your Brand!

I talked about the importance of a logo earlier this week, now let's talk a little more about branding and why it is important. Similar to what the image shows, it takes multiple building blocks to get your brand to the top. Now, if I were to rearrange these blocks, I would put them in order with design, identity and logo at the foundation. Then trust and value blocks topped with the marketing right below the over all brand block.

Once you have your logo you can start building your identity from your mission, slogan and vision. Your mission should highlight what you want to achieve for the customer, your slogan should be shorter version of your mission and your vision should always be clear. Building trust within your customers is the next building block. They will be your biggest ambassadors when it comes to marketing and growing your business. As a business you need them to see the value within your product or service so they use word of mouth to help promote you (I will dive into the importance of public relations in another post). At the end of the day, no matter what kind of marketing you do, it is the satisfaction of your customers and employees that keep your business thriving.

When it comes to figuring out how to market your brand there are soooo many different avenues and so many different companies that can promise you services to help you grow to the point that it gets extremely overwhelming. Honestly; it starts with you, the leader of the company. If you are the leader have no idea where to start this is where a marketing agency, such as S² Branding & Marketing can help. I can assist in building your brand while making sure you are on the successful path to growth through digital marketing (did you think I wasn't going to promote my business in this article, of course I was!). In all seriousness do your research, find a local company that offers that one-on-one support/guidance so you're not just stuck going in circles and getting nowhere.

It all starts with a Logo

Logo, logo, logo! One of the main elements to successful branding is making sure you keep your logo clean and SIMPLE! A company logo not only important but needed. It's what catches your customers eye, it's what sets you apart from the competition, but most importantly it is what makes and keeps your business recognizable.

Whether your business is new or going through the re-branding process, it is important for you to take a moment to picture what your logo would look like on different kinds of printed marketing materials, pens, pads of paper, t-shirts, hats, etc. Could the design of your logo be easily printed? While an extremely detailed logo might look great when trying to get noticed in the digital marketing world it is still extremely important to think about what it might look like in traditional marketing world as well. Remember keep it clean and simple!

Let me tell you first hand when it came to designing my logo for S² Branding & Marketing, Inc. I wanted to keep it simple. I chose the arrows around S² is because my zodiac sign is Sagittarius, The Archer, who is always known to have a bow and arrow in hand, and never fails to hit the mark. I also think of an arrow as a symbol for moving forward. When an arrow gets set free from its bow it might weeble and wobble in the air but it always goes forward. That's been my way of thinking my whole life, no matter what, keep moving forward.

A logo is one of the main building blocks for a successful and strong marketing foundation. Small businesses starting out should always want to make a stand with their brand. Remember: Every big, name brand company, started off small! Think about the Big 3 Automakers, over the years, have they ever changed their logos? No. Sure, they might change the color scheme from time to time, like how the bowtie for Chevrolet is sometimes black instead of gold, but it is still a bowtie.

I always advise anyone who asks me for marketing advice to think long and hard about their logo and its design. You don't want it to be too bland but you don't want it too busy either. Just make sure to keep your logo simple, it helps with keeping your mission and vision clear.