But, a brand defines the firm that will deliver and stand behind the products or service that the customer will buy and use. It is an amalgamation of various aspects of a company that are brought together cohesively and called a “brand”.So what are these “aspects of a company” that form a brand?

The People

The people of a company provide the basis for the corporate brand image. They should be engaged, interested in their customers, responsive and competent. This will foster greater respect and brand loyalty over the long run. Ultimately, people define a brand.

Value and Priorities

The values, proprieties and the company philosophy are the very essence of a company. What ideals does the company hold up? What will not be compromised, no matter what? Some companies have a cost-driven culture that supports a value position in the market place. Others place priority on delivering a prestige customer experience. Innovation, quality, and customer concern and 3 values and priorities that are worth highlighting because they are so frequently seen as drivers of corporate brands.

Products and Services

A brand is also defined by the quality of it’s products or services. Is your product high in quality? Is your service fast and dependable? Being fast, responsive and dependable enhance the brand and create brand loyalty. Companies spend millions on advertising and marketing. But some companies fail to tackle some basic fundamental issues such as customer service and value for money.

Corporate Identity

A company’s logo and corporate identity also enhance the brand and complete it. The logo, the colors used, the marketing messages in their promotions all act to create the brand image. These corporate identity elements should reinforce the company’s values and priorities. They must be aligned to the kind of products or service the company delivers. Then only do you have a brand that benefits the company.

Over the coming weeks, I will eloborate on the points mentioned above and write details posts on how companies turn from being just a company to a brand.

The situation is further complicated by the need for every company to have a domain name. It is very hard to get and register a decent domain name and much harder to get your hands on domains which are short and contain generic words in them.

So, how does a small business owner come up with a good company name that would also be available as a domain url? A tough question to answer. I will try to answer this question based on the experience I have had helping many small business get a brand name that works well.

I always advocate that companies should be bold enough to separate their company name from their domain name. This is more so for companies that choose a company name that is not available as a domain name. They could try and find alternative variations of the name as a domain name but if your company name already exists as a domain name and is owned by some one else then, you should consider the fact that you might put in a lot of time and effort into promoting your brand and that domain name might get hits as a result of of your target audience assuming your domain name would be the same as your company name.

So, it is quite tricky. On the one hand you need to select a company name that relates to what you do or is in some one connected with your brand story and on the other hand it has to be unique enough to be available as a domain name that you can grab and register.

First of all, make sure your company does not use common names or words that would have been used by a 1000 other companies. I know this is easier said than done. But it is quite important to have at least some part of your company unique.

You can try several different methods of coming up with names. If you do not have an obvious choice or the compulsion to use a particular name or combination or words, then you can try and formulate a list of names in the 4 popular categories of brand names: Generic, Evocative, Derivative and Negative.

Second, before you finalize the name, make sure it is available as a domain URL. Normally, it would be a good branding practice to get a domain URL name that is short and easy to remember. It is not nessasary to have a domain name that includes all the elements of your company name. If it makes sense, it is ok to have one or two elements of the name.

Marketers must deal with a variety of problems when designing advertising campaigns. By having a professional and unique business logo, your marketers will not have to worry about your business not appearing professional to your potential consumers. You want to be viewed as a credible source for the services that you provide and your business logo will help you to attract consumers through its professional design.

Credibility is defined as the extent to which the recipient sees the source as having relevant knowledge, skill or experience. Your consumers will look at your advertisements and business logo design and will subconsciously make a decision whether or not to find you a credible source of information. Credibility may often become a hurdle when businesses choose to use sources such as celebrities or sport athletes that are controversial or unprofessional. You may find that your potential consumers relate your business logo design to those services and choose not to use your services.

Your advertisement may have attracted consumers but you may have lost them because of bad source usage. These are concepts that must be kept in mind during the business logo design and advertisement process.

You are viewed as source of information and credibility to your consumers. Your business logo design should emulate that fact to your consumers. Companies should be very careful and selective during the business logo design process. You do not want a business logo design that is too complicated nor do you want one that is too simple.

You will want a business logo design that fall somewhere in between and one that is very memorable. People may not remember your ad copy but if they see your business logo design again, they will recall your advertisement. The characteristics of your business logo design defines you as a source of information or as a business to avoid.

You should be very selective and recognize characteristics in other business logo designs that have worked in the past. You can use the ideas and incorporate them uniquely.

Professional companies, corporations or businesses should not consider using free company logo design services. The services will not provide you with the quality and professionalism that you require. Your company logo design is the face of your business and you want that face to be pretty and appealing. You want the company logo design to be professional and unique. Only a professional graphic designer can provide you with those services, not some Internet based free company logo designs.

There are also free company logo designs that are available free logo design software packages. These packages are very simplistic graphic programs and you will not be able to design the type of professional logo design that you require for a company. Many offer templates for free company logo designs as well. These templates will only produce free company logo designs that other businesses or individuals may be using as well.

Business owners may also purchase the necessary logo design software, but unless you have a professional graphic artist on hand, it will be very difficult for you to create the kind of artwork that you would require for a logo design. Many businesses that are large enough benefit from the ability to have an in-house design group. These generally consist of professional graphic artists and are able to create better graphics than a free company logo designs software would.

Professional graphic design companies are experts in their field and if you own a business, then it is no big deal to have your logo professionally designed as it is considered a business expense. Business owners know that business expenses are tax deductible at the end of the year. Why let your business suffer at the hands of a free company logo designs when your money is well spent on a professional design?

The first steps in deciding on a graphic logo design should be to find a professional graphic designer. You should study their logo design portfolio and see what type of work they have done in the past or commonly do. Look for recurring themes in logos and make sure that each logo is unique. Some designers will use the same font or piece of art in many graphic design logos. You want your graphic logo design to appear unique and not be similar to other designs.

The next step is to look at logo design prices, terms and conditions, guarantees and refund policies. These are all very important in choosing a graphic design logo provider. You want to be sure that your budget is capable of covering an expensive project and you want to know what you can get with your budget. In the field of graphic design, you definitely get what you pay for so you want to be sure that you can afford the professional graphic design logo that you are looking for.

After deciding on a provider, go ahead and order your service or call for a quote. Most graphic designers do most of their business on the Internet. This allows you to find the best in graphic design logos throughout the country or the world. Simply emailing for a quote with your idea will suffice. Many will also be able to chat with you through a messenger or through email. The graphic designer will gather as much information as they can from you for your graphic design logo. They will need to know what your ideas are and what you are looking for in a graphic design logo. They will also need to know what your business name is, the area your business is involved in and if you have any key phrases or terms that you would like incorporated.

The next step is allowing the graphic designers to do their magic. They will come up with several designs for your graphic design logo, depending on what package you have chosen. They will then allow you to view those and allow you to offer any critiques or ideas you may have. If you don’t like any of them, they will start the process over until you are satisfied. Once you decide on a design they will make any necessary revisions based on your package and your needs. They will then save the graphic design logo in a variety of formats so that your graphic design logo can be used on anything from stationary to the sides of cars or vans.

These are all important aspects that should be researched while choosing a logo design firm. Logo design firms should portray themselves as professionals and provide you professional services. Remember that while you are looking for the best price and quality in a logo design, you will get what you pay for.

Image advertising is becoming increasingly popular in all types of services and products. From soft drinks to airlines and cars, there are many brands that have begun using image advertising. Many people associate with certain brands because of the images that are seen when these brands are advertised. Your company logo design can encompass image advertising by providing an image that people are able to see, remember and relate to. The key is to develop company logo designs that appeal to your consumers.

The greater the number of competitors, the more important it is to have positive and appealing company logo designs. It is difficult for consumers to differentiate one business from another if there is not an image behind the company. The image that your consumer’s relate to you with should be the company logo designs. Although your services may be similar or exactly the same as your competitor, your company logo designs will help your consumer differentiate between the two businesses.

Creating a brand image is an important part of a company’s marketing and advertising campaign. Brand image can be accomplished through professional company logo designs that consumers are able to distinguish from the competitors. Most advertising dollars in marketing plans are spent on distinguishing your company logo designs from the next company or competitor. Your brand image and company logo designs can be used as your company’s image advertising. Company logo designs provide images and words that will be burned into the minds of consumers.

After a company develops a good brand image, the company is able to focus on brand loyalty. Company logo designs have a lot to do with brand loyalty as well. Company logo designs can make or break a business when it comes to brand image and loyalty. You want to have an appearance that is unique so that your consumers will remember your company logo designs and continue to look for your company logo designs in the future. Brand image is all a part of the creative process that leads to a successful advertising and marketing campaign.

When a design customer wants a design service - logo design, website design, graphics, marketing material etc, they are less likely to spend more for services that actually give them true value. They would rather spend small amounts multiple times and still not get what they wanted in the first place. By trying out cheap services, they spend a small amount, but because they are not happy with the end result, they move to another provider and spend a little more and so on and end up spending more than they would have if they had gone to the right provider in the first place.

Not all design customers are like this, though. A percentage of the design customers look around for a service provider based on their expertize and experience rather than simply the lowest priced one.

When it comes to website design, companies do not tend to set aside any budget. We have seen customers who spend a fortune on a trade show booth that might or might not get them any revenue, but opt for a cheap website design and shoddy copy for their corporate website.

So how can design customers go about spending their budget on getting value for their money? The internet has become such a noisy place now. If you Google for any of the design services, you will find 100s of companies offering virtually similar services. There is no more differential now in the eyes of the design customer. At least in terms of value for money.

With so many providers and websites our there, and with no immediate way of identifying the good from the bad, it is quite a challenge for the design customer to pick and select the right provider. Some times, very good providers might be offering their services at an affordable rate.

While it is possible to imbibe certain good brand design principles into a logo, a brand is much more than a logo. It includes the logo, the corporate colors, the website, the marketing materials and most of all, it includes the quality of service or product and the customer service provided by the company. All these factors together make for a brand that makes an impression.

Brands like Nike or Pepsi have an almost unlimited budget to spend on marketing. People are exposed to such brands constantly and over a prolonged period of time and hence they become instantly recognizable and in some cases come to be associated with the product or service.

Why else would Red Bull spend so much on organizing air races or on it’s F1 team? To reach it’s target market of men interested in adrenaline pumping sports. Constant exposure to Red Bull, via the ads during these events or via it’s logo on the F1 car or aiplanes, will hopefully create a brand recall and brand association.

I am not saying it is wrong in thinking that your logo should be well recognized and should stand our in crowd. But a logo alone will not do the job of building a brand.

Finally, in an effort to start building the brand, we have started a formal website for Spellbrand using a blog format. The topics that will be posted include Graphic Design, Website Design, Branding, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business Advice and more.

This week will be spent tweaking the design and making sure every thing works. So perhaps you will be see some posts that are posted for testing purposes or any other errors on the site. Please bear with us.

The SpellBrand Team