What costs more, a branded or generic product? Obviously, a branded product. Why is that? The answer is because a branded product carries with it a reputation and a personality. Consumers immediately recognize it and the message it represents. Creating a brand is an arduous task that is an ongoing process. Creating a positive brand identity serves as a vital underpinning to all future marketing efforts.

Your brand is your product's and company's personality. It conveys and image and feeling. All of your branding efforts must reinforce and instill that feeling. For example, when using flyer printing make sure it is colorful and exciting. Each piece of marketing copy put in the public domain has impact upon the perception of your brand. One negative impression can forever taint a given customer.

For this reason it is often wise to appoint one person within your organization to review all aspects of marketing to ensure this doesn't happen. Someone who is analogous to a brand "policeman". Much time and resources go into your brand development. Having this brand guardian helps prevent diluting it with one careless error like sending out a drab mailing as opposed to full color brochures.

Every little detail counts and each item that meets the public eye deserves scrutiny. Attention is needed concerning everything to the next time you print business card batches to everyday folder printing. Each impression upon a potential customer needs to reinforce and solidify your brand. Your message must be consistent. Consumers are very unforgiving even if it involves a single faux paux.

Today, the online interactive world obviously provides great tools for brand development. Niche markets can be targeted using multimedia and allowing for vital consumer feedback. Affiliate marketing with a company in another industry can be useful especially if you share an overlapping audience. Selection of a partner should be done with care and under the strict eye of the brand "policeman".

Many companies find charitable participation both fulfilling as well as brand enhancing. When you select a cause with which your market identifies, then you accomplish both good works as well as increasing goodwill. A brand is more than a color or catch phrase. It is a feeling and a personality. Consumers tend to personify a product. Make yours act like a good person.

A branding effort never ends. The country's oldest and most revered brands are always refined and kept fresh. The mood of the marketplace changes and evolves. Demographics change. It is imperative to keep attuned to your marketplace and adjust your brand along with the evolving desires of your customers. Many studies have shown it takes over 10 impressions for a brand to first stick. It then requires many more to continue to retain the aura and personality you so desire. Never get complacent. Nurture and protect your brand and it will pay you back many times over.