THOUGHTS ON CREATING A POSITIVE BRAND IMAGE
For any business to become truly successful, it needs
to create
positive brand recognition for its product.
This is especially true in small businesses, where there
may be
thousands of similar companies vying for the customer's
attention. The easiest and most fruitful way to think of
a brand
is as an IMAGE that the audience remembers.
This means that successful branding of a service or
product is a
matter of creating an image that is Positive, Relevant,
and
Memorable.
First and foremost, you want to create an image of your
product
or service (or company, for that matter) that is
positive.
You want to create an emotional association (such as
happiness
or fun) with the product. According to researchers,
there are
two basic ways that you can create these associations.
The first way is through direct experience. In this
approach, a
customer's experience with the product or service
impacts on the
way that they see it -- i.e. a positive experience means
a
positive association. This can be very important if you
are
trying to reach repeat customers.
It is usually hard to use direct experience to brand a
product
or service using just a web site. However, remember that
a
person will often judge your company based on their
experiences
with your web site. Therefore, it is very important that
you
make their experience a favorable one -- one where they
can get
their information quickly and easily.
A second approach to branding that can be used more
easily in a
web environment is to create indirect associations. This
can be
done in a number of ways. The words you choose to
describe your
products, the name you give them, and the
graphics/pictures that
you use on your web site can help to create an emotional
association.
The first step is to determine what qualities you wish
to
project -- do you want to focus on the reliability of
the
product, or the speed, or the money possibilities?
Once you have made this basic, vital decision, then you
need to
look for words, descriptions, and graphics that will
project
these same qualities. If you look at the naming of car
models,
you can see some good examples of this -- A Dakota, for
instance, creates an association of wild ruggedness,
while a
Mustang projects the image of spirit and speed.
Remember that there are also many other factors that
will also
indirectly affect how your company and product are
branded.
The way that you interact with your customers is one of
the most
important of these. Make sure that your company reflects
the
same qualities that you want to have associated with
your
product or service.
Otherwise, you may be sending your customers conflicting
messages. For instance, the name of your product might
be
CHEETAH, but if it takes three weeks for you to respond
to
emails, your brand will probably NOT be associated with
speed!
Branding your product or service can be a difficult
process.
Often, it will take many repetitions of a message before
a brand
becomes recognized. It is therefore very important that
you put
thought into the process before you start selling your
image.
About the author:
Steven Presar provides news and articles regarding
starting or
maintaining a small business at
http://www.Agora-Business-Center.com
And works with individuals
and small business owners who would like to grow their
business
on the Internet at the following site:
http://www.Alliance-Internet-Marketing.com