Overview: The essence of a strong brand is that it is a promises to deliver value through products or services to a customer. Brand loyalty is built on keeping those promises. A strong brand is always built on products and services that fulfil or exceed the expectations of customers. Without these the brand and its elements simply remind customers of a poor experience.

Whats the Brand?: Clearly define what your brand represents. Design your brand graphics and text to communicate this clearly and simply.

Brand Logo: Have your logo designed to be unique . It should stand out from competitors and tell customers what you do and its value.

Brand Colours: Choose a use a single set of colours that you will use on all branding, marketing and communications. This creates visual consistency

Brand Tag line: Create a brand tag line that simply communicates,  verbally or in writing, your brand offer and its unique value.

Brand Voice: Create a  tone for  your communications. This involves defining the way you say what you want to say to your market.

Brand Text: An effective Brand text is one that is consistent in all written materials and communication with customers.

Text Formats: Ensure that the text is formatted consistently across all the channels of communication. This builds customer confidence

Brand Graphics: Create a standard pool of brand graphics that are used in all signage, communications or places of brand use.

Brand Everything: Ensure that every item such as business cards, web and social media, vehicles, signage, invoices, receipts, staff uniforms are branded

Register the Brand: Your brand and its elements should be registered and copyrighted to protect your investment and intellectual property.

Monitor the Brand: Constantly monitor the presence and correct use of your brand in your business.

Review the Brand: Over time businesses evolve and change. Your brand may need to be changed in a carefully managed way reflect these changes.

Changing a Brand: Changing a brand can be costly and time consuming. All materials that are branded will need to be planned to be replaced.

Brand Responsibility: The maintenance of the brand and its elements should be the clearly defined responsibility of a single person or team.

Brand Sharing: Brands are often displayed by agreement with other businesses. Ensure that the rules as to how this is done are fully agreed before hand

Message consistency: Keep your brand and message consistent  across all the channels of communication. This helps customers to remember the brand and be confident in it.

Brand Impact: Not everyone will like your brand design messaging. Do not be afraid of only getting business from 80% of the target market by being honest.

Brand Directness: A brand should be an invitation to people to engage with your business. Make this easy for them by showing them how.

Quality Counts: Ensure that all the materials you brand and use are of good quality. Customers value quality and really notice  when it is absent.

Brand Champions: Reward customers or staff who promote your brand or contribute to its success. Communicate these rewards widely.

Brand Humour: The use of brand humour can be a powerful marketing tool and also dangerous. Be very careful of how and when you use it. It can offend people.

Brand Events: Sponsoring or holding branded events can generate a high degree of interest and generate increased loyalty in a brand.

Brand Monitoring: Monitor the mentions and their tone on social media and in the press. These can contain very useful clues as to customer attitudes to your brand

Poor branding Costs: Tropicana did a rebrand. They moved from an orange with a straw to a glass of orange juice. Sales fell 20% and it cost them millions of dollars.