You’ve spent a long time building, presenting and marketing your brand; time spent on design and colour, look and feel, with a view to the most effective impact on customer experience. So, the worst thing you can do at this point is not take those extra steps to protect your brand from theft, trolls, and the effect of poor communication.
It’s one thing to have a great product – but following that should be a good customer experience when interacting with your brand. Customers experience a host of senses and reactions when dealing with their purchases, or just coming across your product and service through advertising. And each time the customer and your brand meet, the moment should be one of inspiration and satisfaction; a good feeling. Ensuring consistency of that experience is vital; ensuring that it is honest, authentic and without stain, is one of the most important aspects of your branding efforts.
How to protect your brand
Your website:
Copyright on
your logo:
Trademarks:
Getting in
the law:
Keeping your domain name short, unique and easy to remember is important, and preventing theft of your online identity is key.
You can protect your logo by having copyrighted. It means another company cannot steal your logo, keeping your brand separate and apart from any competitors.
You can also register your brand as a trademark, protecting it, but making everyone aware that this slogan or design which identifies and distinguishes your ‘look’, belongs to you.
Everything from copyright and patents through to having employees sign contracts or non-disclosure agreements must be legally undertaken to ensure security.
Tracking word
of mouth:
Authentic
brand story:
Staff buy-in
(+ your personal brand):
The consistency
of brand values:
Brand protection also runs to what people are saying about your brand. And there’s nowhere better to find that out than online.
Every brand should have its own unique story. Keep your brand real and close to people by being honest about, goals, mistakes, complaints and preparations.
The success of your brand is as much about your staff and how they view their loyalty to the brand; how they promote it as genuinely the best they know in the market.
Consistently promoting your business values through your brand is fundamental to marketing strategies, campaigns, and impressions.
Understanding how your customer reads you
There are three aspects to take care of when customers visit your site:
- The language, tone and style of communication.
- The look and feel of the site, and how closely it resembles the brand image.
- If they make a purchase, how easy the process is, and how making that purchase will make them feel.
There’s an emotional response – and the way they experience that will affect their view of your brand – and obviously any future interaction. Your prime function here, in connecting them positively with your brand, is ensuring that they make a return visit, and that every visit elicits the same response.
Helping to protect your brand is what we do at Out of the Blue!
Come and talk to us. We’re in that edgy business of surprise called marketing. At Out of the Blue Creative Communication Solutions, we work with clients to build communications that do better business through concepts that are smart and relevant.
