ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Brand Components
Your brand is the culmination of everything about you and your business. It is how people come to know you. It is your business name, logo design or other symbol that identifies your goods and services. It's what makes you different from everyone else in business. What are some of the components that come to make up your brand? 1. Who I am. Your brand is a representation of who you are, including your talents, gifts, needs, values, and integrity. Your talents and gifts are what allow you to develop the products and services you offer. Needs are what you need fulfilled to be your very best. As a business owner you may have a need to accomplish. Values are behaviors or activities to which you are naturally drawn ? perhaps creating or contributing to the welfare of others. Integrity is all about your thoughts and actions being highly aligned. What you think, what you speak, and what you do are consistent. Who are you? What are your most important values and needs? What talents are you sharing with others through your business? 2. How I act. How you act is also a fundamental component of your branding. It includes everything that the public experiences when they deal with you. Your personality, your strengths, and your weaknesses are all parts of how you show up, whether face-to-face, on the telephone, or even through email. How you act is one of the most fundamental and direct ways that others get a sense about what is behind your brand. What do your daily actions communicate to others? 3. What I do. The type of business in which you engage speaks volumes about your brand identity. Do you provide a product or a service? What industries do you serve? Do you serve people directly or do you serve other companies? How do you run your business? Are you a control freak, do you delegate or are you a solopreneur or an employer? How do you handle projects? Do you avoid them or do you readily engage them. Like your actions, all of these components provide others with a sense about who you are. What you do tells people what is important to you. What does your type of business say about you? 4. Who I know. Your network of business contacts, the types of customers (demographic/psychographic profile) and the business organizations and associations to which you belong give others a sense of your business "come from place". Who you know immediately communicates to others who you enjoy being around and to whom you market and sell your goods and services. Who is important to you? Who do you spend time with and why? How is this influencing your company brand? 5. Where I am. Your physical environment also communicates a lot about your business to others. Do you work from a home office? Are you situated in a business park or an office building? What about the inside of your business? Is it neat and clean inside and out? What are your interior colors and furniture style? All of these things create an impression of your business, who you are, and your attitude. When folks hear your name, all of these things will come to mind. What does your environment communicate about you and your business? 6. Where I've been. To a certain extent you are a product of your environment. Where you have been is a reflection of who you are. Where have you traveled to? Where do you live? Your travels have exposed you to different thoughts, beliefs, ideas, and ideals. The things that resonate with you become a part of who you are and are expressed in everything you do. Where you have been tells much about where you are today and where you will go in the future. How is your past expressed in your business? 7. What I believe. Your religious or spiritual beliefs often form your operating framework. What you believe in and how you perceive your place in the world play a significant role in the type of business you select, how you show up in the world, how you treat yourself, and how you treat others. Your belief system will either be one that places the power of choice in your hands or it will be one in which you are a follower. In any case, what you believe will show through in everything that you do. What role do your beliefs play in your business? 8. What I learn. Where do you choose to put your life energies when it comes to your personal or professional development? What do you focus on to enrich your life? What do you enjoy learning? Are you concentrated on your hobbies, sports, reading, volunteer work, or other interests? We have a powerful choice to make every day as to what we will do with that day. What we choose to learn, where we place our attention is strongly expressed in who we are and becomes a part of our branding as well. How has what you learned influenced your business? 9. Where I'm going. Where you are going is just as important as where you have been. Where we are going is rooted in our hopes, dreams and plans for the future. It is the vision we have not only for our business, but for the person we hope to be. Everything we do today is a stepping-stone for where we want to be tomorrow. Inherent in your business and in your brand are the seeds of what you wish your future to be. How people think of you today is setting the stage as to how you want them to think of you in the years to come. What are your plans for the future and how are these expressed in your brand today? 10. What I think. What you think is the underlying core of all of the components that comprise your brand. Thinking is the point from which everything about you emanates. It influences who you are, what you do, your personal and professional network, your physical environment, what you believe, what you choose to learn, where you go and your hopes for the future. It is critically important to watch what you choose to allow in your mind as these things have an uncanny way of manifesting themselves. In a larger sense, what you think is who you are. And, who you are is your brand. What thoughts are you thinking and how are they influencing the perception of your brand? © Copyright 2004 by Alicia Smith Alicia Smith is a Coach and Trainer whose specialty is helping people Make Money Now. She has taught over 70,000 people how to improve their business bottom lines. To learn more about her courses, products and services please email her at alicia@aliciasmith.com or visit http://www.AliciaSmith.com and http://www.90DayMarketingMarathon.com
Google News - Top Stories
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Choosing the Right Color Palette Color is a highly personal experience ? everyone has favorite colors, and other colors that they absolutely don't like. So, how do you determine which colors that will work for your business identity, and that will send the right message to? The Very Basics of Design Design is a very subjective thing, therefore, if you ask me how to come up with a first class design for your marketing collateral or publishing mediums, it would be very unfair for me or anyone else to tell you what is a good design and what is a bad design. But there are certain elements and principles that we should look for in a design to determine whether the design and layout of the material will be able to carry the message across effectively to the readers and your potential market. The main aim of every design material related to advertising or promotion is either to sell something, promote something or brand a company. Why Should I do Business With You? It's the question that is on the minds of all our customers regardless of what products or services we are offering. Potential customers want to know what makes you so different and why should they do business with you as opposed to one of your competitor's. Are You Brand Worthy? Branding is one hot topic, although it is wildly misunderstood. To make things even more confusing, branding is often tossed in the same basket as marketing which makes its application to an entrepreneur or sole-practioner even more unclear. Don?t Overlook Your Email When Considering Your Brand Identity You wouldn't skip letterhead when sending out a sales letter - Or would you? Importance of Business Branding Branding is very important to a business, whether it is an online or offline business. Your brand will be the first impression the public has of your business and could very well be the most important one. The goal in business branding is to give consumers a visual image of your company. Business branding is very important to a business because it allows the public to identify your company name on sight. Setting the Right Price One of the ways people get to know you is by the identity you project. Your company name, the way you present yourself, your business card and brochure, where you work, and other ways you conduct your business create an image that gives your customers information about you. Santa - The Brand Every Christmas Eve, a burglar named Santa busts into homes around the world, but he has never been charged with B&E. He has one of the best, most positive brands around and it continues to inoculate him against any hint of impropriety, as it has for generations. Measuring Return On Investment ...or Is My Brand Working? Branded Email: Email Branding is the Next Generation of Email All You Need is Branded Email Or Always Branded Email There to Remind Me The Aim of the Name Large corporations spend lavish amounts seeking names for their products that grab a consumer, or convey positive feelings. Book authors do the same. As do magazine writers. Brand Strategy - Brand Value - Brand Identity Guru Developing brand strategy is extremely critical. The most important asset your company has is its brand. Quite simply, for better or worse, it drives the direction of your business. You should definitely have a well thought out brand strategy in place. Unfortunately, too many companies don't have a brand strategy, or have an inconsistent brand strategy. A brand strategy company should realize there's probably a good reason you may not be paying attention to your brand strategy-you're busy running your business. Its Time For Some Steak Recently, I was reviewing our website statistics. One of the sites that had a link to mine caught me by surprise. Since this is a family publication, I won't include the name of the website. But, let's just say it contains a four-letter word that people do not use in most business circles. Branding Your Business To Make More Money Branding your comapny should be the first thing a company does. You have to convince potential customers to buy from you. Very few people have a monopoly like Microsoft or Ebay, Everyone else need to steer business to their company or product. When people think about your company, what is their impression. For my company, Solutions Ink, I wanted to portray a fresh, professional, ease of use type of company whoose product meets their quality needs while helping their business. I wanted to portray Solutions Ink as always on the fore front of the printing and promotional product industry's. Value Proposition Writing - Brand Identity Guru Your Value Proposition, or as I usually call it, your Core Marketing Message, is still misunderstood by most professionals. It's not just a tagline, sound bite or even an "Audio Logo." It goes way beyond that. Branding ? Brand Identity Guru Brands are important aspects of any business, but unlike money or bricks, mortar and paperclips, a brand is an intangible aspect of business. It lives in people's heads and is defined by all of that person's contacts with a company. Improving a brand is, therefore, one of the best marketing tools available because it involves your whole company and in the end, creates happier customers, more loyalty and higher marketshare. What About Me? What You Need To Know About Me-Marketing What about me? Are you asking yourself this question? If not you should be. Don't wait until you are in crisis mode when you are losing your job or your business before you think "what about me?" Branding 101: Why Its Critical to Business Success and How to Do It Right What's Your Brand? How A Crazy Branding Stunt Can Bring Results For Years As a beginner, you would be forgiven for thinking that marketing is simply advertising your product or service, how wrong you are. Is It Legal? - Indecent Naming With Tradition When Mitsubishi launched a new car with the name "Pajero" on the Spanish market, it became obvious very soon that the name chosen was not optimal because it immediately was the subject of jokes due to its homophony with a Spanish expression related to masturbation.
|
|
|
|
|
