BCA

The Brand is the Identity
A brand may refer to products or services, but  branding involves much more than that. It is the process by which those  offerings and the values of the company are communicated to the buying public.  When done correctly, this process can clearly identify any company and enable  customers to clearly see exactly what makes that company different from all of  its business rivals.

Understand the Audience
When projecting an identity to the buying public,  make sure that the identity is consistent with the needs and vales of potential  customers. It is great for a company to have a personality, but that personality  will mean nothing if it fails to resonate with customers. Every attempt to  create and establish a company brand should only be done after extensive  research focused on audience sensibilities is completed.

Use the Right Methods
Brands require tools. These include logos,  recognizable company colors, a motto, and other easily identified methods for  distinguishing one company from another. While it is easy to get caught up in  the overall look of any logo or design, it is important to always remember that  customers care less about the actual aesthetics of these tools than the fact  that they are consistently used, and therefore, remembered and recognized

Be Consistent
Indeed, consistency is the key to successfully establishing  a company identity. Logos should remain fairly consistent over time. A company  motto that reflects the business’ core values should remain the same so that  customers come to identify the company with those ideals. Keep it simple, but  steady. Even a bland company motto or unattractive logo will take root in  customers’ minds if they are seen and heard on a consistent basis over time.

Use a variety of Mediums
Today’s companies cannot just rely upon the old  methods of communication. In addition to print media and broadcast  advertisements, companies should also develop clearly branded websites and make  use of the full range of social media available today. Every method for  communicating with customers is an opportunity to further develop the company  brand.

Focus on Value and Values
The brand should ultimately be associated with  values. To accomplish this, every interaction with customers must be  accomplished with those values in mind. This includes every advertisement, every  display, and every bit of contact between employees of the company and the  customers they serve. Many businesses become so obsessed with the external  aspects of creating their brands, that they neglect the very real role of  employee decorum demonstrated by actual contact with customers.

When executed properly, any strategy for building a brand can reap huge  rewards for the company. Entrepreneurs who adhere to these basic principles of  business branding will find themselves experiencing greater success as their  corporate identities become firmly established in the public mind.

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Many IT professionals are down on social media usage in the workplace, both because they believe it hinders productivity and might compromise security. As companies adopt usage policies, employees continue to check out Facebook and other potentially forbidden sites.

According to a survey by security solutions provider nCircle, about three-fifths of US security and IT professionals say their company has a social media policy, and two-fifths ban all usage of social media on the job.

Those bans may stem from legitimate concerns, but researchers have warned that security and productivity problems can be combated while allowing employees to harness social media in ways beneficial to their business.

“Even though almost 40% of respondents ban employee social media use, this type of policy is a knee-jerk reaction to the serious security risks associated with social media and is not necessarily effective,” said Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle, in a statement.

Social activities that blur the lines between personal and professional likely persist even where usage is frowned upon. Nearly one-quarter of Facebook users surveyed by Web security firm F-Secure said they used the site “all the time” while at work, and even more had friended their boss. Another 35% visited Facebook occasionally on the job. Just 14.3% of respondents said their company did not allow access—much lower than the 39% of companies in the nCircle survey that reported bans.

Tellingly, nearly one-half of the IT professionals polled by nCircle admitted they were unsure whether employees at their companies adhered to the rules in place.

For story and data charts, go to e-Marketer.com

Branding is a term often tossed about the business world that describes how customers and other companies view a certain business. There are some consulting companies that do nothing but help other companies develop their brand in order to help a business grow. However, many owners of small businesses are reluctant to invest in any type of formal branding procedures because it may seem like a waste of money, especially if funding is low.

But small business branding does not have to cost a fortune. In fact, every business has a brand, whether they have paid to develop that brand or not. Your brand begins the moment you make your first sale, and you must work diligently to make sure that your company’s reputation only gets better from that point on.

A broad view of how others view you

Your company’s brand is really a broad overview of how others in the marketplace, including your customers and competitors, view your company. Your brand is composed of many factors, including the quality of your products, the level of customer service you provide, your personal qualifications to sell or develop the product and your commitment to bringing additional high quality products to the market. Other factors include your company mission statement and how well you stick to it, along with how you rank next to other companies.

Another contributing factor in your brand is the appearance of your company’s logo. Logos are visual representations that are designed to encompass the core essence of your company and set it apart from other companies. The best logos are instantly recognizable and don’t require a great deal of customer analysis in order to understand what it means.

Study your website traffic

If you run an online business, you can learn a lot about how customers view your company by studying your website traffic over a period of time. You can recognize repeat customers and visitors, while running tests to determine if certain sales or products pull more traffic than others. Another way to build customer loyalty and to improve your small business branding is to offer more value for less money than your competitors or even offer heavily discounted or free products and services.

These are some of the many factors that work together to form your small business brand, and it may feel overwhelming to consider improving your brand. The good news is that not all branding development requires a major overhaul of your company. A good place to start refining your brand is with your company mission.

Chances are you started your company because you felt passionate about offering the product or service that your company sells. What makes your product different or better than other similar products out there? What user experience do you offer that sets your company apart form your competitors? Is your company the top performing company in this niche, or quickly gaining ground on the leader?

Focus on your company’s customer experience

These are some of the many questions you can consider when it comes to improving your small business branding. Focus on improving and streamlining each aspect of your company’s customer experience and you will be on your way to developing a strong and successful brand for your small business.

In 1999, business management guru Tom Peters in his book ‘The Brand You 50′, said that the job security of individuals was beginning to revert back to the way it was hundreds of years ago. In this period, shortly after America was founded, job security was based on three core elements:

Craft
Distinction
Networking Skills

Craft meant that you had a skill that was marketable. To have distinction meant that what you did was memorable. To have networking skills relied on ‘word of mouth collegial support’.

What Tom Peters argued was that we live in an age now where personal branding and networking is everything, even for those working for someone else’s payroll. It is these core elements that are now important once more for job security, where so called white collar jobs (knowledge workers) are expected to almost entirely fizzle out (at least in the recognized ‘western world’) as Peters claimed in the late 90s ‘in around 10 years from now’.

The age of ‘Brand You’ was already in motion when Peters spoke about it back then, and has never been more evident than it is today.

This reconfiguration of the way people are doing work coupled with the economic downturn, means that more and more people are becoming independent and freelance workers. Inevitably, many of these freelancers are using the Internet to get work (as are more prospects looking for workers and creatives). The influx of cheaper freelance labour from places like India, means that more choice, at lower costs are available to clients on the web.

Because of all this, freelancers, and particularly creative freelancers, need to create and promote a personal brand more than they ever have in the past if they are to succeed in the long-term. It is possible to succeed as a freelancer and overcome these obstacles. It doesn’t need to be frightening or complicated. It simply requires a strategy.

It requires that you can demonstrate you have a niche skill that is marketable, that you stand out as best as you can and that you build up a solid and relevant network of friends, fans, clients, colleagues and people that share your interests.

The single most effective way of building and marketing your personal brand in this way is through the Internet. The Internet is not only hugely powerful in terms of gaining exposure for your work, and I will be writing much more on this as the blog progresses, and will demonstrate that you are ‘with it’ and up to date (what clients are looking for), but it is now almost a necessity to get online as a freelancer, with so many others doing the same.

If your competition is online, you’ve got to join them to succeed!