Brand designers

#No 1 - Good search optimisation and web marketing brings results

Business branding and marketing image designers

Creating a company brand

A Business Brand is more than just a trade name or a company logo; it incorporates everything about a product or service that customers are buying or seeking. Think about the brands that you are aware of. Mercedes tries to represent reliability, attention to detail and quality; Virgin would like to project fun, value and innovation while Laura Ashley aims to symbolise affordable elegance and contemporarySTYLE.

a Business Brand represents both a general impression of a company and customers' direct experiences of its products and services.

Creating a strong corporate brand identity is a way to make your product stand out from the crowd and to maintain customer loyalty. Your customers will associate your unique brand with the benefits that they gain from using or having it. If you are selling sports cars, Your Business Brand will not convey fast acceleration and leather seats; it will symbolise excitement and status.

Most businesses have a Business Brand, whether they like it or not. You have a strong, positive brand if customers feel confident that you will keep your promises and deliver a top quality service. On the other hand, Your Business Brand will work against you if your product is perceived as poor quality.

Your Business Brand identity will help you to decide on an appropriate marketing approach. For example, a dependable cleaning service might be best advertised in a local newspaper, whereas a luxury health spa might be better promoted in a glossy magazine.

To create a business brand, you may first have to decide how you want existing and potential customers to perceive the business. You need to be able to see your company and what you are offering through their eyes. Note down as many concepts or values that you want them to associate with what you are doing. You could come up with ideas like 'dependable', 'creative', 'fun', 'high quality', 'value for money' or 'professional'.

Then check your ideas with employees, friends and customers, because they may have different views and be able to add to the list. If any of these views conflict with the brand that you would like to project, you will need to change either the branding or the perception. You've got a real problem if, for example, you want your company to be seen as reliable and responsive, but people perceive you as erratic and uncommunicative.

The next step is to build the brand into everything that the customer sees or experiences before they have direct contact with your business. Experts say that strong first impressions are created during the first 30 seconds of any encounter. It is therefore crucial to make sure that everything the customer sees projects the right brand image.

Where do I Start

Perhaps the most obvious symbol of Your Business Brand is your company logo. This should provide a direct connection to Your Business Brand values. Look carefully at other company's logos to see how they set out to create an image of youth, creativity, expertise, commitment or whatever. You may need help in redesigning your logo so that it clearly represents what you are trying to achieve.

People with the right attitudes are the vital resource that will enable your organisation to translate the raw brand identity into reality. It is therefore vital to make sure that they will enthusiastically carry out the things that are necessary to project the right image. In addition, they may have some useful suggestions for improving delivery of the brand's message.

Whatever you decide to do in practical terms, it is vital to model the behaviours that you want others to adopt. If you want them to be courteous and friendly towards customers – you will have to deal warmly and respectfully with customers. If you want them to fulfil their promises to customers – you will have to prove yourself to be reliable in everything you do. Your example will reinforce the habits you want to encourage and help weed out the ones you want to eliminate.

Ideally, your logo and company colour scheme should appear on anything that is seen, including Marketing or promotional materials such as:

• Website
• Products and packaging
• Business premises
• Presentations or exhibitions
• Employees' uniforms
• Company vehicles.

A good business brand does not emerge and start working for in a matter of hours. It takes time and effort to create it and communicate it. The important thing is to believe in it and to be consistent.

"New business branding, to project a fresh new image"