A Doggie Dog World

I walked into my favorite groomer's the other day and as I was presenting my little beast for his nail trimming I noticed that my groomer was reading an article about branding.
I realized when your dog groomer starts talking about branding you know that word is no longer just an ad agency buzz word, but a word that deserves some attention.

So branding. What is it?

dictionary.com defines brand as: kind, grade, or make, as indicated by a stamp, trademark, or the like.
Of course it also defines brand as: a mark formerly put upon criminals with a hot iron.
Considering that branding seems to have originated out of the ad world, that second definition probably isn't that far off the mark, but I think we can look a little deeper.

Your brand is how other people see you, it is your worth in their eyes. Take the Starbucks brand - for all of the ups and downs, this is a multi-million dollar company based around a slightly exotic cup of coffee. When you think about Starbucks you think about their logo, that distinctive green you see in all of their shops and depending on how you feel about the company, a few other adjectives will come to mind.

When you go to build your own brand you need to consider what you want it to say about your company. The first step is choosing a good name. There are thousands of books written just about picking a good name. My suggestion? Don't stress over it, just think of it as a tattoo. This is something that you are going to have for the rest of your life, so make certain it is what you want.

The next thing you want to consider is what your overall feeling is going to be. Are you a straight laced, business suit kind of company? If so, you'll probably want to consider more conservative colors, such as gray, maroon, dark blue. If you're a jeans and flip-flops place than consider something a little more festive.

And once you pick your colors, use them! Everywhere! These are the steps towards creating your brand. There are more and there will be more posts in the future, but this should give you enough to think about for now.