Branding is the process of creating a specific strong, memorable image and identity for your business. Besides utilizing good design and media that will help sell your product or service and stick in consumers' minds, a good brand should inspire loyalty and confidence in your company by emoting specific responses and associations in your target audience.

In order for this to happen, make sure whomever you hire to help you develop a brand carefully considers your target market. Although any research you do in the process of developing a brand can be done through various sources, it's a good idea to try and find a company that you want to create all of your materials as well as develop your brand. That way you know the designers and editors working on your materials have a firm understanding of your brand. You can often receive a discount from the sheer volume of work, as well.

Once you've developed your brand, it's crucial to utilize it as universally as possible so that it can succeed at being instantly recognizable, memorable and so the associations it inspires will truly become one with how the consumer views your company, products and/or services. In fact, your company should literally become your brand, and every aspect of your look, behavior and business philosophy should exude it.

To ensure that your brand is as cohesively applied as possible, it is again helpful to enlist the aid of a single design and media house for producing all of your advertising and promotional materials, as opposed to going to multiple sources. Different studios can have very different styles, and if the way your brand is presented fluctuates too greatly, it will be more difficult for it to effectively serve its purpose. Be careful of advertising firms that look like they might handle everything in-house, but actually end up outsourcing much of their work. Also, try to find a company that has been around at least a good decade, as well, so that you know they'll be able to keep creating your materials into the future and won't just disappear as so many recently have.

Here is a list of some materials that you should apply your brand to:

Print Design and Development: Corporate Identity

A Corporate Identity is representative of the core essence of your business. It should therefore truly be the visual expression of what your business does as well as the philosophy by which it operates. It includes elements such as Logos, Stationary, Letterhead, Envelopes, Business Cards, Labels, etc.

Advertising and Self Promotion