Effective branding is integral to any business.  It is a way to increase brand awareness and recognition for customers, clients, partners and investors.  For someone to see a symbol and immediately associate that image with your company is an entrepreneurial feat.  There are many factors involved when creating a business name and logo to ensure it is noticeable and memorable.  While developing your company, creating brand loyalty among customers can impact your company’s success significantly (King, 2005).  The following is a simple guide to help you successfully brand your business.

Choosing a Name

Before you can name your company, you need to figure out what your company stands for, what its values and goals are, only then can you create a name that represents your company’s personality.  Names can be a series of letters or an abbreviation (IBM or UPS), the founders’ names (Tim Hortons), or something more direct and representative of the company (Royal Bank of Canada ). 

Creating a Logo

Symbols are important to branding because they link an image to a company, that connection can be more powerful than any name or catchy phrase.

In order for a logo to be effective it must be:   

• Unique and differentiated from other logos  

• Functional and usable in multiple contexts while maintaining its purpose:

  • A logo may look clear and compact in the corner of your business card, but it also needs to be available for large posters and billboards, this can be achieved by using vector graphics  
  • Use colour but ensure it is easily converted to black and white, and use only a few colours and avoid gradients  
  • Maintain you customer’s ability to recognize the logo when printed on different surfaces such as tiles, clothing and other unique shapes; avoid distortion ability of image
• Avoid using a person’s face or any complex imagery such as photos
• Also, be sure to not cross any design or trademark infringements (Wikipedia, 2006)

Brand Slogan 

The brand slogan, or tagline, unifies the brand together with the logo.  It should be a short, concise statement that captures the essence of you business (Lipe, 2006).  It can be effective to combine a slogan with your logo, in order to do this the two have to always be together, whether on letterheads, faxes, websites or business cards, consistency is important in keeping the brand impressionable.

The following is a list of successful taglines:

• iPod nano: 1,000 songs. Impossibly small.
• Nokia: Connecting people.
• Subway: Eat Fresh.
• Coke: Always the Real Thing

Fonts

Seriously consider what fonts and typestyles you are using in your branding.  Try limiting the number of fonts and styles you use to only a select few, and stick to common types that most organizations already have.  If your printing company does not have a font you are using, that could incur unnecessary costs from having to purchase those fonts for them.  Utilizing only a few fonts that most organizations will carry will ensure consistency in your branding, from marketing materials to website content.

Consistency

Your company branding can create awareness and recognition by keeping your techniques consistent.  Always posting your logo with your company name and/or brand slogan together will help imprint your images with who you are into stakeholders’ minds.  Placement is also a factor in recognition, for example: placing your logo in the top, right-hand corner with the slogan on the left-hand side can be used on letterheads, business cards, websites and any other marketing material.  This will eventually lead a viewer to subconsciously recognize your company even if your company’s name is not explicitly printed on the material. 

 Ensure the whole company knows how to maintain consistent branding.  Include branding standards in your company’s policy or create a small guide available to all employees for reference and for training any new employees (Lipe, 2006).  It is important to avoid ambiguity when implementing such consistency-based plans, so be clear in how to follow branding standards and do irregular check-ups on how well it is being managed.

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