Starting a Business All-In-One For Dummies

Chapter 4

Forging Your Brand

In This Chapter

• Defining what brands are and why they're important
• Beginning to build your brand
• Positioning your brand in your market
• Using taglines to enhance your brand
• Developing your brand message, creative strategy, and consistent style

“We're just a small business,” you may be thinking. “We're not Coca-Cola or Nike, with a bazillion-dollar ad budget and a global market. We're just 12 people trying to build a half million dollars in sales. We hardly need a brand.”

Guess what? A brand isn't some mysterious, expensive treasure available only to the rich and famous. And it isn't just for mega-marketers, though they all have one.

Branding simply (well, maybe not all that simply) involves developing and consistently communicating a set of positive characteristics that consumers can relate to your name. If those characteristics happen to fill a meaningful and available position in their minds — a need they've been sensing and trying to fill — then you just scored a marketing touchdown, and that half-million-dollar sales goal will be way easier to reach.

What Brands Are and What They Do

Keep in mind two facts about what brands are and aren't:

• A brand is a set of beliefs. It's a promise that customers believe.
• A brand isn't a logo. A logo is a symbol that identifies a brand. When people see your logo or hear your name, a set of images arises. Those ...