Branding builds business image

Getting a company’s message to its existing and potential customers is about more than making sure the business’ name is known.
These days, branding plays a key part in companies’ marketing strategies, aimed at helping them stand out among competitors.
“Branding is the process of creating an image that connects that product or service to the heart and mind of the company’s customers. It is about perception. How does the company want to be perceived by its customers?” said B.J. Nocera, director of integrated marketing for Sandy USA, who teaches branding at Drury University as an adjunct professor of communication arts.

An image makeover
Vickie Hicks, marketing director at Kirkpatrick, Phillips and Miller, said the CPA firm was at times mistaken for a law firm. Even though the company has existed for 39 years, the firm felt it needed an image makeover and hired Noble & Associates to develop a brand, which was unveiled at the 2004 Chamber of Commerce Expo.
“We’re still in the process of developing our new brand,” Hicks said. “We began last summer to evaluate everything and knew we needed to update our look and, at the same time, revitalize ourselves. We started by asking ourselves what do we want to be? What perception do we want to have? Noble was very, very helpful in developing it.”
Hicks said it was important that the company identify itself and raise awareness that it is a certified public accountants’ firm and not a law firm.
“‘Accounting for growth’ is our new tagline that we use in our advertising,’” Hicks said. “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback. We hope to attract new clients and educate the public about who we are.”
The company also revamped its logo and letterheads and added new display booths, new giveaways, new business cards and a new look to its Web site, to complete the brand.
Nocera adds that branding can be done either by the company in-house or through the services of an advertising agency. “There are a number of ways in which branding can be achieved. It can consist of the development of a new logo or graphic design, which visually makes a connection to the product or company. Branding can be achieved through creating a new message that better defines the company or its product’s benefit to the customer. It can establish a new image to make a better mind-heart connection with the customer. Branding can assist in developing a better relationship with the company’s customers by offering that customer a more consistent message and a better understanding of how that company can serve them.”
Lisa Nally and Cindy Howell of ACR Nally Communications have helped many clients develop brands.
“It’s a promise you make to your clients,” Howell said. “It might be a word or a phrase. It’s your image, your mission statement, your logo and what you want your clients to know about your company.”
There are many ways to accomplish this, Nally added. “Your goal is to have top-of-mind awareness. Kleenex is an example. It’s a trademark name, but when you’re asking for a Kleenex, you’re asking for a tissue. Or when you ask for a Coke, you’re asking for a soda. That’s how well Kleenex and Coke have done to gain top-of-mind awareness. So when we have a client come in, we sit down and first do that exploratory brainstorm conversation.”
Howell said they then begin to put that brainstorm conversation into a statement. “We take it apart and put it back together. We ask, ‘What do you think it should be?’ and, ‘What do you want it to be?’ We filter that out and that begins the top-of-mind awareness to reach their client base.”

New customers
Once that brand is developed, Howell urges her clients to stick with it long-term. “The clients get tired of it before the public gets tired. If the brand is what they want it to be and the customers know, stick with it,” she said.
ACR Nally is helping one client that has been in business for 75 years to refresh its image. “They’ve never had a look to identify them with who they are,” said Howell, who declined to name the client. “We have to ask them the same questions. What do you want to be known for? It’s about creating the concept in your client’s mind. Once you know what you want that to be, you take it from there.”
Nocera said that giving a company a consistent look and message that defines its attributes is useful in terms of bringing in new customers. “Branding helps cut through the clutter of advertising messages so it can effectively reach those prospective customers. Whether done in-house or through an outside agency, an integrated approach utilizing print and broadcast media, supported with positive public relations and publicity, can make good use of the branding to enhance awareness of and interest in that company,” she said.

Investing in business
The cost of branding a company depends on several factors, including the extent the company is branding itself or a product or whether it’s being done in-house or through an advertising agency, Nocera said.
“We are exposed to an amazing number of advertising and marketing images every day – so many that we have all become very adept at tuning them out,” said Nocera. “Branding is a means for helping sort through those images so your own company’s message can get recognized and become an item of your customer’s attention rather than being tuned out.”
Another factor is the client budget, Howell said.
“Most clients have a budget in place. We develop a marketing plan and logo and budget that marketing plan. They come to us and, depending on their budget, it can be a two- or three-phase process to get them where they want to be. We specialize in working with their budget.”
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