With many small businesses in the USA struggling to maintain a strong brand through the current recession, many fail to pay attention to the future of their business beyond mere survival. However, with economic indicators pointing toward at least a partial recovery in the coming year, there is no better time to begin planning your post recession brand. Here are four strategies that will make your company shine in 2010.

1. Sharpen your brand. Is your brand ready for the new customer? Now is the time to modify your brand to meet the needs of your market as it will behave coming out of the recession. If you have been focusing on offering lower prices, decelerate and begin thinking about what sets you apart from the competition. Focus on communicating this through your products, your service, your marketing strategy, and your logo design. As spending power grows, so will your customers’ options. Give them a good reason to keep coming back.

2. Focus on your core products. This is an important part of sharpening your brand in the US, important enough to deserve its own mention. While diversifying is a good recession strategy, don’t diminish your post recession brand by neglecting core products. Find ways to innovate within these categories and always offer a fresher, more comprehensive choice than your competitors. Communicate with customers about what makes your core products superior to the competition. In most cases, a large percentage customers are coming to your store for this one thing; don’t make that a frustrating experience.

3. Be different. In this market and in the one to follow, creating a clear and obvious line between your business and your competitors is essential. You can choose to communicate this difference through innovative marketing, social networking, and/or your logo design and other physical aspects. Again, you should know what sets you apart from every other business in your field, and so should your customers. Otherwise, there is no reason not to shop elsewhere.

4. Engage employees. Many small business owners underestimate the power of their employees to make or break their brand. The people who staff your locations and answer your phones are as important as your logo design and your products. This year, take steps to familiarise employees with your brand and inspire them to truly buy into it. Use ‘we’ language and attitudes instead of ‘me’ counterparts. This motivated sales force will be far more likely to make the shopping experience a pleasant and well branded one.

Post recession economies have a unique set of rules, but they are not so much a set of restrictions as a clearly marked map to success. By getting a head start on preparing your brand for a new, recovering economy, you will be head and shoulders above your competition. While many are tempted to let their brand slide during confusing changes, being a forward thinker in this case means keeping your brand identity and logo design presentation strong while giving customers something to believe in.

Branding is a delicate process, one that no small business owner should undergo without the guidance of a branding consultant. However, even with expert advice available to all, there are certain mistakes that keep popping up in businesses big and small. Here are five branding strategies that virtually guarantee failure for your business and your brand.

Rebranding for the sake of rebranding. Change can seem like a good idea, but this is not always the case. If you have a brand that is recognized and loved by the majority of your customers, resist the urge to change it unless there is a clear and compelling reason to do so. Rebranding is expensive, and undoing your rebranding when it fails miserably is even more so. On the other hand, if your brand is failing to inspire your target market, it may be to time to make some changes. A branding consultant will be able to help you identify what, if anything, you should change. Read about five reasons to rebrand.

Micro-marketing. Often, a branding move that kills small businesses is treating one product in a way that is separate from or incongruent with the overall brand. Many businesses launch a new product with gusto and a marketing campaign separate from the general branding and marketing. However, it is important to make sure your product marketing matches your overall marketing, and that your product’s brand works as a part of your business’s brand.

Forgetting the call to action. It is not enough to promote your products and your business. No branding campaign is complete without a call to action. Don’t just tell customers what is great about your products or services; tell the public how badly they need them and how they can become the next proud owners. A call to action is most effective if it is part of your overall branding and not just a phrase at the end of your advertisements.

Entertaining without advising. Many ad campaigns are brilliantly funny and highly successful. This often leads small business owners to think that they too should use humor in their marketing. While humor definitely makes an advertisement more effective and memorable, you have to make sure that this humor matches your brand without detracting from your product. In other words, offer information first and entertainment second.

Being generic. The test of good marketing and branding is whether you could remove any single element and still have the message be recognizable as belonging to your small business. Don’t think you can slap a logo on something and automatically be well branded; you have to make every word and every image a seamless part of your overall identity. This is difficult for the amateur, but second nature for branding professionals, which is why almost all successful companies consult them.

Are you committing any of these branding crimes? Luckily, there is hope. Consult a branding consultant today and get the direction you need to rocket your brand and your company to success.