6 Tips Which Will Transform Your Exceptional Idea into a Prosperous Business – Tip 3

The third of these 6 tips focuses on branding. As you know, the series must assist you in transforming your great idea into a successful business. The tips listed below sequentially follow the steps you need to make. Therefore, they will be presented over 2 week in the following order:

1. Have a stunning, different, exceptional idea
2. Choose the most suitable structure for your business
3. Think branding
4. Appoint an accountant
5. Get ready to launch
6. Open for business and start making money

Tip 3: Think branding

The topic of successful branding is endless. It is a cumbersome task for many newly established companies. But the truth is that it is not impossible to create fairly good branding without splashing out your whole budget.
Before we move on, let me get it straigt.

Did you know that...???According to Design Council, branding is “a set of associations that we make with a company, product, service, individual or organisation.” These associations can usually take various forms:

• Smell - Chanel No 5 perfume
• Sound - Nokia ringtone
• Form - Coca Cola bottle
• Symbol - Apple’s apple
• Touch - Hermes scarfs
• Colour - Orange telecommunications
• Typography – Harrods.

Did you know the 'Musts'?
You MUST remember that branding is not merely an ‘image’ orientated process. Every contact that your customers and prospective clients have with your business leaves an impression. For this reason it is your responsibility to organise the process and create your own brand.

Another MUST is to know that if your business exists, it is already a brand. Even a person can be a brand. However, it is a different question if the brand is handled well, and if it projects a professional image in the public eye.

Did you know how to get there? 
So far, we have established that branding is an essential piece of the start-up businesses puzzle. And the only way to solve this puzzle is to start working on it. So what do you need to do?

Print out the list below and make sure you do your best before you tick the boxes. Then congratulate yourself for the good job and keep advancing your brand.

And what if you can't do it? Who would know better?

If you cannot organise this alone, then it IS OK TO LOOK FOR HELP. My suggestion is to find an agency/ company which will provide as many of the above mentioned as possible. This will keep your costs lower, ensure consistency throughout the different elements and make the communication process easier.

Alternatively, you can look for a freelancer or recently graduated student who is looking for experience but you will miss out on the above-mentioned benefits.

If you do decide to work with a professional branding agency or team, then it will be mutually beneficial to create a precise brief. Educate yourself in order to make this task easier and be exact in your demands. Besides, after acquiring new knowledge and skills you might feel confident enough to complete some of the job yourself and save come cash.

Good idea will be to read around topics such as strategic brand management (that’s a shocker), integrated marketing communications and why not semiotics, go to trade press websites, branding blogs or simply visit advertising and branding agency websites.

Did you know why BMW is a successful brand?
Former BMW Chairman Helmut Panke explains that BMW’s success lies in its strong sense of identity. The figure bellow will give an idea how the theory of identity combines three sub-concepts that a brand has to comply with:

To sum up
What's brand identity?

Consumers now have more insight into the companies that influence. On the other hand, companies themselves are presented with limitless opportunities to communicate with their customers, connect with them and leave an impression. And this is what branding is about.

By nature of evolution branding has become a complex yet organic and never-ending process. For your company, it has started when your business idea was born. It then should move on to the company name and mission and at the end it should manifests your company’s entire experience and existence, both from an internal as well as public perspective.

Finally, remember that a good brand uses many elements to convey the core values, vision and personality of the company in question. The same applies if you are branding a product, service or person. The various elements that make up a brand appeal to different senses sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing, even a subconscious sixth sense perhaps.