Corporate Branding

Corporate branding can create an identity for a company that empowers its reputation and staying power among a hugely competitive global marketplace. Creating a standpoint not only against your competitors but for your company is a vital exercise. An inadequate marketing or branding strategy can hurt your core business in a way that is unparalleled to any other marketing downfall. Much of the work involved in developing a strong business brand is through the efforts of directors, CEO’s and senior management. This involves mainly the target audience, the companies’ identity and involvements and how this can be conveyed to the world, simply yet effectively.
Corporate Branding is made up of many components and is different to corporate identity, and in some ways more important. Without effective branding, a company’s identity is not worthy. There are three main components which create an effective brand and these are as follows:

1. A company’s colours and logo
2. What the company sells and their target audience
3. How they sell their products to their target audience

The senior management is the decision maker for all business related choices such as the corporation’s colours, logo and demographics relating to who buys their products or services. It is then up to the marketing team to sell the concepts and information about the company to the targeted demographics. So how can a marketer use this information to contribute to a branding strategy? The first suggestion is relevance.

When choosing items to convey a brand, do so with relevance to what the company sells. If you are marketing for a freight forwarding business for example, it may be useful to have a simple logo printed on promotional items that reflect the courier side of the business. Get key rings, magnets and notepads, die cut into the shape of a truck, and have your corporate colours printed on them with your marketing message.

Have all of your offices decked out with coffee mugs printed with your corporate logo even down to computer mice, with little truck floaters in them. Everything that is used by employees should be reflective of the company’s brand. Even down to fine details such as a courier driver delivering goods, apart from his uniform, his clipboard, cap and the pen that the customer signs with, should all have branding of the corporate logo. These small details are often overlooked by businesses trying to establish a brand, they believe that if they have the uniform, the decorated trucks and some letterheads, that they are establishing a brand. In a small way, this is justified, but it does not take into account all of the factors that make a brand stand out from the competition. So why do the little things matter? First of all if every corner of a brand is covered from an employee to prospective clients, the company appears to be everywhere and exposure is a very important factor when you are ready for awareness. Secondly, your business portrays itself as one who is organize and detailed. Even if it is on a subconscious level, everyone does notice the fine details. Take an example of two businesses and we will use our existing example of freight companies. One of the company’s is reputable based on word of mouth, has been around the block a few times and really knows its stuff, when it comes to freight. They have taken the steps to ensure they have a brand, when they were established in 1987 and stick to those colours today. The philosophy with branding is that they are established, have a good reputation and don’t really need to spend money on merchandise or promotional products, as their identity will get them through, it always has. The second freight business is a new kid on the block; they have only been in the industry for a couple of years. They project an innovative and unique image with their branding strategy and do not cut any corners. All of their employees are decked out with the same pristine uniforms, all branded of course, with everything in both their offices and trucks containing a decorated image of their logo. They have promotional pens, clipboards, notepads, promotional caps, key rings and boxes with their brand clearly displayed in their crisp blue corporate colours. Within two years they have a turn over that exceeds that of their established competitor and attributes this to their commitment to creating a powerful and clean brand.

While these are mere examples of the power of creating a brand, they do exemplify the importance of not cutting corners and making sure that your brand expresses your identity, after all this is what your clients have faith in isn’t it? Yes your products and services are good, but so are thousands of others, a great brand thinks about their target market and what they believe in to purchase something. The biggest factor about brands is creating confidence. You can do this, focus on all aspects including the little things. How can you do this? We have you covered, with thousands of promotional products at our disposal, the sky is the limit. If you would like to contact us to discuss brand development, simply contact us by phone or email and we would be happy to assist you in developing strategies and products to enhance or establish your brand.