Branding: the basics

Introduction

Every business wants to be a customer's first choice. Building and managing a brand can play a significant part in making that happen.

The concept of a brand extends far beyond just your company logo, to your business' core values and to every interaction you have with customers and suppliers. In effect, your brand creates and maintains your reputation and so reflects your customers' experiences of your organisation. A brand is really your organisation's reputation - its 'personality'.

Customers and employees can build up emotional attachments to certain brands, allowing for strong loyalties and even a sense of ownership. This can help maintain employee motivation and increase your sales but it can also cause problems if you don't consult these stakeholders as your business grows.

Your brand is what you are really selling to your customers, not just a product or service for which there may already be many existing providers. A strong brand can make any business stand out from the crowd, particularly in competitive markets.

This guide shows you how to create a brand, how to budget for it and how to manage it.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• First steps for creating a brand
• Building your brand
• Managing your brand
• Reviewing your brand
• Budgeting for a brand
• Ten tips on branding
• Here's how I created a brand for my business (Flash video)

Print options - What are my print options - Opens in a new window

• Add guide to my print portfolio (print later as PDF)

Email options - What are my email options - Opens in a new window

• Tell a friend about this page
• Send me an email alert when this guide changes