At this point, we hope you know just how important branding is and the influence it has on your bottom line. It’s easy to try to dismiss branding as some super expensive task that only the “big players” can afford. Unfortunately, that’s how your small business stays small. Regardless of your business size, branding done right can increase value, give your employees direction and motivation, and gain new customers!

1. Your Business Identity is Important

Your branding strategy includes creating a name, a logo or design that should be easily identifiable and belongs specifically to your company. This helps to identify your product in the marketplace and to stand out from other competitors.

Branding is important because it makes a memorable impression on your customers. It allows your customers to know what to expect from your company. Think of it as a business first date!

2. Create Trust

All good relationships start with trust! When your company presents itself in a professional way, and when you have social proof to back up that your products and services offered are good quality; customers will trust your company and feel comfortable doing business with you!

3. Branding is the Key to Your Marketing Efforts

The platforms you chose as well as the demographic you target help to build your brand. Do not be afraid to put in the extra effort to do a market analysis to figure out your target demographic. The last thing you want to do is waste your time and money. You do not want to have too narrow of a marketing focus, and risk being pigeon holed to a certain population. On the other hand, too broad of a marketing focus can lead to a lack of focus and an inability to create a definable impression of your company. Know who you want as customers!

4. Improve Employee Pride

Employees that work for a well-branded company and truly stand behind the brand’s beliefs will be more satisfied with their job and have more pride in the work that they do. Having a strong brand is essential for employee morale and productivity.

5. Generate New Revenue

Branding is one of the most effective ways to get referrals or word-of-mouth business. Therefore, it’s important to be consistent in your message. Make sure that your logo, marketing, and reputation all work together to form an identifiable impression in your costumers’ minds. Let’s go back to the first date analogy, give them something to remember, so they want a second date!

Those are the basics of WHY you need to have solid branding, so here are a few tips to your stellar branding endeavors:

· Always keep your customers in mind, their wants, their needs, and their desires.

· Keep your message focused on your business value and why they should choose you.

· Use Emotion, an emotional connection goes a long way in business and drives most purchase decisions.

No matter what size they are, the most successful businesses are ones that have established themselves as a leader in their industry by creating a strong brand. With that in mind… let’s take a look at a few businesses who run a truly tight branding game!

1.

Number one is no surprise here… Nike and their swoosh are nothing short of iconic! The Swoosh logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson in 1971 –for a whopping $35! The swoosh was created in 1971, so that’s just shy of 50 years. Nike continues to go strong with a logo that is recognized worldwide! Nike has kept steady with its ”swoosh”, though some minor stylistic and text changes have been made.

2.

Coca-Cola has had minimal changes to their logo since, wait for it, 1890! Coca-Cola has done so well with their branding; most people refer to all carbonated beverages as a “coke”! That’s impressive branding! Despite straying from cursive writing a time or two, Coca-Cola always seems to come back to it. Red has been a fixture since 1950 and beyond. The “New Coke,” introduced in 1985, had a new formula, marketing, and its own set of logos. This left a bad taste in their consumers’ mouths. Today’s Coca-Cola logo is amazingly similar to what it was 124 years ago.

3.

Apple has used a bitten into Apple as their logo since the beginning, except for a short lasting rather odd logo of a depiction of Sir Isaac Newton. That was quickly scrapped. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he realized that the Apple logo could be leveraged to the company’s advantage. In order to move into a new direction, instead of placing a small rainbow-colored Apple logo on its products, Apple began placing sizable and Monochrome styled logos on its products What’s most impressive is Apple continues to come up with the most cutting-edge products in technology and the minimally changed simplistic Apple logo continues to be associated with sleek, clean design, technology. Despite some color and other minor changes, the logo has remained relatively unchanged since the company’s inception in 1976.

4.

The golden arches. Who doesn’t recognize that? It’s such a simply designed logo, but everyone from an early age knows what the golden arches are, McDonald’s got this logo right! From 1968 till 2003, the McDonald’s logo went through some revisions. However, the largest change was the “I’m lovin’ it’ campaign that started in June 2003. This has become one of the most successful marketing campaigns in McDonald’s history. ‘I’m lovin’ it’ has become a worldwide slogan for McDonald’s.

5.

1. The Starbucks logo is widely regarded as one of the most popular and instantly recognizable logos in history. Nothing says coffee like a green and white mermaid with flowing hair, right? But, boy does this logo work. It works so well in fact, in 2011 the company name was taken out of the design!

What companies do you feel have the best branding campaigns? Let us know your favorites!