YOUR SMALL BUSINESS BRAND DRIVES BUYER BEHAVIOR

Sure-Fire Formula for Your Branding Success

Here’s a blockbuster revelation!

“People make their buying decisions emotionally and justify them logically”.

Yes, that means you … and me too.

Your brand is the face of your company. It represents who you are, what you do and what the buyer can expect from doing business with you. Keep in mind … it’s the perception of consumers that will define the value (or lack thereof) of your brand.

Your prospects’ first contact with your brand is visual. So, let’s start there with a review of the importance of:

• Shapes
• Fonts
• Colors

and what each may communicate about your brand.

The impact of the shape of your font is to convey your core values as they relate to customer expectations. You decide … which of the logos below prompt feelings of completeness or strength or a solid foundation?

Likewise, your choice of fonts will evoke certain emotional responses to what your company and its products represent. Take a look at the examples below and the accompanying notations.

Nearly 85 percent of consumers say that color is the primary reason they buy a product.

In addition, colors tend to ignite the emotional trigger to buy. Some examples and what sub-conscious effects consumers report:

• Red … excitement, call to action
• Yellow … excites appetite, optimism, youthfulness
• Blue … strength, success
• Green … associated with wealth

Can you see why some, or all, of the colors were chosen for logos below? Hint: Why do so many food and beverage companies rely on red and yellow?

An additional dimension to your brand is to identify your company and its products/services in a way that is both memorable and distinguishes it from the competition. Let’s start with memorable.

Be Memorable

Memorable means that your brand successfully positions you to attain and maintain top-of-mind awareness with your customers, referral partners & prime prospects. If you are memorable, you will enjoy being noteworthy and significant, plus –

A-1, big-league, extraordinary, stand-out, major-league and unforgettable.

If you are not memorable, then you will not enjoy top-of-mind awareness, but you will be:

Forgettable, insignificant and unimpressive.

Be memorable!

Distinguish Your Brand from the Pack

The competitive landscape may be described as seeing a large group of competitors all yelling, “Look at me! Look at me!” The chant comes down to each trying to communicate being the best.

Your job is to rise above the noise level and be seen as the vendor of choice … distinguished from your competitors by demonstrating how you are qualitatively different … not just the best.

Three Key Brand Ingredients

In developing your brand, include three critical elements.

• Company name
• Logo
• Tag-line

Ideally, your company name describes what you do. For example, here’s a company named Adapt Staffing Agency. Guess what they do. Yup. They help growing companies looking for temporary placement, long-term placement or temp-to-hire services.

Your logo is the quick-glance identifier of your business. A symbol or image is usually much more readily identified than text. Viewing the company described above, take a look at their logo … attractive plus readily identifiable and memorable.

The Adapt Staffing Agency logo is memorable in its use of contrasting, bright colors plus graphics that indicate growth and profitability.

A tag-line is the third element in your branding strategy. Your tag-line will instantly deliver the message of what you do and what results your customers can expect. Staying with our two examples above, you easily understand that Adapt Staffing Agency promises Premier Staffing Candidates … Because We ADAPT to each one of our clients’ staffing needs.

Building on Your Brand

Small businesses that serve a relatively local clientele have a single branding challenge – creating and maintaining top-of-mind awareness – both now and long-term. That means make sure you are remembered by delivering on what is memorable to your customers, referral partners and prime prospects.

Protecting Your Brand

Your brand may well take years to be widely recognized. That means a lot of time, effort and money on your part to create and promote your brand. Therefore, a prudent step is to protect your name, logo and perhaps even your tag-line from being copied or otherwise misused. Do so through trade marking.

Summary

Your customers and prospects make buying decisions every day. Your referral sources are referring every day. And the decision choice is the same for all: who is the top-of-mind provider. Your challenge is to create and maintain top-of-mind brand awareness. That way you ensure being at the top of the list when the buying decision or referral opportunity surfaces.