When was the last time you took a ‘good’ hard look at your branding and marketing collateral? What impression is it making? Is it the positive one you were hoping for? Do you consider yourself as part of your brand?
Branding is that message that comes to mind when a certain image or product is displayed. What is your brands perception in the market place; Success, confidence, excellence, value? Statistics say that on average when a person meets you for the first time they will make up their mind about you in ¼ of a second and over the next five seconds they will go back and forth with this 11 times. It is fair to say that you have a very short time to make that impression count in a positive way and in fact if you consider your branding and you as one then you have about 6 seconds to get your customers to want to know more or take that next step.
Based on these statics, getting your branding right should be on your top priority list. Give your customers a brand that meets their desires and expectations; make it one that gives them a ‘fully immersive’ experience from you and your employees to brochures, business cards, fan pages and blogs. Your brand should represent what is different about you, how reliable are you; how well you influence the market and most importantly why do I want to be in a ‘customer’ relationship with you.
If you were to place all your marketing collateral on a table would it look like it came from the same brand ‘family’ or more like distant cousins? Making sure everything is well designed and conveys your company message and values is key to getting that first impression right. As a potential customer I need to build trust in your product or service before making that final commitment to sale. I could be perusing your latest flyer that just arrived in my letterbox but when I go to the website it looks like a different company. I meet you at a networking event and you give me your business card and a some fact sheets but when I go to like your Facebook company page it doesn’t look like anything you gave me. Remember, everything you use to raise the profile of your business brand including you and your staff must always look as if it was coming from ‘one’ family, this will help build brand recognition and trust levels.
On a final note, I would always encourage businesses to seek the advice of brand experts and please choose a qualified designer and get your collateral professionally printed.
Denise Ora
SSHED Marketing Specialist/Business Advisor







