OER-CRAFT

Course 2 on Branding and Communication

BC_C_2  

 Title:
Course 2 on Branding and Communication
 Keywords
branding, communication
 Author:
IWS
 Languages:
English
 Objectives/goals:
In this part of the course you will learn, about how you can design your corporate image, what the best way is to choose your brand name and how you can define your product. These three topics are a big part of how you market yourself. Learning how to brand yourself will make your marketing plan more successful. First we will start with how to design your corporate image, after you have learned how to design your corporate image, you will start with how to choose your brand name, and after that you will learn what the best way is to define your product. 

 Description:
In this part of the course you will learn, about how you can design your corporate image, what the best way is to choose your brand name and how you can define your product. These three topics are a big part of how you market yourself. Learning how to brand yourself will make your marketing plan more successful. First we will start with how to design your corporate image, after you have learned how to design your corporate image, you will start with how to choose your brand name, and after that you will learn what the best way is to define your product. 

 Course contents:

 Module 1 - Branding and Communication

Unit 1 - Designing your corporate image

 Clic to read  How to design your corporate image



A corporate image is a way of how you present yourself to the public, such as customers and investors. A corporate image is important to every organisation, regardless of size, mission or purpose. Your corporate image will define you as a company to your customers, partners and the public. Your corporate image also sets you apart from your competitors. When your corporate image is effective, it will make you easy recognisable through your designs, actions and communications.
 
• Review the history, mission and methods: Before you create a corporate image for the public, it is important that you have an idea of what your company stands for. Examine your business plan, mission statement, values statement, strategic plan and other corporate documents that can define why your company exist and what makes you different. 

• Find out what others think of your company: This is something that you can do via a survey, ask questions, set up interviews and have a group panel, to gain the understanding of how all your stakeholders view your company. After you understand how your stakeholders look at your company, if you feel like you are sending the wrong message, you can start deciding if you want to change your perception. 

• Do research about you competitors: Check out the websites, read testimonials from their customers and visit their social media. By looking at those internet sites you can start deciding and figuring out, what you like and what you don’t like, and how easy or difficult it is to grasp their corporate identities. 

• Create your vision for the future: Your corporate image should embrace the goals that you have for the future as well for now. You can include your employees, leaders and partners. 

• Design a logo: The design of the logo should be designed in a way that people immediately think of your company. The logo should be clean and simple. This because a logo will only be a little part of your corporate image. A good logo does not always a lot of meaning until it is paired with other design aspects. 

Tip: When you have trouble with creating your own logo, you can decide to hire a third party, or try to create one with a website. There is enough website that can help you, and the cost will be lower than when you hire a third party.

• Act ethically: The behaviour of your corporate in general is one the most important aspects of your corporate image. Your actions must convey trust to your customers as well to the stakeholders. 

• Pursue customer satisfaction: Whenever you are making a decision that has an influence on your customers keep in mind what they would think. 

• Handle customer issues in a fair and honest manner. 

• Deliver high-quality products. 

• Ensure your products meet safety standards. 

• Forming a communication style: Each company has a different way of how they communicate to their customers. It is important that you think of how you want to communicate with your customer. You can do this by hiring talented communications specialists, or start creating it by yourself. You only need to keep in mind that the way how you communicate to your customers, can make your company succeed or fail. Because it does not mean anything if no one knows about it. 

• Test your corporate image: Once you have created something that you believe in and thinks it is something solid, you can start testing it in the market.  Talk with customers and use focus groups, to find out what they think of the image, you can ask them how they feel about your logo and colour scheme, do they want to buy the product? Ask for specific feedback, so is easier for you to analyse the feedback.

Unit 2 - Choosing your brand name

 Clic to read  How to choose your brand name



The branding of your company starts with a good name. One of the things that people remember from a company is the name and the service that you have provided. When you are choosing a brand name you need to consider that your name is an extension of your company, it can reinforce the value that you provide or distance you from it.  When you are deciding which name to use it is important that you decide what the name should mean or represent. 
Develop a strategy to choose a great brand name: 
• Decide what your name needs to stand for
• Search what for effect it would have on existing products or service names. (if applicable)
• Develop objective criteria to evaluate the names you generate. 


• Generate plenty of potential names: if you have a wide area of competing with other companies it is possible that some potential names (or URLs) are already taken, so you need to create a long list. If you have trouble with creating that list, you can have a brainstorm session with a variety of people. Plan the brainstorm session and capture ever idea, so later on you can have an evaluation. 

• Evaluate the list against your criteria: your end goal is to find a name that meets your criteria, you are trying to do this as objective as possible, so be careful with asking advice from friends and family if they like the name. For example: A name that raises eyebrows may do that because it is different than they are used to, but this good be the most memorable and powerful one of the bunch. 

• Test your name, you need to make sure that your name: 
• Sounds good over the phone (for example, when a sales representative calls a potential client).
• That is won’t be mispronounced constantly, this defeats the purpose of the name. 
• That is has a URL that works with it. 

• Protect your brand name: when you have chosen the right name it is important that you protect your name to the appropriate degree. If you pick a name that interferes  on another companies copyright, you could receive a cease- and- desist letter and then you have to go to court to change your name after months or even years of use 

Unit 3 - Defining your product

Clic to read   How to define your product




Pricing and packaging your products and services correctly for your target market is one of the more powerful branding activities that you can do. If your target group has changed, you need to review your business model to be sure you still can offer what they need.  When you are defining your product it is important that you think of what the product has to offer also called as your Unique Selling Point (USP).

• Define your target group: before you can start defining the product it is important that you think of who your target group is. Your target group is a big part of the success that your product will have. When you have your focus on the wrong target group, it will become harder to sell your product, so you will have less success. 

• Define the solution that your product offers: before you start to promote your business it is important that your focus is on understanding your target group and that promoting is not your first priority. Offering a product or service is one thing. But you still need to sell the product and that is harder than you think.  Before you can start selling you need to define the benefits that your product has to offer. You need to make sure that it is presented in such a way that it shows as “the” solution to your customers. The objective is that you try to provide an overview of the added value that your product has to offer. 

• Talking about your Unique Selling Points (USP): this means that you need to list all the advantages that your product has to offer, in comparison to any similar products that are offered by your competitors.  What can help you with making that list is asking yourself these questions: 
• What makes your product unique 
• Why should consumers choose your product and not the one that is offered by the competition? 

• Your product’s accessories and other complementary elements: after you have made a list the with the benefits, features and the Unique Selling Points of your product, it is time to start describing its range. Along with the main solution that your product has to offer, you can think about what other needs can it meet? It is important that you distinguish the product itself from its accessories and extra features. It is also important that you start describing the various options, advantages or partnerships that add benefits to your product or can be a complement to the product. 
 Indicators

UMA - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner  IDP Europa - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner  IHF - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner  Internet Web Solutions - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner  Comenius University - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner  EDUNET - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner
OPEI - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner  AGH - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner  AndalucĂ­a Emprende - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner           SEPIE - ARTCADEMY - Arts & Traditional Crafts Academy Partner


This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site and its contents reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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