If you’re starting your own business, it’s vital to understand the importance of branding.

It’s all about creating an identity for your company and ensuring that your audience recognises it.

In this post, we’ll take you through what branding means and give examples of simple and affordable ways you can boost your company’s profile.

What is branding?

In short, branding is about visually describing to your customers what your business and products are all about — it’s a distinctive identity that they will recognise instantly.

Good corporate branding is important because:

• It stimulates sales.
• It builds customer loyalty.
• It focuses your mission as a company.
• It creates a strong and loyal employee culture.
• It helps attract talent to work in your company.
• It makes you stand out from your competitors.

And it can be expressed in a variety of ways — for example:

• Your corporate colours
• Your logo
• The tone of language you use
• Your company uniform
• Your packaging

How do I create a brand?

If you’re starting your business from scratch, here are the steps you need to take to create your brand.

1. Do your research

Research your competitors and your target audience. This will help you understand what the market looks like for your sector right now.

Check out social media, conducting surveys, reading reviews of your competitors’ services, researching community forums and even asking your family and friends about their opinions.

Your goal is to know what people are buying, why they’re buying it, how they perceive the brands they’re using and why they’re loyal to them.

2. Understand your identity

Now that you know how your sector works, it’s time to focus in on what your identity is.

Thinking about your corporate values will help you pin this down. For example, if you’re selling a product that can be recycled or is organic, then you will have strong green values. You will need to express this in your branding, such as choosing compostable packaging for your goods.

Think about your brand as a person — how would you describe them? Pick three adjectives like young, fun and hipster if your service or product is appealing to the younger generation or simple, beautiful and peaceful if you’re selling elegant interior accessories.

3. Choose your business name

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time for the fun part — choosing your business name!

Your corporate name should be unique, easy to pronounce and can also reflect your goods or services, though this isn’t essential. For example, if you’re thinking of adding to your product lines in the future, you may want to choose a neutral name.

4. Create a slogan

Now it’s time to create a unique and snappy slogan to use as a tagline in all your promotional material.

The best slogans are memorable because they’re short, clever and catchy — think of Nike’s “Just do it” slogan or Vegemite’s “Tastes like Australia.”

Have fun experimenting with different word combinations or have a brainstorming session with family or colleagues to hit on that killer line.

5. Select your brand identity

To do this, start with colour — it’s an essential part of your brand identity.

Bold colours like red and orange represent passion and energy, while soft greens and earth tones work well for health-focused products.

As part of this stage, you should also choose a font that will work well with your brand. Choose a sans serif font (one that doesn’t have extra strokes) like Helvetica or Proxima Nova for a modern and minimalist feel.

A serif font (with little flourishes, similar to handwriting) like Vienna Modern Serif or Walker will express a sense of timelessness or elegance.

Once you’ve nailed your colours and fonts, it’s time to design a logo. There are lots of different types of logos, from icons, which act as visual metaphors like Twitter’s, to lettermarks that simply use the initials of your business name.

6. Go promote your brand!

Now it’s time to go and promote your brand far and wide!

Apply your branding to all your means of communication — on every page of your website, on social media, in your email signature and on your packaging too.

You can also use it for promotional products to market your company. Choose a wristband in your corporate colours and customised with your slogan, or offer a personalised keep cup and coffee cup band that will be used on a daily basis.

Customers will also appreciate practical items that will keep them organised, like binder bands, which you can personalise with any message about your company.

It’s the little things that count

Creating your corporate branding should be a fun and creative process, and once you’ve nailed your identity, be sure to apply it wherever possible.

That includes the promotional goods that help market your company. For affordable and customisable promo products, check out our range of wristbands, coffee cup bands, keyrings, dog tags and more — it really is the little things that count!

And if you’re in the healthcare sector, head over to our sister site Mediband, where you can find some great ideas for customised healthcare accessories to promote your services.