The first step to implementing an effective branding strategy involves gathering feedback from a wide cross section of people from within your organization and even those outside your company. Until you know what people already think of your company and its image, it’s very difficult to position your organization for advancement.

Creating a brand means proactively creating a mental distinction for the public. In short, what comes to peoples’ minds when they see or hear the name of your company? A brand isn’t a mission statement, or a logo, or a marketing campaign, or a slogan, or a press release. However, Kings Cross Media, a top web design london company uses all of these things and combine them to create an overall perception that is part of your brand image. In essence, a brand is the sum of all associations, feelings, attitudes and perceptions that people have relative to both the tangible and intangible characteristics of a company, product or service.

But how do you start developing this brand? You start by conducting small focus group meetings to gather opinions. The goal of these meetings is to start identifying your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threads. You also want to determine where your company stands in relation to your competition and you want to get to the heart of what peoples’ thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and opinions are toward your company.

Below are some simple questions to consider as part of a branding exercise that will enable you to start gathering this type of information:

1. What is our company’s main mission?
   

2. What are our goals and objectives?
   

3. What products and/or services do we offer, and what are the unique qualities of these products and/or services?
   

4. What are the company’s core values?
   

5. Who is our target market?
   

6. What are the expectations of our target market and how do we help meet these expectations?
   

7. What is the personality or character for our company that best represents the products and/or services that we deliver?
   

8. What is the relationship like between our company and our target market?
   

9. Which characteristics and qualities get the attention of our prospects?
   

10. What do our customers currently think of when they think of our company?

By going through this same exercise with different groups of people, the London web design company can start to identify the emotional connections (if any) people have with your organization and from there start to define your organization’s personality and positioning statement that separates your business from all other competing organizations.

Because different people have different experiences when it comes to working with your organization, you should get a good cross section of opinions. Don’t just talk to your company’s top management. Also talk to the mid-level executives and lower-level line workers. Don’t just talk to the people involved with corporate marketing. Also talk with the people who are involved with packaging, production and shipping. Don’t just talk to your company’s allies, but also talk to your direct competition.

Only after we have done this valuable research can you hope to start developing a truly meaningful brand positioning statement.