PerfectBusiness - The Entrepreneur Network to Create Your Perfect Business

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Contributing Authors

	Joe Kennedy Author of The Small Business Owner's Manual
ORDER NOW: The Small Business Owner's Manual
	Steven D. Strauss Author of The Small Business Bible
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	Stephanie Chandler Author of The Business Startup Checklist & Planning Guide
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	Tom Severance Author of Business Start-Up Guide
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Branding 101

What do you think of when you think about Rolls Royce, or Nike, or

Apple Computer? Each business evokes very clear thoughts, feelings,

and images. All have a strong corporate identity, or brand, associated

with their names, and it is no accident. These companies have spent a

lot of money getting you to conjure up specific images and feelings

when you think about their businesses, which begs the question: What

is it you want people to think of when they think about your small business?

The idea of creating a brand for your small business is really quite

important. Maybe you are thinking that doing so is beyond your reach,

that branding is a concept for the Big Boys. Think again. Branding is

something you can and should do, too.

Branding Background

You could not have picked a better time to start or to own a small business

because a variety of factors have coalesced to make this a new era

for small business, an exciting new era full of potential. Big business

used to have the inside track over small business because of their

greater resources. Bigger used to be better, but no longer. Little is the

new big. Three things have changed the landscape in your favor:

1. A change in thought. What the business world has come to see is

that smaller is quicker, more innovative, more entrepreneurial, and

better able to adapt to increasing change. Bigger can be slower,

plodding, boring, and bureaucratic. More and more, big business

sees the power of small.

2. The information/computer/technological revolution. This revolution

means that small businesses can look much bigger than they actually

are, and no one need know. Between computers, laser

printers, cell phones, PDAs, faxes, and great software, any small

business can look big.

3. A growing market. More and more, big businesses are seeing the

power and market potential of small businesses and are catering to

that market. As such, ideas and tools once considered the private

domain of large businesses are being offered to, and used by, small

businesses. Evidence: Staples, a plethora of small business software,

and Kinko’s.

Creating Your Brand

If you want to succeed in business, you, too, will need to create an

identifiable brand. Boiled down to its basics, a brand is the essence of

what makes your business unique. It combines your name, logo, and

purpose into an identifiable whole. It is your image, based on reality.

Your brand is your business identity, your unique position in the market.

Are you the upscale restaurant, the holistic market, the geeky

computer consultant, or what? Without a brand, you may find that

instead of being all things to all people, you are nothing to no one. A

brand is a hook to hang your hat on so that people remember you.

Nike? That swoosh and Just Do It come to mind. That is the gold

standard that we are aiming for.

You begin to create a brand by carefully thinking about what your

business is, what makes it unique, who your customers are, and what

they want. Deciding upon a brand is vital because many other decisions

will hinge on this one. Your name, logo, slogan, even the location you

choose and your pricing structure depend on the brand you are trying

to create. A discount motorcycle warehouse will put things together far

differently from a Harley showroom.

Your Name

For the small business, what you name your business will have as much

to do with extending your brand as anything else. Because you will not

have the sort of budget required to create brand awareness in the general

public as large companies do, one of your best chances of creating

a favorable image is with your name when people first hear it. If you are

creating a restaurant, Aunt Suzy’s Food Emporium creates a much different

image from Susan’s Brasserie.

When naming your business, you have two choices. Either choose

a name that explains exactly what the business is and what benefits it

offers, or choose a name that has nothing to do with the business at

all. The latter category includes names like Xerox, Amazon.com, and

Kodak. While interesting, the problem of course is that if you don’t

have enough money to get people to remember the name of your

business, instead of a memorable, quirky name, all you are left with is

a quirky name.

The other option is almost always preferable for the small business.

This process involves coming up with the benefits your business offers

the public, and naming the business after that. Examples here include

Jiffy Lube, Baja Fresh, or Quickee Mart. Choosing a name that creates

awareness of your business benefits can go a long way to creating a

brand that people remember.

So there are two important things to consider when naming your

business. The first is the image and brand you want to create. The thing

about a successful brand is that there is consistency across the boardâ€”

the image and colors and location and logo and pricing all reinforce one

another. If you are creating an upscale, Italian furniture store, you need

a location, prices, and a name that reflect the image you are trying to

create. Maria’s Discount Italy probably won’t cut it, but Maria’s Casa

d’Italia might. See?

The second factor, aside from the name, is, as indicated, the benefit

someone would get by patronizing your business. The best name would

be one that combines the image you want to create with a perceived

benefit: NetFlix, or Discount Warehouse, or Speedy Linguine.