5 Things to Keep in Mind When Branding Your Business

Branding is critical, especially when your business deals with multiple products.

As a marketing professional, I have had my share of troubles deciding company names for my clients. I understand how important it is to correctly brand your business. Your customers should be able to figure out what products are likely to be yours.

The company name should resonate reasonably with your products. Trust me, selecting an appropriate brand name is half the battle.

Selecting an appropriate product name can be encircling. It would help if you start by writing down all the words that might make a good brand name. Once you have done that, there isn’t much left. It’s just a matter of trying different combinations of words and selecting one that sounds the most alluring.

If you haven’t (re)branded before, you are likely to miss out on key things, which is why we decided to summarize them down below.

To sum up, here are the five things you should consider when rebranding –

• Include Everyone

What comes to your mind when you hear Walmart, Amazon, and eBay? Aren’t they all fascinating and unique?

When rebranding a company, make sure everyone get their share of excitement and feel as though the brand is something of a personal accomplishment. You can do so by pre-informing the employee base that you are launching a new brand. Let them know that the brand’s success matters to you, and they’d eventually start realigning their goal to make the brand more successful.

When I first launched my brand, I invited friends and asked them to give it the name of their liking. Then we quickly voted and adopted the name that had the majority of votes.

• Have a story to tell

Every name should narrate a story in itself. Google, Amazon, eBay are so apt because the brand names recite a story – eBay (Electronic bay), Amazon (A to Z).

If the name somehow doesn’t fit, build a story around the name. Do not go for complex appellations. It would help if you had something that people can understand and relate to easily.

Having a title tag will further enhance your branding. Remember to keep your tag lines short enough to fit just below your business logo. If ever you have to choose between quality and length, go for the former.

• Be Visual

Your logo isn’t sufficient enough. Give your website a specific visual cue beyond the logo. All my banners, website and emails have a unique appearance in such a way that people can easily recognize my brand even if I were to take the logo away.

Your brand needs peculiar visual cues too. Go for specific fonts, size, and build a theme around it. Keep your website minimalist. Stick with a color or two. Remember the old saying ‘simplicity is an ornament in itself’.

For example, if you are selling art stuff, give your website a vital touch of art. If you are selling IT services, say Windows Reseller Hosting, look like an IT service provider.

Aren’t the two themes so obvious and yet so tempting?

• Repetition is Key

Do you know why ads keep emphasizing the same thing over and over again? Because the more they repeat, the likelier you are to believe it to be true.

It won’t be an understatement if I tell you that repetition is key to everything.

Find out ways to “overuse” your brand name. Play clever and make it look like you aren’t overdoing anything. Assemble everyone who is engaged with your brand and allow them to share their experiences.

This means organizing more seminars, running promotional packages, and hiring social media influencers. The more your brand is ingrained, the more difficult it will be for people to forget.

Disclaimer – no matter how big a budget you have, never over market your products. It might look as irrational but I have consociates who marketed their product to a limit that the customer base had become irate.

• Whereabouts matter

Where do you want people to recognize you? Have you considered what your brand name means in the native language? Is the name taken? If not, have you applied for its copyright? Are you hosted on nearby data centers?

Small things make a huge difference in the long run. So, it is important to decide where you want to sell your products. Do you have a certain town, district or state in mind? Or, are you planning to go international?

Do consider what your brand name means in the local language. I have seen some exceptional brand names backfire because they meant something else in the local tongue.

Make sure your name isn’t taken. Obtain copyright for the same. You don’t want somebody else to reap the fruits of your work.

Host a website on a data center nearby, if you can. This way you can also benefit from the local SEO as search engines prefer to rank websites that are hosted close to the search location.