So what's this thing called "branding" that we hear everyone talking about? And most importantly, how important is it to you and the success of your company?   Here's the confusion - if you were to ask ten different "marketing experts" to define branding, you would get ten variations on what branding means and how to properly develop a strong brand. Branding has nothing to do with how you perceive your company. It has everything to do with how your customers and prospects perceive your company. It is a process of differentiating yourself from your competition and making sure your target audience knows why you're different and what they can expect when doing business with you. A brand is the intangible component of your company that gives customers a compelling reason to do business with you, instead of your competition. Sounds fairly simple, but how do you build a strong brand? Unless you have a huge marketing budget to undertake a true branding campaign, you need to take a more realistic, common sense approach to branding your company. Consider an approach that uses your existing marketing promotions, efforts and dollars to continuously contribute to your overall branding effort. Branding includes every aspect of your business and is developed directly from your customers' and prospects' experiences with your company. The following are what we consider to be some of the most important elements to the branding process: Corporate Identity Let's get the most basic requirement out of the way first. All of the materials and messaging (including PR) your company produces must be consistent. This includes your company and product logos, ads, Web site, brochures and other collateral materials, and anything else that delivers your message to your targeted market. From a visual perspective, there should be a distinctive creative style to everything you create. From a messaging perspective, keep your message simple, unique, and consistent. Try not to stray off course. Corporate Philosophy Here's where it gets a little deeper. Developing a true brand is much more than creating ads and Web sites with a similar look and message. Branding is a comprehensive system of developing a corporate philosophy that translates into everything you do. What's it like to do business with you? From the moment a customer calls, walks into your retail location or encounters a salesperson somewhere within the channel, the building of your brand is at work. To create a powerful brand, you must incorporate every aspect of your business process into its branding development. For example, you want to brand yourself as a customer service organization, yet when someone calls your company they get an impersonal voice mail system. How do you think this may affect your brand? The development of a brand does not happen overnight. It is an ongoing process where you are establishing, maintaining and enhancing your company's image, recognition, trust, and comfort level among your customers and prospects at every level of contact. Build a trusted brand and it will pay huge dividends for you. JG -