Your Company Identity and Brand

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Mon, 3/21/2011

The development of your company’s identity and brand is critical toward its success. And today, it is even more critical that once the brand is developed, it is represented consistently across all media outlets. The larger your company grows, or the more integrated it becomes, makes this task a more difficult challenge, yet a fantastic opportunity.

Each consumer is touched by information from many sources. If your company brand is part of the information being disseminated, then the consistency of the message from one source to the next, maintains, and often adds to the credibility being established. It builds momentum that at a point, without further intervention, can sustain for some time on its own.

Is Your Target Market Getting It?

Of key importance is that you have identified your target market correctly, and that your company’s identity is clear to them. Both external and internal consistency in your company is needed to perpetuate this motion. External consistency can be controlled by messages from the marketing department.

Sometimes internal consistency is the most difficult step in this never-ending process. If your employees are engaged with the company’s direction and vision, you can expect them to also carry the brand with them. If it is not, you run the risk of having one message being delivered one way and another being delivered a completely different way.

Are you able to express what your company is all about in just a few short sentences? Doing this as a regular exercise can help build the consistency in your message you need. Having several conflicting messages complicates the overall strategy and loses your prospective customers quickly.

Keeping the Competition at Bay through Branding

Your brand and identity is what differentiates you from the competition. If your products or services were the same as the competition, why would your company be necessary? Some companies are born by copying the competition, and then they also die copying the competition. Long-lasting companies are generally the ones who were the originators of ideas, not the copiers. Some copiers have been fortunate to succeed by copying first and then adding brand extensions later to differentiate themselves.

The foundation of the company needs to be strong in order for the company to grow and prosper. Make the brand and identity strong and you too will be able to grow and prosper along with the great ones!

What are your challenges when it comes to your company’s identity and brand? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Until next time …