The short answer is: everything.
“Brand” or “branding” is one of those words that is widely used but not well understood. Good branding can actually increase the value of your company. A company’s brand represents the sum of the public’s perception of its customer service, reputation, advertising, on-line presence and logo. Put simply, it’s how you are perceived.
When all these parts of the business are working well, the overall brand tends to be healthy. Your “brand” is what your prospect thinks of when he or she hears your company name.
It’s everything the public thinks it knows about you… Your brand exists objectively. People can’t see it. It exists only in the mind.
While a great brand is more than just a memorable logo, your logo design constitutes one of its main components. Think of how we instantly recognize the Nike Swoosh; a simple, yet extremely powerful logo design. As the “face” of a company, logo design is critical. Remember, your logo will appear on every piece of correspondence and advertising. A professional logo design is simple enough to be memorable, but powerful enough to give the desired impression of your company.
A professional logo design builds credibility and trust. People are more likely to purchase from or hire a business that appears polished and professional.
Advertising, graphic design and web design are additional components of your brand. Both the medium chosen and demographic targeted for advertising builds your brand. Too narrow an advertising focus and a company risks being “pigeon holed” and losing its ability to expand into new markets. On the other hand, if the focus is too broad, the company could fail to create a sufficiently vivid and definable impression in the minds of would-be customers.
Bottom line: your brand identity influences your audience’s buying decisions. The most profitable companies, both large and small, have a single thing in common. They have established themselves as a leader in their particular industry by building a strong brand.
Investing in a professional logo design and corporate identity is an essential component of branding, one that is highly recommended and that can really pay off in the long run.
Once a company has created a brand personality, staying consistent and true to that personality is critical. Your brand must be consistent on all your print and advertising materials, from banners to brochures and business cards, to T-shirts and coffee mugs. This also includes graphics, logos and images used across all social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ etc… everything must be identical in every application.