5
Apr 07
Apr 07
by Neil Patel Foo with 9 Comments
Many online companies concentrate on marketing tactics such as SEO because they think that it is the key to being the leader in a specific online segment, but there are really many things that cause someone to be seen as the leader in a specific segment. One of the things that can lead to great success on the web is branding. If you think about the leaders in specific industries, they are well branded.
If you want to increase the value of your company, you need to brand it. Here are 4 things to consider when creating a brand or trying to brand your company:
Identity
If your logo is not unique then it is going to be hard to brand yourself. You need to make sure it is different then the competition by using a different font as well as different colors. The last thing you want to happen is see all your branding efforts go to waste because no one can remember
your company.
Mascot
It is actually amazing that many companies don’t have a mascot. You don’t always have to have a company mascot, but it is a great way to stand out from the crowd and become more memorable. One company that has done a decent job of branding their mascot is BOTW.
If you look at the image above, it shows the many fox mascots BOTW uses for their directory categories. The reason why I feel the foxes are effective is because they match each one to represent a category within their directory.
Consistency
Tons of companies purchase banner ads to brand their company. It can actually be very effective. The problem with how most companies advertise is that they are not consistent with their banner ad designs. You want to use the same logo colors and stay consistent or else the branding impact will not be as effective. Granted, if you change the look or the colors on certain ads it may increase your clicks throughs but it probably won’t help as much when it comes to branding.
Creativity
Being perceived as industry leader is not an easy thing. If you really want to blow up you are going to have to get creative. A few companies have came up with creative ways to brand themselves such as CI Host and Half.com.
CI Host got tons of branding when they paid someone to put a CI Host logo on the back of their head.
Half.com also became very well branded when they got a city to change their name to "Half.com".
These are just 4 things that you can do to increase your chances of having a successful brand. Some of these things maybe tangible for you and others may not because of your budget. Either way if you get creative you can still brand your company on any budget. Just think of what Dish Network did… having a town change their name to "Dish Network" in exchange for free satellite TV, Brilliant!
Do you know of any other cool and creative examples of successful branding strategies?
9 comments - add your's now
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For some reason my cat has been a very successful brand that has seen me get into the technorati top 2000.
Gimmicks do work for the initial thrust but what make a company a true leader in any filed is top class customer service. Flawless functionality beats anything else anytime…
so what you say is that we should promote the company as often as we can (with all the means available)?
what i’m asking is:
is it ok to brand my comments?
like this?
thanks,
webee.ro is a design blog
I would also include the domain name as something that is very important for branding.
The Half.com story is actually very interesting. The guy responsible for that campaign sent me a book a couple months ago that talks a lot about that, very cool story.
Good post Neil!
Nice post – thanks for the mention. IMO an effective “branding” campaign is the most powerful marketing tool available to for long term business success. New products come and go, but an effective brand can withstand the test of time and endure the cyclical nature of business.
I am using my name and nickname for branding.
Jessica Doyle
AKA – EastVanEsica
I quite fancy a mascot for my business but not sure where to begin, perhaps a penguin because we do a lot of open source stuff etc.
I totally agree, branding is very essential if one decides to start an online empire and want his business name to be recognized from distance.
Great article.
I think these are more examples of effective marketing, buzz building and PR tactics, which all lend to brand building but are not such on their own.
Branding is about building a relationship with a customer. These things don’t happen overnight, like any relationship with substance.
One of the best ways I’ve heard it described is branding creates a shortcut in the mind of the consumer.
This means that through continous marketing, advertising, pr, there has been brand equity built as what is called top of mind awareness. This creates an effect that the brand almost becomes synonomous with the product (or service) it offers.
obvious example;
ketchup > heinz
They practially own the market. But there is one level that’s even higher, and that’s when a brand defines the category. Like Band Aid, which is now another name for adhesive bandage.
But to effectively brand means to constantly and consistantly put a company’s message out within the market so that it can build retention with a consumer’s recall of such product/service.
SEO can contribute significantly, but note the first 2 mentioned were visual.
Great brand success stories?
Harley Davidson; more than a brand, it’s a lifestyle. How many consumers will tattoo a logo?
Google, moreso from an internal perspective. It’s suppposedly such a great place to work that they’ve got internal brand loyalty like never heard of before.
Starbucks; more than a visual element. If they could copyright smell these guys would be all over it. When you walk in there is an atmosphere that is known and to be expected.
If SEO is to contribute to branding, being where the consumer is (prospect, current, or advocate) will play a big part, but SEO should perhaps be more in tune with marketing plans and what the brand represents, and not just optimizing for phrases. my .02.