Branding Do’s and Don’ts

Many business owners equate branding with marketing. However, as Jeff Bezos once said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Therefore, it is not only a marketing concern, but can have legal implications, as well. 

Here are a few do’s and don’ts when it comes to designing your brand. 

• DO make sure your brand graphically promises what you deliver. Meeting expectations is one of the best ways to avoid legal problems – and strengthen your brand.
• DO be different. If your brand looks like everyone else (or worse, like someone else in particular) then your chances for protection are slim.
• DO make sure your brand includes multiple product names, slogans, graphics schemes, etc. so you have options in case something goes bad.
• DO ensure you fully research and register the appropriate trademarks.
• DON’T spend a lot of money implementing a brand without researching whether you are stepping on someone else’s. Just think about having to cancel your ads, repackage your product, redo your whole website and reprint all your marketing materials.
• DON’T think you can just make a small change to a competitor’s brand and be ok.

Branding builds value in the eyes of the customer – it differentiates you from the competition, and facilitates the building of trust and loyalty. Branding allows relationships rather than transactions to develop, and that’s good for any business.

Thanks to Marty O’Neill from The Alternative Board for sharing. The Alternative Board® (TAB) is an exclusive, membership-based organization that helps business owners achieve more – more profitability, productivity, and personal fulfillment – through an unmatched combination of peer to peer insight, private coaching with TAB-certified coaches and TAB proprietary tools, and resources that connect business owners to thousands of their peers around the world. 

You can reach Marty here:
marty@tab-bwi.com