In today’s market the importance of company identity and promoting your brand has never been greater. New and existing companies need to create even more eye-catching brands and become increasingly creative in their marketing in order to grab and hold the attention of prospective customers.
There is some key rules to remember when creating a company brand:
- Simplicity – Keep the name and image simple plus think of the way the name will be shortened in the digital world. For example if your company works in retail selling shoes instead of ‘Sandra’s Footwear Emporium’ think ‘Sandra’s Shoe’ which will shorten to ‘SS’ or ‘SandShoe’.
- Consistency – Be clear with the way you market your brand and keep it consistent otherwise you can confuse customers. So do you want to be referred to as ‘SandShoe’ or ‘SS’? This is the same for your company motto, do you want to be remembered as ‘Let’s take every step together’ or ‘SS is a step in the right direction’. Being clear will help build a recognisable brand.
- Trademark – It seems obvious but make sure you do your research before you start using a brand or design and make sure you take the necessary legal steps to register it.
Now you have a brand how will you market it to attract customers?
Some companies spend large sums of money marketing themselves. The company Tropicana invested in a campaign that ran for a week called “The Daily Ray of Sunshine”. It saw 250,000 households wake up to 2 free bottles of Tropicana waiting on their doorstep with a positive message tailored to the specific day, “All Woken Up, You’re At Your Most Productive On Tuesday”.
This simple mail-out style of marketing can be extremely effective and is something that’s widely used by take-out and restaurant businesses to engage with the local community. Even if you are not in these sectors there is still other businesses that can still take advantage of this style of marketing. A newsagent could send out branded notepads for example or a local supermarket might send fridge magnets. Of course not all businesses provide a product but for service based industries like IT a branded mouse pad could be a perfect alternative.
Being creative and unique is a key aspect of marketing ones brand. Recruitment firm Blue Octopus implemented a campaign called “Pop The Kettle On, Let’s Talk Recruitment”. It involved sending out branded teabags to prospective clients with a postcard explaining the service they provide and that they can receive a free Blue Octopus cup for contacting them. This approach of offering free items or discounts is also a well-used and proven method of creating a positive marketing campaign which worked extremely well and even won the company an award for the most creative offline marketing award in 2013 (Onrec recruitment awards 2013).
Marketing is all about creating brand awareness and with the increase in the use of technology most notable in social medias, this area is a gold mine of potential customer reach. Online marketing is one of the fastest growing avenues of marketing material which is why it is key that businesses implement campaigns and strategies aimed solely at this medium. A well-presented and creative campaign can become ‘viral’ (term used to highlight the rapid growth of something online), which could ultimately reach millions and put your brand firmly on the map.
Hopefully this shows you the importance of great branding and marketing and helps you build your company into something that everyone will talk about. Maybe you’ve had success with a great campaign yourself why not share it in the comments.
As you expand Blue Octopus can help with your recruitment needs. Simple visit the website and see how they can recruit the best employees for your business.
