A brand is a Product 2

1. A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other
products, services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually
marketed. A brand name is the name of the distinctive product, service, or concept.
Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name. Branding can be
applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service
names.
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Brands are usually protected from use by others by securing a trademark or service
mark from an authorized agency, usually a government agency. Before applying for a
trademark or service mark, you need to establish that someone else hasn't already
obtained one for your name. Although you can do the searching yourself, it is common
to hire a law firm that specializes in doing trademark searches and managing the
application process, which, in the United States, takes about a year. Once you've
learned that no one else is using it, you can begin to use your brand name as a
trademark simply by stating it is a trademark (using the " TM " where it first appears in a
publication or Web site). After you receive the trademark, you can use the registered (?)
symbol after your trademark.
Brands are often expressed in the form of logos , graphic representations of the brand.
In computers, a recent example of widespread brand application was the "Intel Inside"
label provided to manufacturers that use Intel's microchips.
A company's brands and the public's awareness of them is often used as a factor in
evaluating a company. Corporations sometimes hire market research firms to study
public recognition of brand names as well as attitudes toward the brands.
Here is the famous advertising copywriter and ad agency founder David Ogilvy's
definition of a brand:
The intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history,
its reputation, and the way it's advertised.

2. How to Develop a Brand
By Bill Chiaravalle and Barbara Findlay Schenck from Branding For Dummies
8 of 9 in Series: The Essentials of Advertising for Your Business
If you are ready to brand yourself or your business, you need to have a clear understanding of what
developing a brand actually involves before you really get started. Your brand-development process should
always follow these major steps:
1. Decide what you’re going to brand.
Are you branding a product, a service, a company, or an individual?
2. Do your research.
First, find out everything there is to know about your market. Then, find out everything there is to know
about your product or service.
3. Position your product or service.
Find and win a place for your offering in the marketplace and in consumers’ minds by providing unique
solutions to problems or needs that aren’t already being addressed by competing products.
4. Write your brand definition.
Your brand definition describes what you offer, why you offer it, how your offering is different and
better, what unique benefits your customers can count on, and what promise or set of promises you
make to all who work with and buy from your business.
5. Develop your name, logo, and tagline.
Your name is the key that unlocks your brand image in your consumer’s mind. Your logo is the
brandmark or symbol that serves as the face of your brand. Your tagline is the memorable phrase that
provides consumers with a quick indication of your product, brand, and marketposition.
6. Launch your brand.
Your brand goes public when you unveil your name, logo, and slogan, and when you begin to tell your
market the story of how your brand reflects what you stand for.
7. Manage, leverage, and protect your brand.
This is the “care and feeding” phase of the branding process; it’s the step that leads to a strong,
healthy, resilient brand. Just like good parenting, good branding management can be summed up in a
single word — consistency.
8. Realign your brand to keep it current.
Occasionally, you can (and should) change how your brand is presented. From time to time, you need
to update your brand presentation (the face of your brand) to keep it relevant to the market in which it
lives.

3. A marketing plan is an essential marketing tool for every small business. Use the guide on the
following pages to answer these 10 questions:
1. Marketing Strategy: How will your marketing plan support your business goals?
2. Mission Statement: What are you trying to accomplish, and why?
3. Target Market: Who are you trying to reach with your marketing activities?
4. Competitive Analysis: Who are you up against, and where do you rank?
5. Unique Selling Proposition: What makes your business unique?
6. Pricing Strategy: What will you charge, and why?
7. Promotional Plan: How will you reach your target market?
8. Marketing Budget: How much money will you spend, and on what?
9. Action List: What tasks do you need to complete to reach your marketing goals?
10. Metrics: How are you implementing, and where can you improve?
SMART Goal Setting Worksheet
SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based
Once you have completed each step, you will have a marketing plan that you are ready to use
as a blueprint for your marketing activities in your small business.
Write down your business goal in the space below.
GOAL:
Use the questions below to determine if your business goal adheres to the SMART
methodology. If your goal
doesn’t successfully fulfill each section, rewrite it in the space provided.
Is your goal specific?
A specific goal should clearly state what you want to accomplish, why it is an important
goal, and how you intend to accomplish the goal.
Is your goal measurable?
A measurable goal should include a plan with targets and milestones that you can use to
make sure you’re moving in the right direction.
Is your goal attainable?
An attainable goal should be realistic and include a plan that breaks your overall goal
down into smaller, manageable action steps that use
the time and resources available to you within the timeline you’ve set.
Is your goal relevant?

4. A relevant goal should make sense when measured against your business model, mission
statement, market, client base and industry.
Is your goal time-based?
A time-based goal is limited by a defined period of time and includes a specific timeline
for each step of the process.
Provided by Alyssa Gregory, Small Business Information on About.com
http://sbinformation.about.com
SMART Goal Setting Worksheet
SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based
Question: What is Marketing?
Answer: Marketing is an activity. Marketing activities and strategies result in making products
available that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that offer those
products.
What Activities are Included in Marketing?
Marketing activities are numerous and varied because they basically include everything
needed to get a product off the drawing board and into the hands of the customer. The broad
field of marketing includes activities such as:
• Designing the product so it will be desirable to customers by using tools such as marketing research and
pricing.
• Promoting the product so people will know about it by using tools such as public relations, advertising, and
marketing communications.
• Setting a price and letting potential customers know about your product and making it available to them.