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 and housewares
• Nike: shoewear and clothing
• Proctor & Gamble: bodycare, health products and housecare products
• Coca-Cola: different soft drinks
• Disney: partnering with food establishment to advertise their movies

These are just a few of the successful brand extensions that major corporation have accomplished. For smaller businesses, you can look into applying the following things.

• Joint venture with someone who is in a different industry to advertise each others products or services.
• Checkout local businesses who may be willing to partner with you to allow you to extend your brand to their products.
• Look into providing freebies with your brand on it to different non-profit organizations.

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Ways To Extend Your Brand

Image: SXC.hu

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 communication with others, whether online or offline, be very professional in that you do not argue with others.
• Make you and your brand know on social media networks such s Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn.
• Look for opportunities to share your brand message online and offline.
• Be consistent when you are communicating your brand message.
• Create brand awareness by looking at possible joint ventures to co-brand.

Each of these branding habits are different ways that you can inject good and effective branding habits into your business. To help you learn more about good and effective branding habits, I have included the video below.

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7 Good and Highly Effective Branding Habits

Image: SXC.hu

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 safeguard in case your partnership ends. Your new partnership can have its own brand message while at the same time you can keep the brand message going for your original business.

Now let me preface the above with the fact that if your new partnership doesn’t allow for you to keep your original business running as is then you should look for ways that you can create a separate business that won’t clash. As you develop your partnership along with the new brand, one of the things you should keep in mind is how you will merge the brand message of both businesses.

To help you understand better how to build your brand with a partnership, I have included the video below that talks about: “When you want corporate partnership, you need to link up who you are, who you are at your authentic core with an organization that reflects the same brand.”

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Branding A Business Partnership

Image: Copyright 1963 by BEN FRANKLIN LITERARY & MED SO

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 he died in 1963, his life’s message is still being shared almost fifty years later.

That life message was “I’m Not Unlucky” which he held onto while facing Leukemia that stopped him from being able to play pro football for the Cleveland Browns in 1962. Even though he faced not being allowed to play with them, he still had a positive attitude which affected many upcoming football player stars to accomplish even greater feats than he did.

When it comes to your brand message, do you have one that will last throughout time? Or did you create a brand message that would be a “one hit wonder”. As you create your brand message, think about how you can make it last throughout time so that it can become memorable like Ernie’s message did, “I’m Not Unlucky”.

What can you do to make your brand message long-lasting or stand the test of time? Glad you asked. Below are a few simple things that you can keep in mind while your create a lasting brand message:

• Make it unique and not about being like other brands.
• Don’t buy into the current trends; be a trend-setter with your brand.
• Research what other successful brands did to make their brand message long lasting and see how you can adapt it to your brand message.
• Obtain input from brand specialist who understand your industry and your company’s brand.

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Ernie Davis: Create A Lasting Brand Message

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 implement your online branding which might  artist, virtual assistant, web designer, etc.
• Offer opportunities to connect: build in networking with your branding strategy so that you can connect with others who might be your target customer or potential joint ventures.
• Realize your potential: determine that you are going to be successful with your branding strategy and realize that you can reach your goals.
• Evaluate your efforts: make sure you monitor your efforts so that you can determine what’s working or not working as part of your branding strategy.

As you develop your online branding strategy, don’t be afraid to be bold and try new things. You never know will or won’t work just know that learning for the steps you take can help you grow personally and professionally.

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Online Branding: What’s Your Plan?

Image: SXC.hu

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 or billboards, make the them uniquely different from the others so that they will stand out.
• Placement. Understand where you can reach your target customers and make sure you advertise there.
• Verbiage. Pick your words wisely so that they convey your brand message while at the same time capture the attention of your target customers.
• Design. Color, color, colors. It is important that you choose colors that are appealing to your target customers so that it will draw their attention.

Using these simple pointers to develop your brand message can help you start with a firm foundation. Take for example the image above. No matter how beat-up the image has become, you can still recognize it as Coca-Cola due to their branding message.

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Branding Tips From The Road

Image: Flickr and Gary Hayes

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 their input for your campaign
• Promote using social media, offline media and your networks
• Measure your efforts so you can make sure that you are making an impact with the campaign

Some additional things that you should keep in mind that could help you have a successful viral marketing or branding campaign are:

• Determine how your will implement your viral campaign.
• Do your research of how viral marketing/branding is handled by others in your industry so that you can see what works and doesn’t work.
• Create a plan that includes your current marketing/brand so that you can continue spreading your brand.
• Use social media networks to give your viral campaign momentum.
• Open up opportunities to affiliates to make money while they help you spread your viral campaign.
• Set a date to launch your campaign so that you will be encouraged to see everything through.

As you implement these simple steps as part of your viral campaign, remember that having a support team help you is a good thing to have in place.

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What Is Viral Marketing and Branding?

Image: SXC.hu

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 matter of fact it looks almost dead. But when you give it time, it will grow into a beautiful willow tree. In applying the term pruning to a branding, this means that you look at your branding strategy to see what needs to be cut back or cut off in order for your brand to grow. Sometimes it may be an easy decision but in other cases it may be a hard decision.

Case in point, I love interacting with others through social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. However, if I spent all day on these sites, I wouldn’t get projects completed for my clients. Nor would I be able to implement growth strategies for my business. So I had to “prune” the time spent on social media websites by balancing the time and effort with what I needed to do to invest in my clients and my business.

As you look at your brand strategy to see where you need to “prune”, don’t be afraid to make changes. Sometimes the changes you need to make with your brand may not make sense to anyone but you. Be bold and make the change that you feel will grow your brand.

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Do You Need To Prune Your Branding?

Image: SXC.hu

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 enough to make a lasting impression. There are other gadgets like iPods or a mouse that you can be branded with your logo so that every time someone uses it, they are reminded of you.

Another good point is that you should make sure that the gadgets you brand with you logo and made with good quality. If you give out gadgets that are bad quality then it could reflect badly on you and your brand.

Do you have ideas of other type of gadgets that you can brand? Please feel free to share your ideas.

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Can You Brand With Gadgets?

Image: Flickr and LuMaxArt.com

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 to reach your target audience.
• Make sure that you have a website that will draw your target audience to purchase your product and also to interact with you.
• Remember that branding also include things like your email address so create an email address that would be associated with your web address.
• Be careful who you tell your business ideas to because if you tell it to the wrong person, they could steal it from you and implement it themself.

As you work on developing your brand, don’t let it overwhelm you. To help get an idea of things that you could possibly include in your brand strategy, I have included a video below.

Post from: EveryJoe

Branding Basics For Startup Businesses