Brand awareness: tips on building your company's image.

• Author: Hromadka, Erik
• Position: MARKETING

IT DOESN'T TAKE LONG to judge a brand. We do that in just a fraction of a second each time we see a familiar logo that elicits feelings and emotions about a company, product or service.

As a unique and identifiable symbol, name or trademark, a brand differentiates competing products or services by triggering a relationship between the company and its customers. For better or worse, that relationship is based on previous experience with the brand and it generates expectations about what future interaction will be like.

Therefore, it should be no surprise that the process of creating brand recognition for a business is an extremely important marketing tool that can take years to develop, and making sure a brand's identification creates a positive impression is a process that never ends.

Be unique. Tim Simic, owner of Green Light Creative in Hammond, notes that branding is an opportunity for a company to strike out and develop something unique.

Although it may be tempting for companies to look at their competition, collect existing marketing materials and try to do something similar, Simic says that is the wrong approach.

"When you are establishing a brand, you are trying to tell people 'I am different from my competition!" he says. "So many times, people try to set rules and say 'you have to do this ...' but I like to go in without any rules and think 'what can we do?'" he says.

Once a brand is developed, the next step is to advertise the brand to targeted audiences. While that usually means reaching customers, it can also include building a brand identity among employees, vendors and the general public.

For example, since recent mergers, acquisitions and name changes have made the banking industry very competitive; Simic says it is important to build brand recognition among both the existing customers and those who may become new customers.

In addition to creating marketing images that develop a company's brand, Simic also looks for unique ways to get those images noticed. For example, when working with banks in northwest Indiana, he often uses Snapquik signs that have a metal frame to display banners at drive-though teller windows.

"When you are going to do something, you need to do it well," Simic says. Having a banner with your logo flapping in the wind may not present the most professional image, he notes.

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