Your brand plays a key role in your marketing efforts.  If you find yourself asking, “What is a brand?”, you probably don’t have one.  Your brand is a message that you are sending to the world.  This message tells the world what your business is, how your products and services are different from the competition, and what your product or service can do for them, the consumer.

So, why is a brand important?  Well, if you have a brand, when you come up with a new product, your former customers will immediately know the new product is coming from you.  You won’t have to do as much “up front selling.”  Your customers will automatically be drawn to the product.

If this sounds far fetched, think about your own spending habits.  If given a choice between a product from a company you have already bought from in the past and a similar product from a company you have never heard of, which product are you more likely to buy?

The first step is to create the brand and then worry about marketing your brand.  If you choose a bad brand, all the marketing and advertising won’t help you.  All you will be doing is furthering the image of the bad brand.  However, if you choose a good brand, then your advertising and marketing efforts will go even farther in promoting your business and brand.




Establishing your brand will also help you decide where and how to market your business.  If you have a scrapbooking business, you can brand yourself as the “quick and easy scrapbooker” or as a “classic and polished scrapbooker” or even as an “artistic scrapbooker”.

If you choose the first option, you will want to market your business to people who want simple solutions, such as busy moms.  If you chose the second brand, you will want to focus your marketing efforts on clients who crave a cherished memento, such as a new bride.  And if you chose the third brand, you will want to target your marketing efforts to those who enjoy trying out the latest and most expressive scrapbook techniques.

Determining your brand can also help you establish yourself as an expert in your field. This will help you market your business.  Once you have established yourself as an expert, you will notice that people may start coming to you for advice or asking you to write articles or take part in their seminars and other events.  This will give you a whole new audience to share your business with and can create new marketing opportunities.

Without a brand, your business will look “new’’ and unprofessional.  You may seem unsure of yourself and what your mission is.  However, once you have created your brand, you are able to tell the world, “This is who I am, and this is what my business is all about”.