What is your Brand?

When you see a red bulls-eye symbol what do you think of? Target? How about the golden arches? McDonald’s? How about this; have you ever referred to a copy machine as a Xerox even if it is another brand or a tissue as a Kleenex? These companies have spent billions getting you to recognize their business and much of their success is owed to that name/symbol recognition.   You may be a small business, but is there any reason why you should not follow the examples of the big boys?

Keep your name consistent!  Many small business crafters sell on a variety of sites which is great….more chance of being seen, right?  Then why do many insist on renaming their shop at every turn or having a shop URL that does not match their banner name?  Customers will try to find shops that they like and one of their biggest tools is search engines such as Google to find it again later.  If each and every venue you sell on uses a different name, how are they going to find you?  I will often try to find shops while writing articles and get frustrated when the search turns up empty only to find that there are many more shops and even blogs, each with a different name by the same artist.  Keep it simple for your customers and use the same or a very similar name for each venue you sell on.

That being said, when you are choosing your name, step back and see it as a customer will see it.  What may be a cute play on words may very well confuse a customer when they try to read it.  A super long name will not fit on a business card without a magnifying glass or a jumble of letters that a customer has to decipher will cause more trouble than most are willing to go through.  Take a second when you are naming your business and imagine how a customer will read it.

Logo-do you have one?  The big guys all have a logo that is immediately recognizable around the world.  While you may, not yet at least, be known globally, there is still no reason not to have some professional consistency in your business.  Banners, avatars, letterheads, and business cards should all have a similar feel if not a common logo.  You don’t have to be rich to be uniform.  You can design one yourself through Photoshop or one of the free versions of it and if you are not talented in that arena, there are plenty of graphic artists on HandmadeArtists as well as other sites that would be more than happy to create a custom logo/banner/avatar just for you very reasonably. Make sure your brand will stand the test of time.  You don’t want to reference some fleeting moment of pop culture that will be outdated in a few years.  A guy in a green suit doing Gangnam style will probably not be your best bet for a logo since in a few years it will be passé.  Make it simple, timeless and clean so that you can use it down the road for all your promotional needs.

Pictures say a thousand words!  Take a look at a catalog or other big sites.  All of their pictures show a consistent feel throughout.  Backgrounds, styling, cropping, and color can unify your shop front and when a customer finds your page they will know that it is you.  While each and every photo does not have to be the exact same, after all, we are artists and like to play with different looks, the overall feel should be consistent throughout your shop.

There is no reason that a small business cannot look professional with just a few common themes running through it.  Each business owner must decide their name and look for themselves, but by branding your name and logo into a cohesive look, you will show yourself as more professional to your potential customers.

Tags: brand, business, Handmade, image, logo, name, professional, shop name

Posted in Handmade, Promote Handmade, Selling Tips