All you need to do is take the intangibles that make you great and make them tangible. Easy, right? Well, it may not be easy, but it will be worth it.

Do a detailed brand audit – Ask the right questions.

• Understand who you are as a company.
  • Who are you? – Before you worry about others, define your own corporate values.
  • What do you believe? What values matter the most? Why do you exist?
  • How do you want your customers to see you?

• Understand who your customer is and what their challenges are. Ask the right questions.
  • Who are they? You need to narrow down the demographics, are they women, men, both? How old are they? Where are they from? How much do they make?
  • What do they do?
  • Where do they get their information? When they do research, where do they go?
  • How, when, where are they buying?
  • More importantly WHY are the buying?
  • What makes them feel good about buying?
  • What are their expectations?
  • How do they feel about you? Your competition?

Develop your message

A critical part of any message is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP.) This is the brand product – the essence of what you’re selling. For example, Apple’s USP is user experience, not electronics. Southwest Airlines sells price, convenience and friendly service. This can be difficult to do, but this is vital. Do not skip this step. Every single message should come from this position.

• What do you really sell?
• What makes your company unique?
• How do you help your customers solve their problems?
• Keep your USP central in all your messaging.

Develop Your Creative

Now, it’s time for a logo…

• Be concise. Make your point in the simplest way possible.
• Consider shapes, colors, fonts, lines, backgrounds.
• Think about how it will look everywhere you will use it.
  • Online, email signatures, signage
  • Promotional products
  • Printed, embroidered
  • One color, two color or four color
• Determine your logo guidelines – when, where and how it can be used.
• Will it have a tagline?
• Make it memorable
• Make it meaningful
• Protect it – trademark it as soon as you can. Successful brands are often copied.

Things to consider

• Colors evoke emotion, so find a palette that matches your brand.
• The search for the right font can be long and tiring, but so important. Maybe this will help. Find Your Type.

Put it all together and build your brand

Strong brands are built over time. At this point, you have what you need to start building a strong, valuable brand that works for you and translates to sales.

The next step is marketing. Decide who needs to hear your message and which channels are the best to reach your target audience. This includes promotional products, uniforms, branded employee items – everything that your logo will be on.

Be selective and keep your brand in mind. Don’t make decisions based solely on cost. Keeping the brand and your goals firmly in mind doesn’t mean that you have to overspend, it just means that you don’t do everything at once. Pace yourself. You’ll be building this brand for years.

Building Brand Equity

Every interaction with your brand will build equity with your customers. Sales, accounting, customer service, marketing… all of them contribute to the perception that the public has about your brand. If these interactions meet or exceed expectations, then you will have positive brand equity. The more positive the brand equity, the more valuable the brand and its product.

A recognizable brand that evokes positive emotions is what you’re aiming for.

Evolve your brand

Every 3-5 years, take stock of your brand and messaging. Make sure that everything is still accurate and relevant. If there’s no need to change, then don’t. But, if there is a reason to change or update, then make it as subtle as possible to get to where you need to be. I prefer the term refine, since you don’t want to change it so much that it becomes unrecognizable. The idea is to elevate the current brand, not to start over with a new one.

Consistency is key! Stay consistent for as long as possible. You will need to refine your creatives from time to time, but the brand should not change.

A solid brand is integral to any business with a long-term success plan. When you build a strong brand, align your creatives, build positive brand equity and evolve your creatives to stay fresh and relevant, you will create a brand identity that will make it so much easier for your business to grow and thrive.