Coming at you from the gorgeous Felice Urban Cafe in Shaker Hts and their really cool garage bar and patio. Love the menu, they offer their food and meals in 3 ways….small, medium and large plates as well as a sweet plate menu of some great tasting goodies.
Building a Better Brand in the 21st Century
Key takeaways:
- what branding truly means,
- how it applies to your business, and
- HOW YOU can develop your brand to enhance your business.
What is Branding?
Entreprenuer.com summed up branding as a logo:
“The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.”
http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/branding
Barry: Branding is creating the feeling elicited in the viewer via the marketing and relationship elements put out there.
So, your brand, how people feel about your company, is developed via your logo, slogan, content, what you wear, how you answer the phone, and so on.
1. Logos
We recorded a HH Recap late last year: 5 key Elements to a Great Logo
Summary: A few key things to know about logos:
1. First impression of your company. Its tough to overcome a bad first impression.
2. The text should be legible and professional. Inferior designers will fall for “fad” fonts.
3. It should work as a self-contained piece of art; “stamp-like” weight.
4. Colors: Its best to use a very dense color (often black) with a second, less dense color (orange, gold, teal…). Two dense colors (black and dark blue) is too heavy, dark and dismal.
2. Slogans
Not every company has a slogan, but most could use one – especially if your company name doesn’t say much about your services.
A slogan is a great way to position yourself in your marketplace with a simple, catchy phrase.
Example 1: our friend and colleague, John Eltzroth of Effectium Technologies – he really loves sailing, and he wanted us to incorporate that passion into his company. He commissioned us to create his entire branding campaign- including website, bus. cards, logo and… slogan:
“Putting the Wind in your Sales”
And his logo supplies the additional sailing/tech reinforcement needed to get the concept.
Example 2: Our own EdwardsCom.net slogan:
“Dynamic websites and branding materials that target your audience for maximum impact “
A bit lengthy, but very definitive. dynamic and targeting of the audience (hence our logo’s icon)
3. About Us page
I rarely hear anyone talking about “About Us” pages. I actually read an article on Search Engine Land DOT com just yesterday on ‘Building Links to your ‘About Us’ page’ which really comes down to SEO and Google Analytics.
Most of our sites typically show that after the landing page, interested readers very often go to the About Us page. This is the time to define your brand.
4. And finally: Responsive Design
Responsive design does fall under branding and it’s that important. If your online presence isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re telling your customers that you’re oblivious to today’s marketplace.
44% of people do their surfing via mobile devices today, and that number is only going up.
And yes, you can have a mobile version of your site along with your desktop version. But then you have to maintain two separate sites. We strongly suggest one, responsive site that you keep up to date efficiently and with great quality content.
And additionally – SEO: Google loves responsive sites! In fact, As of April 2015, Google will not display in mobile search results web sites that are not optimized for mobile devices.
There you have it: How to Build a Better Brand in the 21st Century.
Thanks to Melissa Cory and the entire staff at Felice Urban Cafe. And a huge thanks & shout out to owner Margaret Mueller.
Until next time when we come to you from another great location here in NE Ohio…..
…HAVE A GOOD WEEK!
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