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Read time: 02'17''
28 September 2022
Building your brand and establishing a reputation
Unsplash © Mike Petrucci

Building your brand and establishing a reputation

When your business begins to get on its feet, you'll want to establish your reputation among your customer base, and building a memorable brand is one of the ways to do so. In a rapidly-shifting economy, people are turning to companies that they know and can rely on, so ensuring you get a foothold in the minds of your clients through clear and effective branding will help you during these challenging times.

We look at how to create a distinguishable brand that will give your business stable foundations.

Research the market

What are your competitors doing? What is the demographic of your customer base, and what kind of company will they want to work with? You will want your brand to reflect your audience’s expectations so they can quickly associate your branding with your services.

Hire the professionals

It’s best to hire the professionals when it comes to drafting and finalising your brand. You may be fortunate enough to have logo designers and graphics experts in-house, but if not, don’t leave branding to the amateurs. The cost of professional branding services are cheap when you consider how long you’ll be using your logo and associated materials for. Provide your branding team with all of the information you have gathered and engage with them throughout the drafting and finalising process.

Make an Impact

If you’re using branding to make your business memorable and establish your reputation, you need to ensure you make an impact. Use colours and fonts to ensure your business sticks in the mind of your clients.

Use your brand

Once you have your logo and branding completed, be sure to use it everywhere. The aim of your brand is to make sure your company is recognised, so use your brand digitally on social media pages, your website and on your online marketing, as well as offline on clothing, shop fronts, custom printed canopies, van wrapping and decals, and everything else.

Synergise with your brand

It’s not just as simple as uploading your logo to a few websites. You will want a seamless design throughout all of your company’s materials. Ensure that your website, banners, leaflets and other marketing materials use the same colour scheme, font and design choices as your logo and branding, and consider what else you could alter to improve brand synergy. Perhaps you could appear at trade shows and conferences in uniform, with your clothes, your exhibition stand, your gazebo and even your stationary in the company’s colours?

Gather Feedback

Like everything else in business, branding can be fluid and can respond to customer preferences, especially in its earliest stages. Brands that feel as solid as granite, such as Coca Cola or Nike, have gone through many iterations of their logos, with early examples looking unrecognisable, and their branding and designs are still continually changing. When was the last time you saw Ronald McDonald?

Build from these foundations

With this strong branding, and with a satisfied customer base that recognises your brand and associates it with quality services, you can build from your foundations and grow from strength to strength. Who knows – maybe one day, your current branding and logo could be one of the most identifiable images in the world!

Steven Carruthers is a branding expert who directs Oxnorth, a leading supplier of gazebos, patio heaters, printed canopies and related products in the UK and Ireland. Catch them on LinkedIn!