Has the economy hit your business hard to where your brand is suffering? Are you looking for ways to extend your brand so that you can grow your business? Then lets look at ways you can extend your brand.
Brand extension is the process of using different avenue to promote your business. According to Wikipedia.org…
Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category.
So let’s look at a few example of companies who have been successful in creating a brand extension:

Eddie Bauer: clothes, automobile …read more

Having good branding habits for your business is important. Good branding habits should be incorporated into your business to help communicate your brand message and increase brand awareness.
Being able to piece together how you will communicate your brand to your target customers is important. Just as the image to the right shows, every piece counts. In branding, good habits count and can help you successfully communicate your brand.
Below are a list of good branding habits that can help as you communicate your brand message.

Incorporate your brand message on all your promotional items.
Have a common message when communicating with others
In your …read more

Are you a business owner who decided to partner up with another business owner to create a business? Did you keep your original business or merge it into the new business? It’s interesting to hear the answers to these two questions because I have found that some business owners don’t keep a separate identity from the combined business.
What I mean by this is that when you develop a partnership by merging with another business owner that you should try to work into the agreement that you will keep some type of autonomy for your original business. You can view this as a …read more

One thing that a good brand message can do is last through time. When people look back in time at commercials or your brand, will your brand message be easily recognized? It a good sign that you have a good brand message if it can stand the test of time like “Just Do It” by Nike or “Where’s the beef” by Wendy’s.
Recently, I watched a very touching movie called “The Express” which was a featured movie about the life of football star Ernie Davis. The most amazing thing about Ernie is that he lived only 23 years and even though …read more

Does your online branding strategy reach your target customers without a lot of effort on your end? Have you developed a strategy that can flow without you having to handhold the entire process? Then congratulations on a job well done.
If however your online branding strategy requires a lot of effort or handholding from you then the follow tips just might be what you need to help you build your plan.

Start with a plan: develop a plan that will incorporate your goals, mission and brand so that you can have a synergized branding.
Create a team: have a support team in place to help you …read more

One of the things that I love to do is travel and learn about new places. As I travel, I have to admit that I checkout how businesses deliver their brand messages in airports. As you walk along, you can’t help but to see the signs and billboards encouraging you to spend your money in their establishment.
So as I sit in the airport and look at the advertisements, below are some of the branding tips that I thought would be helpful to other business owners as they have been to me:

Unique signage. Make sure that when you develop your signs …read more

Viral, according to Webster.com, is caused by a virus which normally would be a bad thing. But when it comes to marketing or branding, it is a very good thing.
Viral marketing or branding is the process of taking your business branding message and having it catch-on and spread to your target customer with success. At the bottom of the image above, there are five key areas that you should include into your viral campaign:

Involve your support team and affiliates to help increase exposure
Create a campaign that will reach your target customers
Discuss with those you are accountable too so you can get …read more

Do you need to review your branding strategy and prune it or remove some of the tasks that you have been implementing to brand your business? Are there things that are no longer working that need to either be adjusted or deleted? Regardless of what you need to do to prune, make sure that you put much thought into it.
In the planting or gardening world, pruning is the process of trimming off part of a plant or tree. As in the picture to the right, once a tree is pruned, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to grow. As a …read more

Have you attended trade shows and notice that all the booths usually have free give-aways such as USBs or caps which are branded with their logo? Have you done the same with your own business by offering freebies to potential customers which are branded with your logo? It’s a really great way to make an impression on potential customers.
Case in point, one of my businesses have a heart as part of its branding so I found a USB that is shaped like a heart. This USB heart will be branded with my business information and will make my gift unique …read more

If you are a startup business owner and you have been looking for branding information then you have come to the right place. The purpose of this column is to help bring unique information to readers that will help you develop a success brand.
When it comes to branding a startup business, one of the things that can help you develop your brand is understanding the basics of branding. Some of the basics of branding are listed below in a starter list:

Have a professional graphic designer develop your business logo.
Research your industry so that you can learn what it will take …read more