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Branding – is a process that takes a lot of time, energy and needs integration. Brand is the result of co-operation of designers, marketers, art directors, advertising and brand specialists.

Not only a firm, a good or a service can have a brand, but a person, (e.g. movie stars and singers always brand perfume or cosmetics with their names) and a city or a country as well (the French Cote d’Azur and Cannes are well known due to the annual cinema festival).

The bigger the brand is, the harder it is to build the communication. With the right method of approach and a clear plan of actions, brand becomes an intangible asset and provides competitive advantages.

Branding consists of the following stages:

Situational analysis

This stage involves research on capacity and saturation of the market and gives the answers on the following questions: who are we now and how do we see ourselves in several years?

USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and Positioning

Here it is better to start with the competitor’s analyzes and answer the following questions: How do our competitors position themselves? What tools of promotion do they use? How do they differentiate themselves from their rivals? 
Based on information received the new brand characteristics and mission of the firm are developed.

A good tool is to use a method of personification – to present a company as a person, providing it with personal characteristics that will have a core meaning for the company. (After all, brands are created by a person).

Strategy and Tactics

One of the main brand creation stages is the strategy and communicational tactics development. This step is implemented to decide what kind of tone will be chosen for the target audience including, what channels of communication and what forms of messages (verbal and non – verbal) are to be used. 

Naming.

     Every organization’s aim is to maximize profit and firm’s value. To realize this aim it is important to gain in sales. Organization has three different alternatives: 

    * You can persuade a customer to buy your product: make calls days and nights, send tons of letters, and wait at the doors… It’ll be impossible to stand your annoying attention and eventually, you’ll sell your product.

    * You can sit and wait: you have a high quality product, wonderful services and sooner or later your clients will find you themselves and even bring their friends and friends of friends

    * You can use one of the most powerful and difficult methods to motivate a purchase. Your client will think that it was his own will and desire to buy your product. In this case one of the manipulative tools is to create a bright and easy to remember brand name. 

Name is a communicational link between a firm and a customer. 

Name should call for pleasant emotions and associations in customer’s mind and give a positive view on your company’s conception. 

Main naming requirements: 

    * Name has to be true to life, sometimes it happens that business outgrows its name and a firm has to spend a lot of time and money on re – branding.

    * Name has to be created for customers and clients, but not for the firm. In other words, some directors name a company or a product according only to their tastes, but not to their target audience. 
 

Logotype. 

Logotype is an original name of your company or product. 

The term logotype appeared in the beginning of 19th century with the growth of production volumes, export and competition as a synonym to «ligature». The definition changed in the 20th century when logotype began to be used as a print name or some symbol representing a good or a company. 

Today logotype is an original print, trademark or a block combine with both name and trademark Logotype’s idea is to identify a company among competitors and attract attention to a good or a service. Logotype has to be meaningful and related to the firm’s activity while the aesthetic component should influence a customer’s perception and create trustful attitude. 

Logotype is a component of corporate identity. A firm’s success quite often depends on how original and attractive its logotype is. Logotype should be universal and look reasonably good whether on business letter or an advertising leaflet. 
 

Trademark.

Sole proprietors or legal entities, to personalize a good or a service use a trademark.

The trademark’s prototype appeared in 5th – 4th century BC with the invention of trade, when goods began to be made not only for personal use, but for trade purposes as well. During this period craftsman made different signs and emblems on their goods to show who produced them and where.

Through the centuries people have been improving their skills and passing them over to their inheritors. Every master was responsible for his stamped good. During 9th -12th century some masters became very famous whereas there goods were highly estimated. In 1266 Great Britain, a law was published obliging every master to mark a product produced so that the customers could find bad product producer.

The First Trademark law (similar to the present one) was also published in Great Britain (1875). This law gave to the owner of the registered mark monopoly rights and judicial defense rights of this trademark. The government was forced to publish this law, because of a high percent of identical products appearing and usage of similar trademarks by unfair producers to raise prestige and to leapfrog competitors.

Nowadays Russia has no legal notion of a trademark. In the law «About trade signs» 1992 such terms as «trade sign» or « service sign» are used.

Trademark can consist of a word label or graphic symbol, picture or illustration, dimensional or combined. (Coca –Cola, for instance, uses their original bottle forms). Trademark is an essential part of corporate identity. Trademark makes a company stand out, links emotions and associations with it, and makes it stay in customer’s memory for a long time.

Trademark can become a symbol of quality and prestige and very often explain the high price of your good or service.

Trademark can be registered or not, but only registered mark is protected from illegal copying. Special databases can check your trademark on individual content. Trademark is an intellectual property and intangible asset of your company that can be sold or used as a franchise. 

Corporate identity

Corporate identity is one of the most important tools in building and developing communications within the entire world. Corporate identity is a set of design principles, color combinations and graphic elements for all the types and forms of advertising materials, packaging, business letters and documents, office interiors and uniforms.

People perceive this world through images and that is why visual factors generate emotional backgrounds that influence our ability to remember and create different levels of informal impact.

Every day consumers interact with many brands, logotypes and trademarks, but only a few of them are perceived by our mind. To accept information a person has to correlate a visual picture with the concrete image of a good or a service. To get your logotype memorized by the customer it is important to have at least from 15 up to 20 visual contacts.

Corporate identity helps to simplify the process of perception and recollection. Your advertising identity helps to summarize information about your company that was received earlier by the customer.

The task of creating a full corporate identity, graphic elements, HTML patterns development for advertising, PR materials, and web site tech support is better to leave in the hands of one agency. In this case, you can be sure that uniformity of all of your corporate identity elements will be saved and your products will always look attractive and recognizable by your target audience.

Slogan.

If the purpose of your company’s name is to attract customers, then the aim of your slogan is to retain their attention. Brand slogan is an idea, a message that you would like to deliver to the target audience. 

Slogan has such functions as positioning, informing, it can have short – term or long – term impact associated with a special event, but always in the context of your company. 

Your firm’s idea and slogan has to be integrated in one logical conception. For instance, if to pronounce ADIDAS you will immediately remember its slogan «impossible is possible» and visa versa. This example shows that the slogan plays an important part in the brand’s life. 

Slogan is a good working tool for many big companies and corporations. Slogan design is a very hard process. It is important to take into consideration different levels of slogan perception among different target groups and board members of the company. Slogan has to be very capacious, brief, easy to remember and most importantly, it must motivate the customer to act. 
 

Brand book 

Brand book is a very complete addition that contains information about corporate style, methods and principles of its use. 

Brand book is a main book of the firm. Corporate identity is designed for the customer and its main aim is to make a company stand out among its competitors. Brand book is intended for corporate workers and employees and for those who promote corporate brand on the market. 

Brand book makes a firm stable and prepares it to adapt to different market changes; regulating a process of developing advertising image. 

Is it possible to change a trademark or logotype? What is the correct way to place a logotype in press media or on business gifts and presents? How should points of sale look like and what should your workers wear? Brand book gives all the answers. 

Brand book’s main objectives are to describe brand values and to bring them to the customer: 

    * Philosophy and mission of the company (if it is not just words then determinants of your business)

    * Brand values

    * Brand identification key factors

    * Message that brand brings to the customer

    * message distribution channels description,

    * Methods of message distribution (video, photo, text, audio 

Without the above statements, brand book might be ineffective. It is important to estimate all the aspects and work out all the associations in advance. Unapparent impact is much more efficient than direct advertising. 

Customer’s association management is the most powerful tool that guarantees success. Corporate style should influence the customer exactly this way. Brand book is a key to this goal that contains not only technical aspects, but also influences the customer’s perception. 

Branding. 

Nowadays branding is a very widespread concept and has a lot of definitions. The most brief and precise definition was given by Paul Feldwick, a very famous person in the area of marketing and advertising. He said that «branding – is a set of perception and fantasies». So branding is a process of creation and brand management. 

A brand name always calls for associations, whether you like it or not. However, you can turn it into firm’s advantages and take part in this game. 

Brand development is a job for professionals. Brand is created by a person or by a group of people, that’s why it exudes personal and group features. 

Brand is like a baby, always demanding constant attention. It is not enough just to invent brand’s name but also important not to put the branding into conflict with company’s mission. For instance, imagine Russian cartoon personage Pierott who is always sad. Now imagine that he is dancing and singing merrily. Imbalance of picture and reality raises some sort of bewilderment in customer’s mind.

If a customer understands that brand is irrational and looks inadequate it will bring a displeasing feeling and he wont buy a product. 

To change customer’s attitude about a brand from negative to positive is a very hard task and takes a lot of money and time. It is easier to create a new one. That is why your company will benefit if you allow dedicated professionals to create your brand. Professionals will constantly take care and control every step of your baby. 
 

Re-branding. 

At some point of time, a firm has to make a decision about re – branding.

Re – branding is a deep change in brand’s ideology. This includes changes to logotype, corporate identity, new name, positioning and target audients adjustments. Reasons for re – branding:

• Brand depreciation and disability of adaptation to new market situation
• New objectives and new geographic extensions
• Necessity to change or enlarge target audience, if present one can’t supply growth of firm’s profits

Re –style is one of the forms of re – branding, but contains only trademark and logotype re – design.

Re – branding and re – styling are very commonly used in foreign countries; merely a new step in brand’s life. Even Coca – Cola and Pepsi are making changes in their logotypes every 10 years.