Develop Your Brand – and Protect It.

logos-2102211_1280

Your brand is what makes up the identity of your company. This identity, or personality, is essential to ensuring that you stand out in the world of business. Developing your brand requires quite a lot of work and involves many different pursuits. From commercials to the way you conduct yourself online, there are a lot of different aspects that will affect how effective your branding is.

Developing your brand is one thing, but making sure it actually remains in the public eye, as well as ensuring it’s legally protected, is something else. We’re going to take a quick look at the considerations you have to make if you really want to make an impact with your brand.

Your name

A lot of budding entrepreneurs actually get lost in brand development before they’ve even decided on a name! They love to design logos and slogans, but may have nothing more than a vague idea about what their company is going to do. Businesses with trendy names are going to have an easier time with brand development; it will also be easier to design the visual elements such as your logo. Make sure you have a strong business name – then ensure that you can get a website domain titled appropriately. Without a domain name that matches your business name, you’ll have a harder time in brand development.

The visuals

The power of a good logo should never be underestimated. A lot of people make the mistake of assuming that any old thing will do; that what makes the logo truly memorable is what your company actually achieves. This can be a useful mindset up to a point – after all, a great logo won’t make up for bad business practices. But a memorable logo is essential for powerful branding. Don’t assume that your logo has to be elaborate or painfully simple (although the latter tends to be preferable!). Get some design tips from the expert before you start sketching your ideas.

Trademarking

If you don’t have legal protection for the elements of your brand, then it’s pretty much open season on those assets. Even if your name and logo are ridiculously unique, that still doesn’t mean there’s no chance that some other company or individual will use those assets to their advantage. Never assume that you don’t need to trademark these assets. Applying for a trademark, or working directly with a trademark attorney, is an essential part of protecting the brand that you’re developing.

Being proactive

You need to be proactive when it comes to furthering the reach of your brand and ensuring that it isn’t being misused by others. You also need to ensure that your reputation – a big but invisible part of your branding – is managed and protected. This may mean occasionally Googling your own business name to ensure that your reputation isn’t being sullied in some news article or unfair review! As for being proactive in the further reach of your brand, social media is where it’s at. This isn’t just where you go to help your content go viral; it’s where you develop the personality that the public sees.

750x100

You Might Also Like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>