Starting your own business is a risky proposition, uncertain in many of its aspects. One huge decision a business owner has to make early on is how to brand their company. Now that is a tall order, the job of deciding what angle the marketing and expansion of the business should take. With a little guidance, branding your company isn’t the monster it appears.First off, relax. The idea that the brand you choose is permanent (like a cattle brand) isn’t entirely true. Huge international companies rebrand themselves surprisingly often. There is no law saying the brand you choose now is the one you will be stuck with in twenty years.Secondly, relax. It turns out to be the case for many people that ‘what the brand is’ isn’t the most important part of promoting their business, it’s simply that the company has a brand at all. A brand gives you direction to go, and your generalized business becomes a company with an identity.Now imagine if you will a bookstore, clean and new, owned by Linda. The bookstore is up and running with books on the shelves. The sign above the door simply says “Linda’s Bookstore” in an inoffensive font. The store doesn’t have a brand. There is no particular identity to the store, and Linda does not know how to approach a radio advertisement she wants to make to get the word out about her business.One day she has the notion that she wants her bookstore to be a very cozy, warm place where people will want to spend time reading and discussing. The more she thinks about it, the more she realizes her favorite bookstores were always places where salespeople didn’t mind if you just spent time browsing the stacks. This is going to be the touchstone for her brand. With every decision she makes, she will ask herself, “Does this add to the brand idea I am building?”Now Linda knows what angle she needs for her radio commercial. She decides to give out free coffee to customers in the store, and buys some fluffy chairs for the ends of the aisles. She even changes the sign above the door to include a slightly informal, old-fashioned font and an icon of the comfy chairs which have become her trademark.Maybe there were other avenues Linda could have gone, even ones that would have made her more money. But she asked herself ‘What is my company?’ and ‘What do I want it to be?’ and got to work making her company into her brand.I’m Jonathan of Vertical Thinking Print and Design, a company that serves both Toronto and Vancouver. Learn more about me and the company I work for here.
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