Aaker on Branding
“Differentiation is a key to winning in any marketplace because it is the basis for customer choice and loyalty… A branded differentiator is an actively managed, branded feature, ingredient or technology, service, or program that creates a meaningful, impactful point of differentiation for a branded offering over an extended time period.”
- David A. Aaker in Strategic Market Management
I am not sure we are as intentional in our branding considerations as we should be. I am afraid that we spend more time in our concerns about logo size, standardized fonts, and color precision than in the design of meaningful differentiation of our products and services. There is a lot of strategy packed into Aaker’s two sentences.
Good points. Good aesthetics is built up on good research, and many companies go too quickly to the drawing board when designing logos, etc. Few businesses want to invest in a brand research project, which can cost $5k-10k for an average small-medium size business.
Of course, if you have a start up and no cash for real branding, going with something simple is fine for the short term. Get a free graphic program (like downloading OpenOffice from http://www.OpenOffice.org) and creating a very simple logo is usually very adequate for making up a first batch of stationery and business cards, but be sure to save up for a good branding study when business picks up.