Why Branding is Vital to the Success of Your Online Business

Let us describe branding, its benefits and how properly branding your business can increase your chances of success. In the age of the Internet anyone can set up shop using a cookie cutter website for a few hundred dollars, sometime less. Creating your own brand will set you apart from the rest.Essentially branding involves the image of your business. Branding actually goes beyond image to include style, logos, emblems and the perception of quality you intent to convey to your customers. The image should suggests positive values such as quality products and excellent services as well as reliability and soundness. Branding helps to describe your business and how you differ from your competition. In fact, distinguishing your business from the competition is the primary goal of branding. Once you have distinguished yourself from the pact, advertising and promoting your business can have a better impact by being more targeted and effective.The success of your business can often be based on your ability to create your brand. Proper branding can greatly increase your level of success. Factors including your website, your marketing efforts and other aspects of your business create your company’s identity. Most consumers rely on a corporation’s image when deciding where to spend their money. Purchases often are motivated based on emotions. Irregardless of size or structure, all businesses can usually benefit from the use of a well conceived brand. The very success of smaller businesses, whether brick and mortar or online, may depend upon the use of good branding methods. The brand could be the deal maker. Proper branding suggests experience and professionalism. This can also level the playing field between competing businesses despite size or tenure, particularly when conducting business online.Building a brand enhances the confidence of the online business owner. Branding affects customer trust and loyalty as well. Branding can give a solid, consistent image to your business. It gives your business credibility and can sets proper expectations with your customers. Branding can be incorporated into promotional campaigns using business cards, flyers and newsletter. Branding can also be used on premiums items like t-shirts, ink pens, coffee mugs and other goods. These items increase your brand’s visibility and remind customers of your brand even when not actually conducting business with you. This gives your business brand equity with your customers. Likewise, a brand is considered to be an asset. Successful franchises and existing business are usually sold for a much higher price than generic businesses offering the same products and services. Customers usually think as much about who they are buying from as what they are buying. Combine branding with consistance, good quality products and top notch service and customers will keep coming back for more.Branding is trully your customers’ perception of your business and can be like a promise or a pledge you make to your customers. When you want to create a brand you want the customer to know you are the best, provide quality goods and services and have something more to offer than your competition. Your goals is to create loyalty and trust. To that end, your customers need to be educated on the benefits of your products and services. This step is critical in establishing your brand. It is helpful to identify the features of your products and what benefits they provide. The features that offer the greatest benefits should be emphasized and the subject of your marketing campaigns.It is important to know what the customers think about your business. Customers may have negative feelings about your business because of bad experiences with your website, your customer service or your products. Other customers may fear making purchases online.Using surveys and questionnaires can identify exactly what is good or bad about your operation and can provide a clear understanding of your business from the customer’s point of view. You can learn what your reputation is with the consumer and what they feel about the quality and value of your products. Their experience dealing with customer service, your website and other issues could be disclosed by the surveys or solicited comments.Creating a brand based on customer input can be very beneficial. This is especially true if you implement changes based on customer feedback. The customer then gets a sense of ownership. It also demostrate empathy on the part of the business owner, giving your business a more human quality though all dealings may have been handled electronically. It is natural to stick with a company and products when you are satisfied and pleased. This results in repeat business and a better chance for overall success. Your customer base can be considered as your target audience when it comes to branding your business. If you do not know and understand the audience you are targeting then you can not brand your products and services based on their needs and wishes. Your audience is the targeted customers you are hoping to reach to purchase your products and services. To define your target audience you may need to look at factors such as gender, age, geographical regions, income and demographics. The age of an audience must be considered when branding your business. A younger crowd may want to see a brand that is vibrant, hip and current. When your audience is older they may be looking for a brand displaying status, sophistication, and professionalism. Gender of an audience is an issue if you are selling clothing, hats, jewelry or other such items. Income is something to think about when considering an audience and developing a brand. You cannot sell very expensive luxury items to a working class audience. People with high incomes do not usually consider purchasing cheap goods.There are many things about your audience that you must know when creating a brand. If you do not have a clear understanding of your target audience then you will likely fail. It is important to define your audience as narrowly as possible. The more you can narrow down your audience the more your brand will separate you from the competition. This means you will have less competition and a greater share of the customer’s dollars coming to you.Branding for your targeted audience will allow you to be more successful and develop longer lasting relationships with your customers. Targeting the wrong audience can spell disaster for your business.When ever possible, brand your business to better reach your target audience and to create your own special niche.

What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime

What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.

As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.

That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.

Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.

Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.

Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.

Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.

That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.

Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.

Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.

My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.

Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.

And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.

All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:

• Farm eggs

• Fresh vegetables

• Cow’s milk

• Freshly baked bread

• Coal for our open fires

Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.

Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.

Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.

Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.

My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.

The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.

Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.

Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.

People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.

In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.

Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.

• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.

• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.

• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.

On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.

Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.

We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.

Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.

My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.

US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%

US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 1.14%. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 0.98% and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up by 0.71 per cent

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US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%
Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. Source: Reuters
US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 345.25 points or1.14 per cent. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 35.88 points or 0.98 per cent and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up 75.75 points or 0.71 per cent. A Reuters report said that today’s strength was on the back of a report which said the Federal Reserve will likely debate on signaling plans for a smaller interest rate hike in December, reversing declines set off by social media firms after Snap Inc’s ad warning.

Source: Comex

Nasdaq Top Gainers and Losers

Source: Nasdaq

Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. The BSE Sensex ended at 59,307.15, up by 104.25 points or 0.18 per cent from the Thursday closing level. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 index closed at 17,590.00, higher by 26.05 points or 0.15 per cent. In the 30-share Sensex, 13 stocks gained while the remaining 17 ended on the losing side. In the 50-stock Nifty50, 21 stocks advanced while 29 declined.