How to Develop Your Corporate Brand

Developing an effective brand for your company is a process that requires time, effort and a great deal of careful thinking on your part.

Do a poor job of planning your corporate brand and you'll see the results reflected in your sales.

If a corporate brand is hastily put together, does little to communicate what the company is all about, and worst of all - fails to relate to your target market, your business will be in serious trouble.

The majority of entrepreneurs are at least aware of this reality to some extent. The problem they most often face is knowing where to start when it's time to develop a corporate brand.

Start With Your Target Market

The very first step you need to take before even considering your corporate brand is to know who represents your target market.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Who represents my target market? How old are they? Are they male or female or does it matter?
• Where are they located, or are they part of a global market?
• What are their spending habits?
• Do they care about price and affordability?
• What is the one key benefit that you can provide, that they will really be interested in?
• What is it that they want? (note, this is different than asking what they need)
• What kind of lifestyle do they enjoy?
• Are there any discomforts or problems that they face that you aim to remedy?
• What is your competition offering them that you can improve on or provide an alternative product or service for?
• Do they portray feelings of brand or company loyalty?
• Can they be swayed from a brand or company via promotions and special offers?
• What emotional benefits are they expecting to experience by using what they consider to be a great product or service?
• Do they place a lot of importance on excellent customer service?
• Are they a labor intensive market that will require a superior level of ongoing service and support?

Of course, there are many other questions that may need to be asked, and a lot will depend on the product or service you sell.

My company provides high-end branding services at affordable prices, so the questions I would ask about my target market will be somewhat different from an entrepreneur venturing to sell premium landscaping services to high income families.

The key here is to realize that you cannot begin to develop a brand for your company without understanding who your target market is and what it is they want from you based on the products and services you are providing.

Tips to Develop Your Brand Around Your Target Market

Now that you can easily answer the question of who your target market is, you are ready to take that big leap into developing a corporate brand that will effectively communicate to this market.

You'll need to consider the more traditional elements that make up a great brand, along with other things, like the kind of message you need to send to your target market that will actually grab their attention and compel them to take action.

In a nutshell, here is a list of the key elements you should consider. Spend some time thinking about how each can relate to your target market:

• The traditional branding elements of color, font style and shape - how should these visual components speak to your target market? If you sell lingerie to women in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties, would brown be a good corporate color? If you target men in their forties should you use a script font and curved lines to define your corporate print material? What about if you need to develop a visual identity that will appeal to both men and women?
• The corporate logo - how can you craft a logo that will effectively communicate to your target market that you have what they want?
• Your marketing message - if you target young hip hop fans should your Marketing message be conservative and dull?
• Being heard - how can you spread the word about your products and services so that it actually reaches your target market? Can you host seminars and information sessions that would be of interest and establish you as an expert in your field?
• Your corporate name - I may be listing this one a bit late in the article, but a lot goes into crafting just the right corporate name. You'll want to choose one that fulfills two goals: 1) tells in a nutshell what your company is about and 2) relates to your target market. As in my example above, if you are into premium landscaping services for the high income family it's probably not such a great idea to name your company "Sam's Budget Lawn Care".

There Is One More Key to Developing an Effective Brand - Customer Service

To sum it up, if you provide poor customer service (or none at all), your customers will be unhappy and your word of mouth referrals will do more harm than good. No matter how well thought out your corporate brand is, overlook this element and you'll probably fail in business.

Just about every company has to implement some measure of customer service. How detailed and unique you are in developing corporate support systems can be a huge factor in forming a corporate brand that really works. As an example, if I did not provide reliable customer service to my clients, it would go entirely against the corporate brand that I have worked hard to develop.

Many people fail to link the two, but good customer service is essential to a good corporate brand.

Summing It All Up

In conclusion, I want to say that I hope I have not overwhelmed you! Like any highly important and detailed process, developing and perfecting a brand takes time and a little bit of trial and error. Being well informed about your target market before you begin will significantly cut down on poor judgment decisions.

Finally, keep in mind that a brand can evolve and change over time. Just as your company grows and expands, you may take on new directions and find new target markets to explore. The key is figuring out how to tie it all together without losing your corporate identity that is already working for you.

As always - good luck!

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