Reinvent your business with branding. Even a town did.

Even a town uses branding to reinvent itself for tourist.

Shrewsbury, a British town, doesn’t have one single, overriding thing it’s known for--like a music festival, or a market, for example. And that’s made it difficult to market the bustling, historic British village to potential homeowners and tourists. So, earlier this year, the town council hired a design firm for a branding initiative. In response, the design team devised an unusual visual identity that goes beyond the typical boilerplate logo-and-color-scheme branding package.

The lame and overly used PowerPoint presentation would be useless. It needed good ideas and practical things that everyone in the town could use.

Branding builds repeat business

Build Repeat Business

If your brand doesn’t prompt people to come back to you for more, how in the world will it have any longevity? That means you must make sure your brand truly connects with your target audience and that you continue to expand its appeal beyond its original buyers. Also, as Disney makes clear, you need to be your toughest critic. If you’re not honest enough to confront your brand’s weaknesses and find ways to continually improve your delivery, you’re not giving folks the motivation to keep buying from you.

Twinkies may not, in reality, last forever…but their brand just might, and so can yours. We should all aim to build a brand with the lasting value of America’s favorite snack--but maybe with a little more nutritional value.

Building a timeless brand through your employees

2. Employees as an Emotional Engine

Disney calls its theme park employees their “cast members,” and they all receive careful instructions on how they should present themselves to Disney guests. To quote the Disney institute, “Brand loyalty…is seen as a reciprocal relationship, beginning with us. Each cast member, regardless of rank, understands that we must be loyal to our customers to receive loyalty in return.”

Similarly, the people who work for you, or even vendors who interact with the general public on your behalf, should act as ambassadors of your “brand story” with points of difference in their presentations that set you apart from the competition. Beyond that, your products should be packaged and labeled in a manner that also extends your brand story.

More to come

Building a timeless brand

If a brand is carefully built, however, it can be strong enough to sustain almost any bad press. So--how can you make sure your personal brand is up to the Twinkie standard? Here are a few tips, courtesy of The Disney Institute, that lead to long-lasting success.

1. The Emotional Connection

The strongest way you can bond your audience to your brand is through emotion, and the best way to create that emotional component is through storytelling. When you frame your brand’s story in the right way, you reach people on a very deep level.

Twinkies, by the way, are fortunate in the fact that most of us have already crafted our own Twinkie brand story in our heads. Because they’ve been around so long, we all grew up with them; they were an integral part of many a childhood lunch. That’s why the thought of them not being around anymore elicited so much panic.

More to come...

How Is a Brand Expressed?

Depending on your business, branding can mean very different things. If you’re in the service industry, for instance, you may need to give more attention to the point of delivery, such as customer service and employee uniforms, than to the logo or website. If your business is international, you’ll need to take cultural and linguistic implications into account. And if your business exists predominantly online, there’s the issue of how your branding will work in digital environments.

What is a brand?

So What Is a Brand?

Your brand is how you communicate the essence of your business. Many think branding is simply a logo plus typefaces and color palettes, but that’s only part of it. It’s also your business name, the products or services you provide, and how you deliver them to your consumer. It’s the idea you create in your audience’s mind about who you are and what you do. It’s this idea of your brand that’s so powerful, and prompts your customers to choose you over a rival. Take a look at AT&T old and new branding and how it's used in an advertising campaign.

Mark Cuban's 6 Key Tips For Business Success

Once upon a time, Mark Cuban was not rich. It may be hard for people, especially sports fans, to imagine, but it's true. Once upon a time, he was a young Pittsburgh native just trying to make it in the world.

There are millions of Americans today trying to make it like Cuban, whose net worth, according to Forbes, is $2.5 billion. The business mogul and entrepreneur knows there are others who have the potential to hit it big in business. And he has some advice for them.

Tip No. 1: You don't know everything
In the egotistical world of business, it is easy to get overconfident. Cuban himself was fired from an early job at Your Business Software in Dallas when he went to close a deal at the same time he should have been opening the door.

"When I first got started, I thought I knew everything or that if I didn't know it, I could figure it out in a heartbeat," Cuban told ThePostGame. "I worked hard to learn the things I didn't know, but over the years, I've come to the realization, there are some things I just don't know and that's OK."

Tip No. 2: If you don't know something, seek help
Again, Cuban warns others of being overconfident. Many people think they can do it all, but human error prevents anyone from being perfect. Prospective businessmen and entrepreneurs must expect holes in their knowledge. They must learn to trust others.

"The things I don't know, it's a lot better if I just recognize and accept it and go find someone who can fill that skillset, fulfill that knowledge and complement what I can do," Cuban said. "When I first got started, I tried to do it all."

Tip No. 3: Everyone has ideas
Congratulations, people of the world. Everyone on the planet has come up with some idea they think would make life easier. It's natural.

Branding helps you grow your business

For many small businesses, branding is one of the most overlooked and underestimated business tools. While many business owners may think of a brand as a logo - it’s really much more. A strong brand represents the essence of your company, a clear statement of what your company is and what differentiates you. And it can have a big impact on your business. A strong brand can help you compete with much larger organizations.

One key to building a strong brand is authenticity, which can begin with developing a brand mission that captures the “why” of your business and then delivering on that mission.

Consistency is also imperative. It’s critical that you communicate your brand through every customer experience, every day. Virgin America is a good example. Their branding extends across various touchpoints – from the logo on the planes to the extra touches like snacks and blankets on flights – you see how creating those consistent ties can make the brand even more memorable to customers.

Branding is more than design. Good branding extends into other areas, like how you handle customer service or innovate products or services. The rebranding process can raise the bar for everything you do, like how you present yourself, how you greet visitors. It’s like getting a makeover; you start looking for other areas to improve.

Richard Brandson on customer service

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When you are making a decision about how best to serve your customers, your own experience is often a better guide than a more sophisticated analysis of the market. — Richard Branson, Billionaire Entrepreneur

Question: How does Virgin manage to deliver impeccable customer service that at times seems to be above and beyond the norm while keeping prices competitive? And why is it that so many other businesses only seem to be able to deliver either low prices with no service, or high prices for good service?

Rebranding American Airline

The “uninvited redesign” has become a fixture on the Internet over the past few years.

It’s even become a way for established agencies to secure work. In 2011, Boulder ad agency Victors & Spoils did a hypothetical rebrand for Harley Davidson that helped them nab the actual gig. And this spring, upon news that American Airlines would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,

Welcome to Brand Design

Every single business faces the very same conundrum – when you’re busy servicing customers, you’re very likely not spending time marketing and promoting your brand. Strong branding is a necessity for any business. There are three primary goals we try to achieve. The first goal is to create beautiful brand which includes identity, stationery system, packaging, advertising and website. The second goal is to create multiple ways for people who need your services or products, to find you and engage with you online via social media. The third goal is to convert these people into paying customers via ecommerce. With your consistency and diligence, it will become a long term approach to optimizing your online presence and building relationships across multiple online channels. Eventually you will find the right online marketing mix for your growing business.

We have extensive experience in all aspects of branding such as branding identity, branding system, advertising, visual design, mobile friendly website, ecommerce, blog, marketing, social media, packaging, and all things that promote products and services. Thank you for stopping by.