Can I Find Your Product In Anytown, USA?

Have you noticed how certain shoe brands are sold exclusively in limited retail outlets? How about clothes, ever notice some brands can be found all over the place, and yet others are only found in major cities? Notice how you can’t just go into your local office supply store and purchase a $2,000 gold-cased Montblanc writing instrument? Ok, then you recognize that where you distribute your products/services is an important component of a branding strategy!

Did you know your branding strategy should help define your distribution channels? It should be a guiding principle when determining exactly how you want to position your product or service in the marketplace. This applies to both products and services alike. Here’s a few examples:

If the Price Point for your product or service is →	Low	Medium	Premium
Distribution channel options	mass outlets, big box retailers/events, general business events	a little harder to find, more niche networking events	selective locations, not too accessible for the masses, maybe exclusive
Features to market	Quantity is most important – highlight accessibility	Mixed – highlight easy accessibility with quality	Highlight quality features, “you get what you pay for” also works here
Advertising	Blanket the market with local/regional/national ads, you have a ton of competitors	Find industry specific promo outlets, publications, websites to advertise on	Selective, targeted ads in niche publications/ websites to reach your target market

In order to choose the best distribution channels for your business, you need to identify the heart of your business offering, your true core competency. So many people think their products and services are special/unique/rare and there’s nobody out there offering the same things. This is simply not the case! The key is to know your competition, know who’s offering similar products and services, and position your brand to compete. Where you distribute your products and services should be a factor in the development of your brand strategy.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya 

Branding Tip: Create Your Gravatar!

What in the world is a gravatar?! A gravatar is an image that appears beside your name when you comment on blog posts, web forums, etc.  It’s a custom avatar that follows you all around the web.

Why should you care? Because those generic animated pics do not look professional! Your company, hence brand, will appear far more polished when your pic appears with your username next to your post.

Why is a gravatar important, as it relates to your brand?

Your gravatar is a part of your brand identity. Just like your social media username, it will follow you all over the web. When you comment on articles/blog posts that have this feature enabled, your pic, or gravatar, will show up next to your comment. I don’t know about you, but I like having my face next to my blog comments, and not those kooky animated pics. Don’t get me wrong, they’re cute, but those animated images do absolutely NOTHING for your business from a marketing perspective.

If you have not created your gravatar, I’m about to add something to your to-do list: take 10 minutes, go to http://en.gravatar.com/ and set up an account to create your personal gravatar. The best gravatar is a headshot photo, so please do not hide behind a logo. You’ll be glad you completed this simple marketing task for your business. A little effort goes a long way toward establishing your brand identity.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya