Starting a business can be an exciting time for a wide variety of different reasons. You can get caught up in costs, sales and employees and actually forget about something incredibly important, your brand. Here we look at how you’ll be able to develop your successful brand.
Target audience
The biggest factor when it comes to your brand is knowing who your target audience is. Primark doesn’t brand itself to the rich and famous just as McDonald’s doesn’t market itself to those who love fine dining. You need to know who your customer is and target them.
Mission statement
Having a mission statement will give your business a key focus and something for you to fall back on. Another good and similar idea is to have an elevator pitch, a couple of sentences where you sell your brand to anyone who will listen.
Market research
When it comes to starting a business, market research is hugely important. If you get it wrong, you could get your branding all wrong. Make sure you are branding yourself in the right way by doing the extensive research you need first.
Logo and tagline
Think of Nike and ‘Just Do It’ – it has a basic logo and a strong but simple tagline. When you think about the most successful businesses, they usually don’t have intricate logos. Don’t over complicate it and make sure it represents your brand.
Brand voice
You have to know your brand voice. This is the personality of your business and it’s the impression that customers get when they see anything related to your brand. Your brand voice has to be consistent and all the areas of your business need to be giving the same impression, whether that is an employee or a logo.
Don’t be afraid of finance
You want to make sure you are immediately making the right impression. If that means having professional signage and high-quality computers, then that’s what you need to do. Getting finance can give your brand the boost it needs to make sure that you’re always making the brand statement you want. A bad first impression could turn a customer away for life.
How to brand your start up – where to find out more
We’ve supported the investment and growth of over 60,000 SMEs. If you need help obtaining funding for your start-up – whether that’s funding for expansion, to buy much-needed equipment or to invest in computer software and hardware, we’re here to help. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss funding for your business.
Please click through to our Business Finance page to find out more about finance for your start-ups.
