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Creating your brand identity? Why bother? This is an absolute must if your product is to survive in today's highly competitive marketplace. No matter how great your product or service, if you don't create and implement a great brand identity, your business is doomed. Need some help? Try the tips listed below.

Take a lesson from the corporate giants who spend millions upon millions of dollars to ensure their brand outranks the other guy's brand. Like them, you must find a slogan, a color, and a logo that will make your company or your product rise up out of the pack.

As an ex-advertising and publicity hound, I counseled my clients to consider these simple but specific issues when creating an identity brand:

1. MOTTO OR SLOGAN: If you are going to advertise with a slogan, it must be simple and brilliant. A great slogan example is the Avis Rental Car's highly effective, "We Try Harder!" Like the Avis slogan, your slogan must convince a customer to choose your product, in as few words as possible. A strong slogan will also tell consumers how your brand is better and how it will meet the customer's needs better.

2. COLOR: My college psychology class lasted an entire semester because the psychology behind color is deep and utterly important when planning a brand identity. For examples, pink makes us feel calmer, red makes food taste better. It's true!

In addition, color is very faddish. Be sure to pick a classic color ensuring your brand won't pass away with the whims of the fashion season. Strong corporate colors include burgundy, hunter green, royal blue, black and gold.

3. LOGO: Spend some money on this. Don't use a stock logo; you could be surprised down the road, like one of my clients, who discovered another company was using the exact same logo. A logo will be with your business for a long time, so it must have lasting value.

Give a graphic artist a chance to create your logo. If he she or she begins designing without an in-depth brainstorming session with you, fire them. That artist is not interested in your vision.

Once you have some logos to review, choose carefully. Choose for strength. Avoid wispy fonts, unless your business is highly feminine. And choose strong building shapes; triangles give a sense of balance and stability.

4. IMPLEMENTATION: Above all, you must ensure that all elements of your business reflect your brand identity. Your business cards, your street signs, your vehicle decals, your stationary, and especially your web and print advertising must all follow your brand identity's design.

If you are stuck for ideas, examine what some of history's most successful companies have done like Staples (easy button), Coke (its bottle), MacDonald's (golden arches), and Disney (who'd have known how far a pair of mouse ears could carry a company).

But creating that perfect company brand identity will not ensure success. Even the most clever and innovative brand identity design will fail if a business owner is not consistent, or is careless in the brand's implementation.

Learn more about this author, Sheree Zielke.
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