Branding is the foundation of your business, your sales strategy, your marketing plan and ultimately, your success or failure. It encapsulates everything the public perceives about your company. From your reputation as a service provider to the way that website address rolls off your tongue (or not), make no mistake, your brand can make or break your business.

So what does branding involve? Well, it's a lot more than a good logo. Branding is so much more and we find more often than not, we're educating clients before we even begin the process. So here are some guiding principles we always use when creating a brand.

Know your customer profiles? Today and in the future.
What do they think? How do they make decisions? What's important to them? Why did they come in your store, pick up the phone or click on that shopping cart? How will this profile change as the market changes, your product mix evolves or they get older? It takes more than just a surface understanding of your customers to create a brand that speaks directly to them. A good branding company, like say, us, will ask hard questions and pull from the right instinct and experience to create a customer profile and then build your brand to that.

Know your elevator speech? 30 seconds. That's all you have.
Why would anyone want to buy anything from you? Ready? GO! Thirty seconds. Can you do it? Can you sell it in that amount of time? Don't feel bad. Most of our clients have trouble with this one. When we're done with you, you'll be reciting value propositions in your sleep and what's most important? Your customers will respond. Key messages are an important part of your brand and you can't sell without them.

Be Consistently Consistent. All the Time.
You know those big brands that everybody knows and can sing the jingles to? We know those brands simply because we've seen the logo and listened to the jingle ad nauseum. Seriously. The trick to this is to establish some flexibility in your logo, your tagline, your naming conventions and all the usage so that you can bob and weave and switch things up, without butchering all that great recognition you worked so hard for. At Shaw Marketing, flexibility comes standard.

No, that's not it. Not hardly. There's so much more but if you've read this far, you know you want to take a break. Just call us and we'll get coffee and we'll tell you all about branding and we'll help you figure yours out too.

Contact us at 910.509.7215. Coffee's on us.

• Who are your customers?
• What are your products? Price points?
• Who closes the sale?
• How do your customers find you?
• Who are your competitors?
• How will your product mix change over time?

All of this and more will help you identify some important details about your business and help us craft a brand that speaks to your customers.

>> Brand Strategy & Messaging

• Brand and product hierarchy
• Development of key value propositions and messages
• Tagline development
• Market Position
• Copywriting
• Sales training

Everyone in your company needs to know what to say about your business at all times. It's hard to do on your own - we can help.

>> Creative Development

• Logo Design
• Color Palette
• Design Elements
• Photography choices
• Brand Guidelines documents

Surprised to see design is last? Well, now that we know who you are and where you need to go, we can figure out what you should look like. And it will be good. Trust us.