Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry and working in the stone sector for more than a decade. In this column he offers advice on how to make an impact in the market. This month Alan goes back to basics.
As we continue our overview of the most important elements of marketing, this month I want to cover branding. Before you switch off at the mention of the ‘b’ word it’s important to realise that your corporate image is important if you want to increase your sales and your profits. And you don’t need to spend a fortune to get it right.
Branding seems to be one of those words that induces almost instant disdain among many of my clients in the construction industry. That is probably because there’s been a lot of mainstream media coverage bemoaning the exorbitant cost of corporate re-brands that seem to have achieved very little – Google’s new logo, where the most miniscule changes were made; the new strapline for British Airways ‘To Fly To Serve’.
That’s why I prefer to use the term ‘corporate identity’ rather than branding.
I’m not talking about redesigning your company logo or coming up with clever catchphrases. I am talking about some simple and inexpensive things you can do to make your company look more professional.
So what do you need to focus on?
The chances are you don’t need to re-brand. What you need is consistency with your existing brand.
That means if your corporate colours are red and blue, you make sure you use the same shade of red and blue throughout your business.
Within reason, it doesn’t really matter what logo you have or what colours you use. It’s far more important that you are consistent with them.
Every colour has a reference number and you need to use your specific shade of corporate colour. If you don’t know what yours are, find out from whoever designed your logo. If you cannot do that, choose some and stick to them.
If your logo is aligned to the left on your headed paper and business cards, make sure it’s not centred on your website and email signature. If you use the font Tahoma on your quotes, make sure you use the same font on your email. And make sure everyone in the company uses the same style of email signature. Everyone’s business card should have the same layout with the same size fonts.
Whenever a customer has contact with your company everything should reinforce the fact that it is your company they are in contact with.
Just make some decisions, apply them across the company and stick to them. It’s okay if you have a change of mind in the future, but just make sure you apply the change everywhere.
These are simple, inexpensive ways to present a professional, cohesive corporate identity that, when everything else is equal, will help to elevate you above your competitors – or at the very least not allow them to elevate themselves above you.
That’s why I usually suggest reviewing and, where necessary, modifying your corporate image before spending too much elsewhere. In building terms it’s like getting the foundations right before starting on the superstructure.
Here are a few keynotes on corporate identity:
1. Have corporate colours and use them consistently.
2. Use the same fonts, email signature layout and business cards design across the whole company.
3. Make sure there is design consistency between your literature and website.
4. Keep at least three file versions of your logo. A high resolution Jpeg (for printing in-house documents such as tenders / quotes), a low resolution Jpeg (for screen view such as your email signature) and an EPS file (for professional graphic design work such as brochures).
5. Always get your business stationery professionally printed.
6. Apply any changes you make universally across the company, including websites and emails.
Next month I will consider advertising.