The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”

In a competitive market, it is important to portray your company, and the services or products it offers, as the only one capable of satisfying the needs of your clientele. This can be done by effectively branding your company.

The secret of good branding lies first and foremost in choosing the right name. Your company’s name should inform clients about what you do. Certain company or brand names have been so successful in doing this that they are commonly used to identify a generic product worldwide. Think about it for a moment: when you catch a cold, you would usually ask for an Aspirin, rather than for acetylsalicylic acid. When you want to drink a cola, you will probably order a Coke or a Pepsi!

The second and most important aspect of branding is the logo. The logo represents your company’s visual identity. An effective logo can be recognised immediately by the consumer.  The Nike “swoosh” is so well known, that it is seldomly associated to the word “Nike” and its sole presence in an advertisement, makes the audience understand what  the product being advertised is, without the need of adding further information.

The logo can be very well considered as the “face” of your company and it is the first thing that your customers will see. Having a powerful and communicative logo, will therefore help people remember who you are and what you do. Careful planning and allocation of resources are not to be spared when creating your company name and logo.