What is most important to consider when it comes to brandingdevelopment for your business? Whether you are a huge multinationalorganization, or a small home business, branding will be of crucial importance,and can make a very significant difference to the success of the company.


For new businesses starting up, the concept of branding canseem exciting -and indeed, it can be a lot of fun. However, this is also anaspect of your business which needs to be treated seriously, and it will beimportant to consider a range of aspects.


By considering a wide range of aspects of corporatebranding, you will be able to ensure that your business retains a consistentimage throughout the marketplace. There can be no doubt that confusing brandingcan be highly damaging, no matter how clever the concept was in the firstplace.


One of the starting places which it might be worthconsidering is to check out the branding ideas pursued by your competitors. Tounderstand how they have arrived at the branding images they have developedprovides you with an appreciation of how you might be able to market yourselfdifferently. It will be important to ensure that your company is seen as being,not only distinct from your rivals, but also more professional. Copying ideasof branding styles from your rivals does not make you the market leader, andcan often lead to confusion; confusion in turn often leads to loss of sales andcustomers.


Piggyback branding is where a company launches a product orcorporate branding image which is deliberately designed to look very similar toa known, successful brand which has already reached a wide audience andestablished a name for itself. The idea being that by creating products or abrand image that is similar, people will either purchase your products inerror, or assume that they are of similar quality. Orientals are masters atthis type of branding.


This is dangerous territory. There are few success storieswhen it comes to piggyback branding. The only market that can safely achievethis is perhaps in supermarket own-brand items. Where supermarkets packagetheir own brand to look very similar to the leading product, but at a muchlower price, they are often able to achieve much greater profit margins. Peopleare rarely confused into buying their product, but it does help to drawattention to the own-brand items. That is one of the major objectives ofadvertising: the ultimate being to make a recurring sale.


In other areas of the retail and service industries this canbe very tricky, and is rarely advised. Ensuring your own distinct brand imageallows you to establish yourself as distinct, unique and able to provide aservice or quality of product which is good enough in itself not to need abranding development which relies on confusion or mimicry to succeed.


Having said that, there are certain markets where themedbrandings have taken off rather well, and in these fields it will be helpful tounderstand the trends being used. If a branding trend has succeeded, customerswill be aware of this and will frequently start scanning for particular colors,styles of themes.


Think of the colors used for gaming consoles for example.Silver and black are dominant themes used in many products and labels, withgreen and blue used often as secondary colors. This is no coincidence since thecolors evoke impressions of sturdy space age metal, NASA technology andfuturistic styles. Developing a brand quite distinct from this could workeither for or against you. Creating a brand which ties in with a known theme,and with a successful visual style, can help you to be seen as a significantpart of the market.


On the other hand, heading off in a new direction in termsof style and color could work in your favour, with the impression being impliedthat your technology is different, and is heading off in a new direction. Beingable to support these claims will be important of course.


Frozen foods often use blue and white within the theme toevoke ideas of ice-cold environments, whereas hot salsa products will invariablybe packaged in warm reds and oranges with a general sense of heat.


These are just small examples of how the market has oftendeveloped successful branding styles which will be important to cash in on formaximum success. It might be an interesting experiment to try selling frozenfood packaged in red and salsa sauce in blue and white, but it could end upbeing a very expensive one!


 

In terms of successful branding development you will need to consider the name of the company, and there again the same ideas apply. In piggyback branding, the name, and even the font used in the advertising campaign, could mimic a known rival or established brand. However, there are also many well-established styles and themes which work well and are worth considering. To go with the flow or to break away - it's a tough decision.


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