Branding Information

Branding Your Business To Make More Money


Branding your comapny should be the first thing a company does. You have to convince potential customers to buy from you. Very few people have a monopoly like Microsoft or Ebay, Everyone else need to steer business to their company or product. When people think about your company, what is their impression. For my company, Solutions Ink, I wanted to portray a fresh, professional, ease of use type of company whoose product meets their quality needs while helping their business. I wanted to portray Solutions Ink as always on the fore front of the printing and promotional product industry's.

To achieve this I needed to tell potential customers of new and innovative products for the printing industry. Variable data, large format digital printing, digital printing with pantone colors, label and form combinations, magnet and form combinations and e-commerce ordering systems. How best to show customers then actually devise a campaign where the product you are trying to educate your customers about is sent out to them to give them ideas how to use this product to help their businesses. One campaign I organised was to compile a list of fashion retailers whoose logo's were specific pantone colors that are not reproduced well in 4 color process printing. Today with 6,8 and 10 color presses you can print in 4 color process and 2 pantone colors quite easily. This keeps the integrity of the company's logo intact in their big marketing or flyer campaigns. This is OK for large run printing jobs. The problem is that even for large chains, you tend to have regional sales in a small amount of stores. In store displays usually are done in small numbers and are printed digitally. Today there are certain digital presses that can insert pantone colors on top of the 4 color process printing. After devising a mock up campaign and targetting by variable data the buyers of these retail fashion chains, I was able to secure 2 large accounts for present and future business.

This technique can be applied to any industry. The key is to really now your product and the strengths of your company. The next step is to educate your customers on your company's merits. Then you must reinforce your image constantly to stay in your existing customers mind, as well as peak the curiousity of potential new customers.

Once you have achieved this, giving out promotional products is a useful way of staying on their minds. The trick is to find a great promotional product, that fits you budget, is useful to the end user and doesn't shout your name too boldly. Humour is a great way to have your customers keep your stuff. The items seen most times for an office person are calendars and coffee mugs. To be different in the Montreal Promotional Product market, Solutions Ink sent out to all existing customers a 14 ounze special mug which was imprinted with thermochromic ink. The ink is heat sensitive and evaporates on heat and returns on cold. With this you can print something underneath the thermochromic ink which is revealed when cold. On the outside we simply put the word STRESS in red over a black background. Most people who work know about stress. The humour side was that when you poured your hot coffee the message turned into stress free at Solutions Ink. A simple inexpensive idea that our customers really enjoyed and every time I stop at one of their offices I readily spot our mugs. On top of this I received 4 orders from these customers for these mugs with a different message for their customers.

Another great way for your company to be branded positively is to become associated with a worth while charity. Today we must give back to those less fortunate. Sponsering an event gives your company great exposure but the real treat is in knowing that you've helped others. Money is not the end all, all the time. A funny thing, helping others usually rewards yourself if not immediately some time in the future.

The trick is to plan out your actions. Research the market, research your company's attributes and brand your company's image positively and constantly. Following these steps should help your company stand out from the competition and make yourself more successful Best of luck. If you need help you can contact me at 514-337-2238 or visit us on the webb at www.solutionsink4u.com

Steven Schneidman

Steven Schneidman has a B.A. in Psychology and an MBA from Canadian Universities. He also served as a professor at a Montreal University and worked for the secong largest Canadian bank. I have owned 2 very successful printing and promotional product companies. My greatest achievement is my wife and 3 kids.


MORE RESOURCES:

Newstreamz San Marcos

Council approves brand concept on first sight
Newstreamz San Marcos
Former San Marcos Councilmember Pam Couch, chair of the city's branding task force, asked the council to approve a new branding concept on first look ...
City Council adopts new San Marcos community brandSan Marcos Mercury

all 4 news articles »


Bidwill: Arizona needs brand repair
Bizjournals.com
Bidwill and other business leaders at an economic forecast conference Wednesday want Brewer and other state leaders to focus more on Arizona's brand and ...

and more »


interclick Marks New Era With a Strikingly Fresh Brand Image
MarketWatch (press release)
"Since our goal is to connect marketers with their most ideal digital audiences at scale, our new brand identity highlights the complexity of the data that ...
Interclick Marks New Era With A Strikingly Fresh Brand ImageTheStreet.com
interclick Marks New Era With a Strikingly Fresh Brand ImageTrading Markets (press release)

all 11 news articles »


Park51, in New Branding Effort, Revamps Its Website
Wall Street Journal (blog)
The purpose of the new site is to have “new branding” to distinguish it from fake Twitter accounts and to have a formal blog, said Oz Sultan, ...

and more »


Tim Tebow Brand with Twitter, Website Rollout via XV Enterprises
LALATE (blog)
But as football news is reporting today, the branding of Tim Tebow has been ages in the works with Tebow reportedly having reserved the accounts years ...

and more »


Fibre2fashion.com

Tapout, 2 Other Clothing Companies Sold to Brand Firm
Sherdog.com
Tapout, the sport's most predominant clothing and lifestyle brand, has sold to Authentic Brands Group, a New York-based ...
Authentic Brands Group acquires TapouT and Silver Star MMA-apparel companiesMMAjunkie.com

all 42 news articles »


BioNeutral Appoints Wahlrich Group LLC as Its Marketing Agency
MarketWatch (press release)
"Wahlrich Group has agreed to provide their expertise in branding, communicating and positioning in the marketplace an integrated series of BioNeutral ...

and more »


ClickZ News

Pepsi Re-Ups 'Refresh,' Extends Project Overseas
ClickZ News
From a branding perspective, Singh likened the project and the RefreshEverything.com site to a media property in itself, suggesting it now attracts more ...

and more »


Telegraph.co.uk

CWG and branding India
Business Line
Branding the Commonwealth Games 2010 in India seems to have taken a bit of a back seat. What must one do here? How do we make best use of this big sporting ...
Commonwealth Games Delhi Image & Look to reflect India's vibrant colours and ...TheSportsCampus.com

all 463 news articles »


Marketing Week

Growing through social media
Business Review USA (blog)
I spoke with the owners of Promojam, who offers expertise in branding via Twitter, earlier this month for a future article and co-owner Amanda MacNaughton ...
11 Ways to Make Your Customers SwoonSmall Business Trends
Facebook – A New Marketing AvenueHope News
Eight Tools to Help You Manage Social Media Content OverloadMarketingProfs.com (subscription)
UAB News -PR Web (press release) -Marketing Week
all 105 news articles »

Google News

home | site map
© 2006