When choosing logos, images and symbols as part of your marketing efforts, it is important to understand the effects that these choices may have. In particular, there are three groups of people you will influence: customers, employees, and the general public. Here is how such choices may affect each:

1. Your customers

The most obvious of the three groups is your customers. Customers will make purchasing decisions, and have different emotional responses based on the choice of symbols used to represent a business. Accordingly, it is important to select representations which reinforce the brand identity, or strongest selling points of the business’ products and services. Any weaknesses in the symbol may cause potential customers to subconsciously question the business’ brand. Even worse, these symbolic shortcomings can be used by competitors in negative advertising, and can adversely affect brand image regardless of their truth. For these reasons, symbols which have mostly positive associations and few negative ones are ideal.

2. Your employees

Employees are a less obvious point of concern. However, if your brand includes questionable characters, color schemes, or other traits which associate the brand with dubious themes, over time these can subconsciously influence your employees in negative ways. Consider three different teams in the National Football League: the Cincinnati Bengals, the Oakland Raiders, and the New England Patriots. For the unfamiliar, the Bengals have a color scheme which includes stripes and day-glo orange, two features often associated with prison. Not surprisingly, the Bengals frequently have players who have problems with the law. The Oakland Raiders have as part of their logo the image of a pirate, and their organization often has a less disciplined approach to operations than other teams. In contrast, the New England Patriots have a mascot which generally has positive associations, and thus, they tend to have fewer player and organizational problems than some other teams.

3. The public

The public is also affected by branding choices. Public perception can make or break a brand, particularly when cross-cultural issues are not taken into account. For instance, Chevrolet encountered some problems with selling their popular Nova model of automobile in Spanish-speaking countries, until they learned that Nova translates to “No Go.” Justifying the purchase of a Nova to others is difficult when the brand name indicates it will not work properly! The wise choice of color can also affect the sale of food items, which almost never have black as a predominant color. Since black is commonly associated with mystery, uncertainty, and death, these are all associations which prudent food marketers do not wish to attach to their brands.

In summary, the branding decisions made affect not only the perception of customers and the public, but can affect the behavior of employees as well. For this reason, branding choices should be made carefully to convey the desired perception and reinforce appropriate behaviors. Failing to do so can have numerous unintended consequences, which can often be easily avoided.

Ask yourself this question: why does most of the population own an article of clothing with the Nike “Swoosh” on it? Is the T-Shirt any better than one without the logo? Why did someone pay four times more for that shirt than the non-logo shirt next to it on the rack? The answer, of course, is that the Nike Brand represents an image that the person wearing that garment wants to project onto himself and is willing to pay a premium to do so.Another question: Do you think Anheuser Busch expects you to buy a Budweiser just because you saw a billboard with a team of Clydesdales on it? No. They do, however, want to impress a wholesome, family friendly image into your mind so that when you think beer, you think of and desire to associate yourself with the Budweiser brand rather than Miller, Heineken or any other brand.Does McDonald’s make the best cheeseburger you’ve ever tasted? Then why do you continue to eat there?Did you shave this morning with a Gillette razor?These are some of America’s best known brands. When it comes down to it, these companies are better at advertising than anyone on the planet. Consumers want to associate with these companies; they want to purchase their products, and people will gladly pay more for these products that are, in many ways, inferior to their competition.Does your small business have a brand?Think about this for a minute–what image does your company project to the community at large? Are you creating a brand that your customers will want to associate with? If you want to successfully grow your business then you must start with your core values and start building a brand based upon the image you want your business to project.Step one for building a brand:
Write down what you would like to be written on your tombstone.The feeling that you got while thinking about this is your core inspiration, it defines who you are and what you stand for. It defines what you would like to be remembered for. This Is Your Internal Brand.Do you project this everyday? Don’t fight who you are or who you want to be; build your business around your internal brand and everything else will fall into place. Running your business based upon core principles means you never have to make excuses or think about what the right answer should be, you already know the answers. It also clarifies what you want to project to the community and to prospective customers.It’s important to remember, there is no “right answer” to these questions, your business must match your personality and what you believe in. Here’s an example: The owner of the finest restaurant in your town loves running that restaurant. He loves getting dressed up in a tuxedo every night, he loves comparing wines to one another and he loves catering to demanding customers. The restaurant reflects his personality and what he believes in. The owner of the local burger joint loves running that restaurant. He loves wearing blue jeans to work, he loves having nights off to spend with his family and he loves telling stories about how many customers he can serve in one day. His restaurant also reflects his personality and what he believes in. Both owners make a good living and enjoy what they do, but they could NEVER run each other’s restaurants, the internal brands of the people running them are just too different.Step two for building a brand:Write down what you would like to be written on your business’s tombstone.That’s your guiding principle, your company’s internal brand. Everything you do from now on should focus on building your company’s external brand to match the internal brand.But before you start on advertising or marketing, focus first on your employees, facilities, equipment, policies, procedures and merchandise. Good advertising and marketing can make the phone ring one time, but if a customer expects Tiffany’s and gets Wal-Mart, or vice versa, they will not buy from you and you have wasted your advertising dollars. Does your business reflect who you are? Are your employees’ appearances and clothing what you would like them to be? Are your facilities and vehicles designed to project the brand image? Do you have a cohesive brand image for your company that includes marketing materials, signage, logo’s and business cards?Only when your internal image projects what you believe in should you try to sell it. Concentrate on this first and we will tackle step two in our next article.

Despite all of the definitions of “branding” that are out there, essentially, a brand is that “thing” that makes you stand out against everyone else. It doesn’t mean that you’re the best, and it doesn’t mean that you no longer need traditional marketing, but it does mean that when you’re around, whether it’s in-person, online, or in-print, others “get it.” They understand what you do, your style and your unique ability.One of the mistakes that a lot of business owners make it hopping on the bandwagon. They look at the outward signs of success for other businesses and falsely assume that imitating them will bring similar results. If you want guaranteed success I recommend that you start from the heart. By starting your communication from a point of passion you will attract the type of people that easily resonate with your brand.When I first started in business I did exactly that. I didn’t know where to start, so I started where others did. I called up a few companies, had them to send me their brochures and marketing packages and tried to find out there prices… and then I did what they did. Little orphan Beatrice, all alone I was trying to compete on an unfair court.You see, I was just one person, but I was comparing myself to companies that with a staff of twenty. How could I compete? I didn’t even get invited to pitch a proposal for the companies they were doing business with, yet I was trying to imitate their style and services as if they had a magic formula. You know what happened? Absolutely nothing. It failed, and it failed miserably and as a result I never had the business I envisioned.Then I decided to take a break from the business and really figure out what was going on around me. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t “their” marketing or “their” connections that was making them successful. It was their voice. For a long time I was always having people come to me to work for them, and I had fun building their brands and they had great results. The problem with “my stuff” was that when it came to my own materials I was imitating, instead of doing what was working, which was within.The moment I decided to look at my own unique abilities, and build everything else around it, my in-come skyrocketed. It was one of those “duh” moments. It wasn’t hard, it was just different. I learned that once I could show “what makes me so special” other people “got it”. Even if they didn’t resonate with me and become clients, they had enough clarity to let others know what I was up to.And my brand began to rise up above the surface. Isn’t that what we all really want to do? I truly believe there is enough business to go around. We don’t need the “biggest” clients and we don’t need the “most” clients, we only need the right clients, and THAT is what branding strong will do.To measure the strength of your brand, ask yourself these questions: 1) Do I clearly communicate my passion?2) Is it easy for others to understand what I offer and why it’s different?3) Do others recognize my brand from a distance?4) Have I received passive referrals by word of mouth?These questions are a good indicator of how your brand is performing in the marketplace, but they’re only a start. Be sure to examine everything and you’ll be able to easily determine your brand strength too.