Start Branding Your Business With Two Simple Questions

By Annie Friedman  

When establishing your company, it’s important to make sure your company sticks out against the rest. By asking yourself the following questions, excerpted from The Mocha Manual to Turning Your Passion, you’ll be on your way to a successful business venture.

1) What is your company about or what are you about?

“What sets you or your company apart from the others who are providing a similar product or service? If you don’t know, then you must figure it out before you’re in business. What are your core values? What drives you? And as for your company, are you trying to reinvent the wheel or are you creating something that will target a specific audience and attract a certain type of clientele? Are you meeting a specific need? Is your product or service a luxury or an everyday staple? What is the overall intended purpose of your product or service and how does that relate to your anticipated customer base? When you understand fully what your company/brand is about and how it works, then you will be able to market it.”

2) Who or what is your market?

“Who’s your customer? Is she urban chic or a suburban mom? Are you targeting Fortune 500 companies or small businesses? Upscale? Mass-market? Affluent or middle-class? What types of words and images would appeal to that customer? The better you identify and understand your customer, the more effective your market will be. If you need some help, do a search on the Internet through search engines like Google or Yahoo. Simply type in your product or service to find out who is offering it, how they package it, and how they market it. You can even figure out who their customer base is by simply looking at their pricing, location, and presentation. Some websites may be geared toward high-end clientele, while others target the masses. Try to identify companies that are taking on a similar venture, because those will be your competitors. Along the way you will be able to figure out which products and companies are popular and which aren’t. It’s always helpful to look at both successful and not-so-successful models so that you can learn the best approaches and mistakes to avoid. Other helpful resources include the U.S. Small Business Administration and its Women’s Business Center, which conduct market research on service-and product-based businesses. “

For more simple and effective marketing and branding tips, check out Chapter 6 in The Mocha Manual to Turning Your Passion into Profit by Kimberly Seals Allers.