Whether you choose to hire a PR firm or to do it yourself, creating your company’s brand identity is important. Brand identity is when specific attributes are associated with your company to help consumer easily recognize it. Whether you use a specific color like “Tiffany blue” or a graphic like the Nike Swoosh, brand identity can be seen as an essential key to growing your company’s brand.

Keep in mind that if you are not minding your brand that it can be hijacked such as the case of Exxon on Twitter. In 2008, someone posed as a representative from Exxon and began answering question Twitter. At first is seemed as though it really was a good thing for the company and then it turned into bad publicity when this person started sharing negative information about Exxon. Too late, the damage was done on Twitter and has become known as a key example of what can happen if you don’t manage your brand.

When you create your brand, there are specific things that you need to keep in mind such as the colors you use or the graphics that are included with your brand. Make sure that you do your research because you don’t want to create a brand identity that is…

• Closely associated with a competitor
• Similar to Fortune 500 companies and could be confusing
• Not easily translated to another language or negative connotations when translated to a different language (i.e., Chevy Nova translates to “it won’t go”)

Recently, I found a CBS show from 2006 where the Sunday morning Money show was asking its audience to help them determine their logo which would help brand their show. Even though this is an old show, the content shared in the video below is still relevant to creating a good brand identity.

There are so many ways your brand can get online and participate among your customers and would-be customers. The name o f that of that game is transparency and sincerity. It’s not about polling your customers or only conversing when there’s a problem; it’s about having honest, every-day conversations and engaging your community.

If you’re not already online, check out some blogs before you dive right in. If you’re not using your voice or moderating comments about your brand, chances are that hasn’t stopped other people from doing it. A good way to start is to simply listen and gauge what your brand looks like in the online space. Perform a simple Google search to see where you are mentioned.

Listen to what they're saying about your brand. Image: iStock Luis Carlos Torres

Once you discover who’s talking about your brand (and who’s neglecting your brand), you can begin to form answers to these questions:

1. How have others perceived your brand? Is it in line with your corporate identity?
2. Is your logo familiar or trusted?
3. Has anything you’ve done in the recent past been controversial? If so, how have people reacted amongst themselves and has your company responded in any way?
4. Is there consistency in how people interpret your brand?
5. Are there any consistent keywords associated with your brand? Check keywords between sites that mention your brand.
6. Do people believe that you fulfill your brand promise? If not, how far do you fall short?
7. Are there any media outlets that don’t cover your news? If so, identify how to reach that audience.
8. Are your press mentions positioned accurately?
9. Do your employees participate in any conversation about your brand? Do they properly understand your brand’s promise?
10. Perform this type of research on your closest competitors to get a sense of how each fares.

Once you map out the answers to these, you’ll begin to know where you need to be begin having a presence. Just remember, social media trends aren’t worthwhile unless you know your customers are participating in that space. Trying to engage your customers via Twitter if they’re not already in that space is less useful to you.

As of yesterday, two of the world’s largest beer brands became one…say hello to Anhauser-Busch InBev.

Image: Brand New

The takeover by Belgian brewer InBev, famous for Stella Artois and Beck’s, will see them taking ground in the US market thanks to Anhauser-Busch, most recognisable for college favourite Budweiser.

As you can see from the logo and name of the new corporation, the two companies have more or less decided to squish their identities together, hoping to form ‘The Best Beer Company in a Better World’. So, how’s this going to work?

Read more

What got Brandcurve readers talking during the first six months of 2008?  Check out the posts below to see what the buzz was about.

Starbucks Rolls Out $1 Coffee and Free Refills

Quiznos Tries to Stay Competitive

Kool-Aid Scented Reeboks are Coming: This is Not a Joke

Paula Abdul Relaunches Her Brand at the Super Bowl

Target Dismisses Bloggers (and Customers) as Insignificant and Irrelevant

Color Theory Primer - The Color Wheel

Discovery Channel Logo Update

5 Steps to Branding Your Business

Trademark Violation or Not? You Decide

eBaum’s World is known for its humerous content, but today I found something that branding people will love!  It’s an image gallery of 20 brand logos showing the old logo design and the new logo design in a retrospective of logos from the past and present.

It’s interesting to look at some of these “past and present” logos next to each other.  Some really stand out as marked improvements - more modern and Web 2.0-ish, while others don’t seem to make much sense at all.

Here are several logo redesigns that I like (old logos are on the left and new logos are on the right): Read more

Can you explain your brand identity, meaning your brand position, purpose, promise and image, in one sentence? 

If you can, that’s great.  It means you have a clear definition of your current brand identity. 

If not, you need to take some time to define your brand so you can consistently communicate your brand message across all of your customer touch points. Read more

In an attempt to align its 21 offices around the world, Enterprise IG has rebranded itself as The Brand Union.  With a the new name comes a new logo.  What do you think of it?  According to LogoBlog:

The Brand Union’s new symbol is a unique representation of the letters or counterforms that spell the words ‘brand’ and ‘union’. Their arrangement speaks for the bringing together of people, their ideas, touchpoints that brands need to thrive and above all, unification. The use of the blue and gray colors symbolizes sobriety and clear-headedness.  The fresh values set by The Brand Union are: ‘Curious, Gutsy, Grounded and Inspiring’. The Brand Union is developing the principle of being master brand builders; striving hard to be unified, as the name implies. Read more