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8 Steps to Brand Building

admin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:47:19 +0000

What is a Brand?

Brands are the identification that differentiates one business from another (through name, symbol etc.). However, today brands can also be defined as the personality they reflect to people in relation to status, emotional characteristics and subjective quality. They give the consumers a perceived knowledge of the product, its quality and uniqueness before they buy it.

Brands give the surety for deliverance of the service as promised by them. For example, Pizza company A claims to deliver pizza within a certain time and Pizza company B claims to deliver most delicious Pizzas. It makes easy for the consumers to identify what they want and which brand to choose for it. It is important for a brand to accomplish the claim advertised by it to attain a good Brand Image. Apart from consistently rewarding the confidence, brands also works towards delivering expected emotional response.

Building a Brand

Know Yourself

Before building a brand, you should analyze what is that you achieve for your customer and how it affects their lives. Where you stand and what is your current position in the market. You should identify your target market and identify their preferences and interests. It is crucial to know opinions of customers as well as employees about your business. Find out what is customer perception about your business, what is the first thing that comes to their mind when your brand is mentioned to them. Are they aware of the services you offer and do they trust your business, product or service? Such research will later help in forming the basis of your brand message.

Know Your Competitors

You should know what your competitors are doing and what are their strengths and weaknesses. How your brand is different from your competitors and what is your brand’s position as compared to them. Find out what your competitors are missing and what you can do to achieve it.

Define Your Goal

Once you know your current status as well as that of your competitors, you can start defining your goals. You should have a clear idea of what do you aspire your business to become. Define your goals on a timeline, divide your plans in phases and set targets with deadlines. While setting up goals, one shouldn’t forget to keep them relevant to consumer needs and preference.

Personalize the Looks

This is one of the most important parts of Brand Building. All major brands have unique visual and verbal identities such as logos, fonts, slogans, etc. Design every aspect of your brand and make sure that they match each other. This will help create a personality that encompasses all the characteristics the brand is supposed to have.

Protect Your Brand

Register your brand in the key market you are entering. Measures should be taken to prevent your brand from being confused with other similar brands as it can result in loss of business. Hire a good lawyer to help you with legal formalities.

Deliver the Branded Experience

Establish your brand with strategic thinking and careful use of resources like SEM, PR, online advertising, blogs, influential advisers and strategic email campaigns. The brand experience totally depends upon how consistently you present your brand. It should be instilled into all your products and services; and at every customer touchpoint. Customer’s notion of your brand is formed with their first experience with your company, products or services. Every customer interaction is a chance to enrich the brand.

Evaluate your Success

Evaluate performance of your staff from time to time. Hire a third party quality analysis team to keep a track of the quality of your products and services. Provide your clients with feedback forms after every project. Request feedback from your customers and find out if your products and services are meeting their expectations. Add feedback form to your website. You can also carry out surveys to find out any change in customer preferences.

Extend your Brand

Offer new products and services from time to time to keep your brand relevant to the target audience. Modify looks visual and verbal identities to relate to changing needs of the consumer. However, make sure that the brand message is delivered consistently. If you are introducing a new product or service which doesn’t lie under your brand values, you should launch a separate brand for it.

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Popular Watch Brands That You Can Choose From

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:20:36 +0000

Joaquin Rivera asked:

If you would like a complete wardrobe, it is best to invest in a watch that complements your personality and the clothes you are wearing. The perfect watch can enhance the character that you would like to project. By itself, the watch has an attitude that can add to your appeal every time you wear it. For some, a watch is an extension of one’s personality, reflecting an individual’s unique characteristics. Since the watch is a functional accessory, it is important that when you choose a watch, you have to consider its durability, design, functionality, and cost.

One of the concerns of watch shoppers is that many of the renowned watch brands do not fit within their budget. Some buyers are cautious about choosing inexpensive watches because they are wary about the quality and the durability of the watch. They are also concerned about the statement that they are going to make if they are seen wearing a cheap replica of known brands. To help you choose the perfect watch as you weigh design, functionality, quality, and cost, here are some of the top consumer watch choices.

1. Swatch

Almost everyone knows the world’s largest watch manufacturer. Swatch has a wide array of designs that cater to each personality and function requirements. This brand is a popular choice for trendy people with vibrant personalities since the brand offers watches in bright colors and designs. Although these are the designs that Swatch is known for, the brand also has a Swarovski-laden Bijoux line for a classy look.

2. Bulova

If you are looking for en elegant timepiece, Bulova is a good choice. The designs of this American brand combine elegance, functionality, and durability that made Bulova last for more than one hundred years. In fact, the technology used for Bulova watches was employed by the NASA in the 1950s and 1960s. That would be sufficient to say that this brand is very reliable that it was preferred by scientists.

3. Seiko

Seiko is a popular brand of timepieces with classic designs. Although it only got its current name it 1924, it has been operating for 43 years before that. If you are looking for a durable watch at an affordable price, Seiko is the brand that usually tops the list. Through some people might raise eyebrows about wearing an inexpensive brand, you can be proud that Seiko has been an official sponsor of some major sporting events and the Olympics.

4. Tissot

If you are looking for something that combines elegance with unique technology, this is the brand that you should consider. The first mass-produced pocket watch was introduced by Tissot in 1853. During 1929 to 1930, this watch manufacturer also released the first anti-magnetic watch. Tissot remains to be a pioneer in watch technology as it is the first company to come up with using plastics, wood, stone, and mother of pearl for making watches. At present, Tissot is known for the T-touch technology with some of the latest watch models sporting touch-sensitivity through the sapphire glasses and barometers, compasses, thermometers, and altimeters. Because of these features, Tissot is the timepiece of choice for the characters in the movies Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.

5. Citizen

Citizen might not be a popular choice among those looking for luxury watches but it is one of the top choices for people who are looking for high quality, eco-friendly, and affordable watches. This Japanese brand is known in the US for its Eco-Drive line that uses batteries that are recharged through the solar panel on the watch’s face. Many of its bracelet bands have the special DCP (Deployment Clasp with a Push-Button) that sets it apart from other brands.

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How to Have Your Own Brand of Handbags Made in Italy Quickly and Inexpensively

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:14:58 +0000

Marino Caliterna asked:

Did you know that you can have your own brand of handbags made in Italy by the same manufacturers of the biggest brands but at a fraction of the cost?

Quality made in Italy handbags are a very profitable trend. In fact handbags are an immediately recognizable sign of distinction, taste, wealth. A beautiful handbag is a fashion and a personality statement which is a must for each contemporary, successful woman.

Selling handbags is quite profitable also as, as opposed to apparel, there are no sizes to stock and therefore very little inventory is left unsold while very few items are returned. However getting the big name handbags to resell is difficult, expensive and the price competition cutthroat, leaving uninteresting profit margins.

Luckily a new trend is emerging with vast profit opportunities associated with it. The trend is for unbranded or private branded handbags. In fact, in the more advanced markets worldwide, conspicuous brand names are quickly becoming “out”. Showing a famous brand name is more and more considered ostentatious, obvious, not in good taste and associated with “new money”.

The trend for the unbranded is so strong that even the biggest names are quickly producing some of their new collections with discretely placed brand names and logoes or without them alltogether.

A corresponing fast-growing trend is thus that of private brand, private label, OEM handbags. In this case the handbags are sold with the logo of a trendy boutique or of a small but high quality importer (yourself).

Private branding is used also to quickly add a line of accessories to a brand which concerns itself mostly with apparel or something else and who does not want to invest in designing and manufacturing handbags but nonetheless desires a product of matching quality.

How can one profit from this fast-growing trend? It is quite simple and quick, provided that you know where to source your handbags.

Italy is home to the best manufacturers of handbags and to the best leather tanneries in the world. Quite often the biggest brand names spread their manufacture among many smaller handbags makers within Italy. These manufacturers are chosen for their ability, attention to detail, reliability.

Besides producing for the top brands, typically each of these Italian manufacturers design and manufacture several lines of their own, with the same quality, materials and skill employed for the top names but they sell these at a fraction of the price.

In fact you can purchase for $70 the same handbag quality that retails for $900 when branded by the top names. This is because there are no middlemen and no monster organizations on payroll nor expensive advertising campaigns to finance. You just pay materials, workmanship and an honest profit to the manufacturer.

Of course when selling under your own brand, or unbranded, you are unlikely to be able to charge as much as the top names; however the profit margin is still 3-4-5 fold! And your lower prices, being more affordable, attract more customers and translate into a higher volume of sales.

Let’s be clear about one thing: when we talk about private label/private brand handbags made by the top Italian manufacturers who work for the big names, we are talking about original designs of the manufacturers and NOT of copies or so called “replicas” (which are also illegal copies).

These original designs however are always very successful because they follow each season’s trend in terms of style, materials and accessories.

In fact they are often even MORE successful than the big names because the often “hostile” or difficult to wear “cutting edge” of the big names is “smoothed out” in the private brand designs which are thus more wearable, comfortable, saleable.

Many Italian manufacturers will of course produce your own designs, this however requires considerable skill in preparing the designs, investments for setup costs, large minimum orders, travels to the premises to define details etc. Manufacturing your own designs, therefore, while a very profitable option, is a medium term project and worth it if you have already established good revenues in the field of handbag retail.

Instead, choosing existing designs and have them branded with your own logo is very quick and minimum quantities are as low as one dozen! This is also a safe choice unless you are an experienced designer and marketer.

In fact the Italian manufacturers, being very experienced with worldwide trends and sales, know exactly which designs are hot in each country, which colours sell best in each country, which features are necessary to succeed in each country; from the lenght of handles to zippers to inside pockets. This type of knowledge is worth thousands of dollars in marketing consultancy otherwise!

If you can, it is best to travel to Italy, (to Tuscany in particular, which has an excellent handbag manufacturing district) and go visit the factories and warehouses yourself. Here you can select styles, materials and colours and get valuable imput from the manufacturers about the best choices for your own particular target market.

After having chosen styles and colours, you provide the artwork for your logo to the manufacturer which will be used to produce custom items to brand your handbags.

Typically your brand logo can be: a) embossed on a leather patch inside the handbag, b) etched in a metal plate to be also applied inside the handbag c) etched in a metal plate or pendant which is fastened to the handbag handles d) printed on the fabric dustbag which is used to protect and store the handbag. The dustbag is a much appreciated accessory by customers and associated with the idea of quality.

The extra expense to brand the handbags is negligible, $2-3 each plus one-time setup fees of around $100 to make the necessary metal stamps and moulds. Typically you are required to order a minimum of only ten handbags per style per colour. For a comparison, consider that when making your own designs the figure can be ten times as much.

Your order will be typically ready within three-four weeks, including all setups and private branding! The manufacturer will also arrange a freight and paperwork for the shipment to you. In order to source the best manufacturer for you and to have smooth and timely transactions, we recommend to use a local fashion broker for the purpose.

In fact, a good broker will save you lots of time and money by imediately pointing you in the right direction and by following all details and communication until the delivery of goods is completed. The broker’s fees are typically paid by the manufacturer on a yearly basis and therefore all the valuable services provided will be at no direct cost to you.

So to summarize: selling private branded handbags Made in Italy is an excellent opportunity to expand your business or create a new one. It is quick and inexpensive, you can start small and place larger orders as you grow, quality Made in Italy handbags are always in demand, profit margins are fat.

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