The Basics of Branding

Learn what this critical business term means and what you can do to establish one for your company

 

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does "branding" mean? How does it affect a small business like yours?

Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors'. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced, reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option? You can't be both, and you can't be all things to all people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target customers want and need you to be.

The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand.

Brand Strategy & Equity

Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally are part of your brand strategy, too.

Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product--and customers will pay that higher price.

The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, Nike associates its products with star athletes, hoping customers will transfer their emotional attachment from the athlete to the product. For Nike, it's not just the shoe's features that sell the shoe.

Defining Your Brand

Defining your brand is like a journey of business self-discovery. It can be difficult, time-consuming and uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least, that you answer the questions below:

What is your company's mission?

• What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
• What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
• What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

Do your research. Learn the needs, habits and desires of your current and prospective customers. And don't rely on what you think they think. Know what they think.

Because defining your brand and developing a brand strategy can be complex, consider leveraging the expertise of a non-profit small-business advisory group or a Small Business Development Center  like  BETA – Business & Entrepreneurial Training Academy.

Once you've defined your brand, how do you get the word out? Here are a few simple, time-tested tips:

• Get a great logo. Place it everywhere.
• Write down your brand messaging. What are the key messages you want to communicate about your brand? Every employee should be aware of your brand attributes.
• Integrate your brand. Branding extends to every aspect of your business--how you answer your phones, what you or your salespeople wear on sales calls, your e-mail signature, everything.
• Create a "voice" for your company that reflects your brand. This voice should be applied to all written communication and incorporated in the visual imagery of all materials, online and off. Is your brand friendly? Be conversational. Is it ritzy? Be more formal. You get the gist.
• Develop a tagline. Write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.
• Design templates and create brand standards for your marketing materials. Use the same color scheme, logo placement, look and feel throughout. You don't need to be fancy, just consistent.
• Be true to your brand. Customers won't return to you--or refer you to someone else--if you don't deliver on your brand promise.
• Be consistent. I placed this point last only because it involves all of the above and is the most important tip I can give you. If you can't do this, your attempts at establishing a brand will fail.

John Williams is the founder and president of LogoYes.com, the world's first do-it-yourself logo design website. During John's 25 years in advertising, he's created brand standards for Fortune 100 companies like Mitsubishi and won numerous awards for his design work.

Source Entrepreneur Magazine : http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408#ixzz2OGgKINXt

 



5 Ways to Find the Perfect Business Idea

                      
Not sure what kind of business you should start?
Here are five things you should keep in mind while considering different business ideas.

 

 

One of the biggest struggles I had in starting my business was actually coming up with the idea. I wanted something that was scalable as well as needed in our society. I combed through hundreds of ideas before settling on my current venture. Through this discovery period, I uncovered what I believe are the five most important concepts in determining what makes the perfect business idea.

So, what is a perfect idea? Each individual entrepreneur has their concept of the perfect business. While Google is a great business for the founders of that company - it may not be a great business for others that are non-tech savvy or who do not want to run such a large organization.

Therefore, each perfect business is defined by the business owners. Keeping this in mind, let's start on my five concepts of finding the perfect business:

 

Number One - Understanding your customer

This might seem strange to start here as how do you know your customers before you have a business idea in place. The answer is simple - your customers make the business, therefore without customers there is no business. If you have a business idea don't try to develop the idea around what YOU think potential customers will like or need, but find out what your customers actually desire. Too often business owners get an idea in their head and jump right in with both feet. However, they soon find out that their target market does not want what they are offering. Spending both time and money on a project just to see it languish is not the perfect business idea.

Moreover, let's say you don't already have an idea - getting out and understand consumers (those who will eventually become your customers) may lead you to the perfect idea. Knowing what potential consumers need and building products to meets those needs will get customers beating a path to your door - that is a perfect business idea.

Number Two - Passion
Passion here does not mean being fanatical about your product or service. But, it does mean having some interest in what you do. More times than not, you will be spending 15 to 18 hours a day working on your business in the beginning - usually for the first 12 to 18 months (more like 2 years in this economy). You have to constantly be thinking about ways to improve and grow your business as well as be out talking about it to everyone, everywhere. If you end up starting a venture that you don't have passion for, something that does not make you jump out of bed each morning, it will be very hard to put in the hours and energy to make it successful - thus not a perfect business idea.

Number Three - Understand Your Competition
Every business has competition - either direct or indirect. Think about movie theaters. They have direct competition from video rental stores or at home television. They also have indirect competition from any other activity that consumers spend their disposable income on like bowling, paint ball, golf, etc. Anything that people do in their spare time.
Further, some competitors are ruthless. Meaning that if you promote and offer a product that is similar to theirs but at a lower price, these competitors will just lower their price to match or beat you. If they are already established businesses - they may be able to undercut your price enough to drive you out of business.
If you don't know your competition - what they are willing to do to keep you out of their market - you may be spending more of your time in a pricing war then growing your business - not the perfect business idea.

Number Four - Cash Flow
Lots of entrepreneurs enter the business world with great ideas but very poor understanding of the capital it will take to get their venture off the ground. Most will prototype their product or service and understand what it takes to make the product or provide the service but they don't understand the capital it takes to manage the rest of the organization - including marketing (very expensive but extremely necessary), employees (more than just salaries or wages), insurance or supplies and all the little miscellaneous expenses that add up very quickly like phone, internet, computer services, etc. Knowing your total cash flow will help ensure that all of your costs (variable and fixed) can be covered by the business - the perfect business idea. I have seen way too many businesses with great products fail because they could not cover simple expenses like rent or utilities.

Number Five - You
Know who you are. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Know that you are ready, willing and able to do what it takes to make your venture a success. I have worked with many business owners in the past that think all they have to do is hang out their shingle and they have it made. Thus, when it comes down to actually running the business day-to-day - they are unwilling to invest the time, energy or money necessary for success. Thus, know how hard you are willing to work.
Moreover, know your personal financial situation and what you need the business to generate to cover your lifestyle. If you think your business will pay you a great salary from day one - it will not. And, if you need it to, it is not the perfect business idea for you. Take away outside distractions like your personal financial situation - get those in order - thus, when your business concept does materialize - you will be able to solely focus on its conception and growth. In the end providing you the financial security you are seeking - it will be the perfect business idea.
Regardless of the level of your desire for your business - a lifestyle mom and pop operation or a multi-national conglomerate - if you develop a business idea with these five concepts in mind - your idea will be the perfect business idea for you.

Joseph Lizio
Copyright 2009 - BusinessMoneyToday.com

Vision Shapes Identity, Identity Determines Direction

I recently stayed at a hotel from a well known international chain in the Middle East. But this particular property appeared to be confused about its mission in life.

Rather than focusing on providing quality accommodation, the managers of the hotel had obviously opted to pull in extra revenue through hosting social activities. After staying in the hotel for a night or two you could easily be forgiven for thinking that the property was more interested in becoming a popular entertainment venue rather than a place where international travellers could get a good night’s sleep.

Every night the nightclub on the ground floor boomed out the Indian version of house music, and every Thursday night a bingo session was set up in the hotel grounds. The bingo night catered to over 1500 people, and had to be set up on the tennis court, around the pool, and directly under most of the guest rooms.

A steady stream of cars arrived early evening and then left again around midnight, the drone of a heavily amplified bingo caller filling in the many hours in between. The grounds were set up on the morning of the Thursday and then cleaned up and packed up during the day on Friday.

An identity crisis

I asked the manager if he was running a hotel or an entertainment venue. “A hotel!” he replied abruptly, obviously offended at the suggestion that the property was being viewed as anything other than that.

I lodged an official complaint.

“If you are running a hotel,” I said, “Your guests will expect a good night’s sleep, and will want easy access to the facilities. Don’t the other guests complain about this also?”

“Well, yes,” he eventually conceded. “We do get complaints about the nightclub each morning and complaints about the Bingo each Friday, but we just give those guests a basket of fruit.” Problem solved… or so he thought.

This hotel was clearly suffering from an ongoing identity crisis. The management did not seem to have identified what the organisation’s key purpose was and the primary focus should be. There was apparently no vision for how the property could provide outstanding client service, and as a result the hotel could not really perform to its best potential. It was always only half full. The staff was only half motivated. The results were mediocre.

No vision, no focus

Organisations without a strong vision will lack focus and produce poor results. Some of these organisations will unconsciously revert to ‘money making’ as their one and only guiding principle, not waking up to the fact that they could in fact be limiting themselves and damaging their reputation in the process. But Jim Collins believes that profit is like oxygen: “Without it, there is no life,” he explains, “But it is not the reason we live”

Sometimes it is only when conflicting areas present themselves that we are forced to take a stand about what our core values are. But we should be reflecting on these values before conflicts arise. We should consider what we want our core values to be – having a vision for the ideal rather than simply reverting to the usual – so that these core values shape our identity and defines our achievement.

Core values matter

Visionary companies don’t see that there needs to be a choice between living to their values or being pragmatic; they see it as a challenge to find pragmatic solutions and behave consistently with their core values and vision.

The same principle can be applied to our individual lives. We can become confused about our roles and responsibilities and unable to perform to maximum potential unless we have a clear idea of who we are and a strong vision for who we want to be.

Only then is it possible to have a clear direction and purpose.

by © Andrew Grant

6 Keys to a Satisfied Yet Successful Entrepreneur

It’s sad when the startup is “successful,” but the founder still feels totally unsatisfied. I see it happening all the time. The business is a winner, but the family or other relationships are broken by the stress. Or the entrepreneur started down this path to be their own boss and change the world, but find they are now answering to many more people, with nothing really changed.
These issues are the major focus of a recent book, “The Plan,” by John McKee and Helen Latimer. It zeroes in specifically on the difference between being “successful” and being “satisfied” in your personal and professional lives. The authors start by asserting that many people feel more or less successful, but far fewer, even the successful ones, feel satisfied.
Their conclusion is that you need a plan for your life, as well as your business, and they discuss in detail six steps to get there. If you are an entrepreneur contemplating a startup, and you want both success and satisfaction in business, I recommend you complete these steps before you start any business plan:

1. Identify personal gaps. Find the gaps between the life you’re living and the life you dream of living. Look at the gaps that may exist in three key life areas: the personal/ family side, the career side, and the financial side. It can be difficult to be honest about some of your own character traits. People often behave in ways they don’t understand.
2. Determine your purpose. Your purpose defines what you stand for. This is what should guide your entrepreneurial ambitions and dreams, gives you a picture of where you are going, and help you as you set the goals. Without purpose, you certainly will find yourself feeling unsatisfied even when you achieve business success.
3. Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Most of us have a fairly good idea of our weaknesses. Few of us take the time to really understand our strengths. Review your natural talents and build on the talents you’ve developed. You will see exciting stuff – new business opportunities, new directions.
4. Describe your dream. Many of us are clearer about what we don’t want that what we do want. Use visualization to create a very detailed picture of your dream, and write it down to see if it still makes sense. Feel what it would be like to have, be, or do what you want, to follow your purpose.
5. Create your path. Here the solution is to create short-term milestones. Having a strong desire for something is not enough. Your desire needs to be so clear that you can see each step you need to take to reach it. Taking these steps is absolutely essential and separates those people who succeed from those who don’t.
6. Live your best life. With the personal life plan complete, the most important step is to implement it. This is the time to have faith in yourself and begin to move towards the life you dreamed. If a business is in that plan, now is the time to start your business plan. That’s the only way to enjoy both a high level of satisfaction and success in both.

Even with all this, failures do happen. In the long run, the difference between success and failure can ultimately hinge on how you handle a failure. Don’t just repeat it in a different context, but do the work to understand it, and alter your plan. Try again – as many times as it takes. No matter how daunting. Step-by-step, day-by-day, you can get closer to your goal until you attain it.
Successful but unsatisfying professional careers are one of the primary reasons that people decide to become entrepreneurs in the first place. Thus it makes sense that before you start down the entrepreneur path, you would do some extra work to make sure you are not about to fail one more time. The last thing that this world or you needs is another successful business failure.

Marty Zwilling (more of Marty on http://blog.startupprofessionals.com)


You want to start your business or you want to grow? 
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Start Business That Fits Your Idea of Having Fun

You are an aspiring entrepreneur, eager to dump the corporate grind, and work to the beat of your own drummer, but you can’t come up with that killer idea to save the world. What are the alternatives that will give you the independence you crave, and challenge your business acumen? Technically, I believe an entrepreneur is anyone who manages his own profit and loss, and doesn’t meet the government tax definition of an employee. Beyond the traditional new product or service model, you can always buy an existing business, purchase a franchise, join a multi-level marketing (MLM) company, or simply go out on your own as a consultant. Of course there are a million variations which can make the difference, like work at home versus an office, or online versus storefront, but these are secondary to your basic role. In deciding which of these startup models is right for you, the best place to begin is to ask yourself why you want to own a business rather than be an employee: You have the technology to change the world. If you want to nurture a product into full bloom, a traditional startup is your best bet. Of course, you get the challenge of filing patents, developing a product, and defining the revenue model. With an existing business, MLM, or franchise, the technology and process are already set. You really just want to be the boss. If your answer is that you want to own your own business because of the freedom it will bring you to manage an operation, try a franchise or join an MLM. The base organization will define what you have to do, when you do it, and how you do it, but the success is all in the execution. You want to make lots of money. New startups build from scratch, and go for broke. Many end that way, but a chosen few do make lots of money. Franchises, on the average, make less money than other types of businesses, but they have higher success rates. Consulting businesses rarely scale, so you may do well, but are not likely to make lots of money. MLMs are like the lottery, minimal investment, with low odds of any success, but a few people hit it really big. You are doing it to satisfy someone else. Too many people are running a business because their father always expected them to take over for the family, the spouse has been nagging you to do it for years, or they want to prove something to a sibling or peer. If you have a choice here, at least pick a less risky franchise, or a minimal investment MLM. You're looking for something to keep you busy. If you have startup funds in hand, you are one of the lucky ones who can start or buy any business you want. If you lack hands-on experience, a franchise may be ideal for you, because you'll get help with everything you need to set up your business. On the other hand, if experience is your strong suit, why not highlight and share it through consulting? Whichever business model you pick, you need to make a serious commitment to the effort, or you will likely fail. I have a friend who starts a new business every couple of years, sort of like a hobby. After a few months, she gets tired of the grind, or runs up against a couple of tough problems, so she rationalizes that the economy turned bad, or someone misled her, and she walks away. A different business model probably won’t solve this problem. If you still aren’t sure where you fit, I recommend working for someone else for a few years to gain knowledge, contacts, capital, and learn more about yourself. Then take the plunge with one of the above business models. You will soon know whether you are having fun, and that’s the most important criteria for any aspiration. Enjoy. Marty Zwilling (http://blog.startupprofessionals.com)   PS. BETA is offering a seminar for everybody who wants to start their business and want to develop a winning business plan. Organized on 5 Saturday afternoons. Contact us for more information. Become a BETAPRENEUR! See you at BETA. Raf Vlummens, Entrepreneurial Coach