BRANDING & MARKETING: The Dynamic Duo for Boosting Your Business

No matter the size or scope of your company, finding the right way to describe yourself, your products and your services can be make-or-break. And, if you are   a decision-maker at a business, you’ve already discovered there’s no “one size fits all” when it comes to crafting the right brand.

“Businesses need to see that branding isn’t just an activity that you do,” explains Anne Candido, co-founder of Forthright People, a Cincinnati-based marketing and branding firm. “Branding is a way of approaching your business so that your visual and verbal cues unite across marketing channels to tell a story about who you are and why you exist.”

This creates emotional relationships with your customers. “And, when 90 percent of our decisions are based on emotion, it will differentiate you from your competition and keep you from just becoming another commodity,” says April Martini, Forthright People co-founder.

With a combined 35 years of experience, Candido and Martini offer “on-demand” marketing and branding solutions that are customized to fit any business.

“Regardless of the company size, how long they’ve been around or how much money they have, applying a brand mindset can really make an impact,” says Martini.

According to Candido and Martini, there are three things you can do to begin strengthening your brand:

• Start thinking beyond the product or service you sell and start thinking how you make people feel about that product or service. Once you’re able to verbalize that, you need to start making it a much bigger part of your vernacular at your business.
• Make sure your ‘About’ page on your website reflects your brand’s story. This isn’t just a reflection on who you are, but it should explain why you exist beyond just what you do. This really becomes the differentiator to potential customers.
• Be very thoughtful in how you develop your visual and verbal brand elements — your logo, your colors, your typography, your photo treatment. Then your tone, your style, your tagline. All of these things need to complement each other and reinforce your brand story and you will see that it creates connectivity.

Forthright People helps businesses with all aspects of branding and marketing, from consulting with businesses who already have teams in place to serving as the full-service marketing and branding agency. Candido and Martini also offer a series of webinars and workshops on building this branding mindset.

For more information, visit forthright-people.com or call 513.289.4669. And catch their podcast “Marketing Smarts” on your podcast player or through their website, forthright-people.com. And follow them on LinkedIn and Instagram.