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Resources - E-commerse
THOUGHTS
ON CREATING A POSITIVE BRAND IMAGE
Steven
Presar
For any business to
become truly successful, it needs to create positive brand recognition for
its product.
This is especially true in small businesses, where there may be thousands of
similar companies vying for the customer's attention. The easiest and most
fruitful way to think of a brand is as an IMAGE that the audience
remembers. This means that successful branding of a service or product
is a matter of creating an image that is Positive, Relevant, and Memorable.
First and foremost, you want to create an image of your product or service
(or company, for that matter) that is positive.
You want to create an emotional association (such as happiness or fun) with
the product. According to researchers, there are two basic ways that you can
create these associations.
The first way is through direct experience. In this approach, a customer's
experience with the product or service impacts on the way that they see it
-- i.e. a positive experience means a positive association. This can be very
important if you are trying to reach repeat customers.
It is usually hard to use direct experience to brand a product or service
using just a web site. However, remember that a person will often judge your
company based on their experiences with your web site. Therefore, it is very
important that you make their experience a favorable one -- one where they
can get their information quickly and easily.
A second approach to branding that can be used more easily in a web
environment is to create indirect associations. This can be done in a number
of ways. The words you choose to describe your products, the name you give
them, and the graphics/pictures that you use on your web site can help to
create an emotional association.
The first step is to determine what qualities you wish to project -- do you
want to focus on the reliability of the product, or the speed, or the money
possibilities?
Once you have made this basic, vital decision, then you need to look for
words, descriptions, and graphics that will project these same qualities. If
you look at the naming of car models, you can see some good examples of this
-- A Dakota, for instance, creates an association of wild ruggedness, while
a Mustang projects the image of spirit and speed.
Remember that there are also many other factors that will also indirectly
affect how your company and product are branded.
The way that you interact with your customers is one of the most important
of these. Make sure that your company reflects the same qualities that you
want to have associated with your product or service.
Otherwise, you may be sending your customers conflicting messages. For
instance, the name of your product might be CHEETAH, but if it takes three
weeks for you to respond to emails, your brand will probably NOT be
associated with speed!
Branding your product or service can be a difficult process. Often, it will
take many repetitions of a message before a brand becomes recognized. It is
therefore very important that you put thought into the process before you
start selling your image.
About the author:
Steven Presar provides news and articles regarding starting or maintaining a
small business at http://www.Agora-Business-Center.com
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