Branding Basics for Small Business, 2nd Edition: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget

In a way, good branding is an art form and, like any art, it has the power to inspire, delight, anger, provoke, motivate, and entertain.

I’ve always had a personal mission to create brands that change the world. I seek to do this with every client, even if they only reach one hundred people a day. I believe organizations of all sizes can create brands that delight, inspire, and make the world a better place—in big or small ways—while still making stockholders or owners happy.

Since brand is experience, perception, and “mind share,” you’re going to have a brand whether you mean to or not. And every little choice you make or don’t make will affect that brand.

The brand is your own experience of that event.

They carry the added burden of trying to do everything themselves, from scratch, and often forsake branding in their quest to get immediate sales and keep the doors open another month.

Brand is your story, your core purpose, and your customer promise. Brand is your reputation—which ultimately lives in the minds of your customers. Brand is what your customers say it is, not what you say it is, but you can shape and influence it through intentional actions. A clear, consistent brand will shape your business, guide your investments,

Brand communication is a three-legged stool: it is expressed not only visually (in your logo, design, or colors), but verbally (in the words you use or copy you write), and experientially as well.

Advertising is a marketing tactic based on the Brand Strategy. Advertising is but one vehicle to communicate your brand message to the world. Brand positioning should be thought out before you create an advertisement.

This campaign was about empowering our girls, strengthening them, saving them from abuse and self-doubt, and putting them on a healthy path to adulthood. The ad was about equality, opportunity, and challenging yourself.

What can brand do for you? Just as we respect and admire people who know who they are and what they want, brand helps organizations attract the right customers and make sales more easily. Brand clarity attracts customers and brand consistency makes them stick around.