Awhat exactly is branding? How do you brand? What is your brand? Is there such thing as bad branding? I understand the general conceptbut I am not sure of the specifics
AFrom my limited understanding branding is basically telling people who you are, what you do or offer the average consumer, why would I come to you over someone else? What's your competitive edge?
Direct quote from online article, "Branding is the process of building a positive collection of perceptions about your business in your customers' minds."
There are different types of brands; products-coke or Pepsi, personality-Martha Stewart, business-Disney, etc.
Branding means using a cohesive representation of your business and includes everything from logos, fonts, packaging, signage, etc. There is definitely good and bad branding as well as incomplete branding because people/companies don't take the time to consider everything as one message and instead piecemeal things together over time.
As an example, bad branding would be having an ultra-modern (sleek/clean) aesthetic but use a handwritten script font with pastel colors in your images. These things conflict with each other. It would also be bad to use a different logos in various materials (i.e. completely different designs on your boxes vs. your business cards vs. your exterior store signage). Good branding means someone will recognize a material as distinctly yours; you are crafting a consistent image so whenever someone sees "your" colors they'll immediately associate it with your brand, whether or not your company name is visible. Think of the Nike Swoosh-you don't need to see the word Nike to know what the swoosh represents or alternatively, the Tiffany blue box. That color screams Tiffany, no matter whether you're looking at a box, fabric, a piece of candy, etc. THAT is good branding.
The best advice I would give to anyone starting their own business is to spend the time to think about all of the things that will advertise (directly or indirectly) your business and make sure the message is consistent. Do NOT get generic Vistaprint freebie business cards in blue, plain cardboard boxes with red ribbons, a hand stamper in black ink with a swirly font and put a big pink sign outside your door. You're losing a huge opportunity to create a meaningful, memorable image for yourself.
That being said, you can spend thousands of dollars with a designer creating your branding, which may be more realistic for a brick & mortar retail space or you can do a lot of it yourself by making careful choices about what you want your business to represent and following a consistent theme.
From my limited understanding branding is basically telling people who you are, what you do or offer the average consumer, why would I come to you over someone else? What's your competitive edge?
Direct quote from online article, "Branding is the process of building a positive collection of perceptions about your business in your customers' minds."
There are different types of brands; products-coke or Pepsi, personality-Martha Stewart, business-Disney, etc.
It's not so much about communicating your competitive edge because most of branding is non-verbal. It is definitely more of the "perception about your business" which is conveyed through your use of colors, logos, fonts, lighting/shading, shapes, etc. Are you quirky, casual, formal, super-detailed, homestyle, high-end, etc.
Once you decide how you want people to perceive you, everything you use to advertise or package your products needs to communicate that same feeling.
AThis article explains the concept of branding better than I can: http://www.blackcoffee.com/brand-related/brand-articles/what-is-branding
It contains what is probably the best definition I've seen for branding: "managing consumers’ expectations so as to condition your target audience to see your offering as the only answer to a specific need."
For my bakery, I approached branding by creating a business name and logo that includes my competitive advantage, publicizing the business and meeting directly with my target market to garner goodwill, and including the logo on all business cards, packaging, invoices, etc. This also includes providing a consistent experience for all customers, from when you first take their order to when they take possession of their cake.
For businesses without a retail storefront the web site will often be the first point of contact, so it should be a point of focus to ensure you give customers a clear message quickly (what you do, how you are different, your mission, etc.).
AIt's basically how you present yourself - say for example you call your bakery Sue's Party Cakes and your logo is in bright, primary colors and in a cartoon type font - and then you wonder why you never get any wedding cake bookings. You branded yourself as a kids birthday cake place right off the bat.
Everybody likes cakes but they also want to know the brand. All good brands bakeries uses delicious natural cream and ingredients and make cake so beautiful. And the experience of chef also matters for making the brand of your company
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