The backbone to all marketing success and to any great company image is the company’s brand. Being a marketing professional, a brand is something that rules my life; all my dreams and daily activities revolve around brands. I recently found out that the idea of a “brand” is scary to most small business owners and it really isn’t understood what a brand actually is or how it is created. I will try to break it down for you to an understandable key function of your business.

At the turn of the 19^th Century, when cattle ranches were as far as the eye could see, cattle ranchers were faced with two problems 1) they were having problems keeping track of their herd if they were to stray onto another ranch, 2) they needed to differentiate their cattle from the competition when sale time came. To remedy this problem, cattle ranchers started to burn an image into the hind end of their cattle with their ranch’s insignia, a brand. These logos or brands, helped the ranchers identify whose cattle were who’s if they were to stray, and also allowed the buyers to know the quality of the cattle they were getting when they bought. For example, the “Circle J” brand might have meant that the cattle were well fed with little fat and the “Double T” brand might be a low quality cattle that was nothing but skin and bones.

These brands, created by burning an image into the cattle themselves, began to take on a meaning of their own. As time went on, the buying community began to look for certain brands when making their purchase, which is what we call today, brand loyalty.

Now that you know a little of the history of the idea of a brand, let’s bring it back to your company. The brand starts with the core message or essence of a company. What does your company stand for? Do you want to portray quality, service, price, honesty, integrity, etc.? This will allow you to create a compelling logo that will portray this in a modern day “brand” (without the harming of any cows). Certain colors, shapes, numbers, letters, pictures, will elicit certain feelings and emotions from certain segments of the market. So when creating your logo, use the help of a Graphic Designer or marketing agency to ensure it is created correctly. Also, test it with your target market, make sure it is portraying what you want it to portray.

With the logo created, we need to use the same message that the logo portrays throughout the entire organization and all marketing efforts. Your website, marketing collateral, business cards, etc. need to all look the same and have the same feeling. This will, over time, create brand recognition in the market. The more the market sees your brand, the more recognizable it will become, creating Brand Awareness.

Finally, we need to create an Operational Branding system by using our processes, customer service, client contact, etc. to enhance the power of the brand. This means, that every time a customer or potential customer comes in contact with your organization, your brand message is being portrayed. This will require training for your employees to make sure they all understand the core message of the company and what is trying to be portrayed.

As you can see the brand is an integral part of any company and should not be taken lightly. In conclusion, branding is simple:

·         Identify Your Company’s Core Message 
·         Create a Logo That Will Portray This Message Correctly
·         Test the Logo in the Market
·         Make Sure the Brand is Continuous Throughout the Company and Marketing
·         Perform Operational Branding Techniques to Enhance Brand Power

Paul Miser is the President of Miser Advertising and Marketing, an International Marketing Strategy and Branding Agency in San Diego County. Miser Advertising is a full-service marketing agency that acts as a complete marketing department for small businesses in the San Diego area and the World. You can reach Paul Miser by emailing him at pmiser@miserad.com.