When to Shift Focus and Invest in Branding

For those of you who built your business from the ground up, we want to first say congratulations. That’s hard to do. Many business owners start off without investing in a creative agency. They invest a lot of sweat equity and figure it all out. The focus is all on the product or service you’re offering, and branding takes the back-burner. Fast forward to now, and things are running smoothly. You have a little bit of money coming in, and there are fewer bumps in the road than there used to be. This is the time to invest in your brand.

Here’s why:

• Your brand can become a partner to help you do some of the heavy lifting and continue to make business easier and easier for you.
• A creative agency will help you attract business, explain your process, help the sales cycle, and give people confidence in your company.
• Investing in creating a compelling and cohesive brand will ease your burden as a business owner a little bit.

However, you don’t have to wait until this point to work on your brand. And you also can wait a little longer if you have to. No matter where you are in the lifetime of your business, it’s always worthwhile to invest in your branding. Here’s how strategic, bold branding can help at each and every stage.

When to Brand: AT THE START

If you can start off with a strong, cohesive brand from the beginning, that’s the best way to go. As we mentioned, a strong brand will really help you take some of the burden off, attract customers, help you convey your value proposition, close sales, and guide your team as they serve your customers. We definitely think the beginning is the best possible time to nail down a great creative agency. However, not everybody has the funds or the wherewithal to be able to work on their brand from the start, and that’s okay, too.

When to Brand: NEW OWNERSHIP / YOUNGER GENERATION TAKES OVER

When a company is under new ownership, whether it’s a younger generation taking over or not, the transition time is an amazing opportunity to examine every aspect of the brand that you do have. Break it apart, see how it aligns with your position in the market and how you want to be perceived. Then, strategically build it back up to convey the proper message through both visuals and verbiage.

When to Brand: WHEN YOU'RE PLATEAUING

When you feel like you’ve done all you can do for your business and you’ve hit a wall, working on your brand will allow you to catapult to the next level. A creative agency can refresh your business and breath new life into it. A new and improved brand will attract new clients and work to reconnect with existing clients. It will also energize your staff.

When to Brand: WHEN YOU'RE MAKING MONEY

This might sound counter-intuitive, but when you’re making money and not struggling for cash flow, the process of branding or rebranding goes much more smoothly. When business is booming, you’re not desperate for the brand to save you from imminent bankruptcy. Plus, you have the money to do it right. You also have the time. Oftentimes, when you’re in a great place financially with your business, you don’t need to rush along the branding process. You can spend the time to position yourself properly and align all communication and visuals with that position. We have another blog about why we recommend rebranding when you’re making money. Read more of our advice on how to make the most of your financial position for the benefit of your brand.

When to Brand: WHEN YOU NEED HELP

When you don’t have a brand in place, you’re reinventing the wheel for every customer and employee you talk to. You’re coming up with whatever you have in your mind to tell them about who you are as a company and why they should choose you or how they should talk about you, and you’re really doing a lot of extra thinking, decision-making, and work to keep that going. Then, it kind of falls apart as you come out of the picture. You’re putting the communication of the company all on your back, oftentimes the business owner who does that, and when that person is tired and they can’t keep doing it, things start to fall apart. When you need help, invest in your brand by first establishing your verbal and visual identity through Foundational Branding. You'll be equipped with a brand story, a positioning statement, brand attributes, a descriptive paragraph, and a visual direction. This will serve as the cornerstone for your future branding and marketing efforts. This process of Foundational Branding also works to extract the brand from the mind and put it in a tangible, useable, concrete form to support the business.

Let's Start Branding Now

No matter where you are in your business journey, it’s always worthwhile to invest in your branding to take your business to the next level. Contact Nice Branding Agency today and let us jump in no matter what stage you are in!