What Is Branding?

Branding is building an identity for your company, product or service. It is defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers."

Developing your brand helps your company to:

• create a consistent message for your audience
• confirm credibility
• answer key messages about you

It also helps your prospects to quickly identify you and associate your company name or symbol with select positive messages.

These key messages should relay important concepts about your product/service. Does your product make the pain go away? Save money? Save time? Make you look younger? These are a few examples, but you get the idea.

Once you identify your key message(s) your branding should keep reminding prospects of this, whether it's on a sales call or just a fax. Your key message should be related the same way, each time. So if it's the president who is relaying it, or the 98th customer service representative - consistency is key. Branding takes place every day, not just within your advertising campaign, or on your website. All messages should tie together concisely and clearly.

If each department within your company has its own interpretation of how to relate your key messages, then there might be confusion on the part of prospects, and even your customers - about what you stand for, or who you are targeting. A simple survey to learn more about how your audience perceives you would be a good first step in finding out what messages are "out there" that might need to be corrected.

When branding, a good place to start is at home. Putting together a branding guidebook for your staff is a smart first step. This outlines your mission statement, your key messages and goals, and even how your logo should appear in print and online. It's all about defining yourself, and building on your key messages. This exercise may reveal unanswered questions about your company that have been cause for confusion.

Keep your message simple and clear, and you're on your way to developing a solid brand.