The Evolution of Branding

ADgination — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:37:03 +0000

The meaning of the word “Brand” has evolved a great deal over time. The term originally referred to the practice of burning a mark onto something in order to designate ownership. It then evolved to include marks or stigmas put upon criminals or those in disgrace (The Scarlet Letter, anyone?). As early as the 1200’s, Italians began putting unique watermarks on paper. This was, perhaps, the birth of the definition of branding for which most of us think of today. According to the American Marketing Association, this type of branding is defined as a “name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

What is SEO, anyway?

ADgination — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:38:54 +0000

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. Still doesn’t answer your question? LOL (that stands for Laugh Out Loud). When it comes to terms like SEO, SERPs, ranking, keywords, organic search, PPC advertising, and link building (to name a few), you may feel about as out of your element as you do when trying to decipher your teenager’s latest text messages. New terms seem to pop up all the time and can get quite confusing. Not to worry; we’re here to help! Well… probably not with your teen’s text messages (that’s another subject altogether); but as for the rest, read on: answers await!

Simply put, Search Engine Optimization is the process of making your website the most popular of the crowd. It’s how to get your website recognized as being more important than AND ranked by search engines (such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) higher than your competitors’ websites. Highest ranked sites obviously appear in searches first, with the rest of the sites following according to their ranking order.

Search engines have several different jobs to do: crawl the web (check out the place), build indexes (take notes of the place), analyze site relevancy to calculate rank (determine who is popular), and provide search results (based on who is popular). In order to determine site popularity, search engines are capable of “considering” numerous factors, such as the number of links to and from your site, keyword usage on your site (as a whole and on its pages), overall site content, traffic (or visitors) to your site, and more.

Branding: What’s the Big Deal?

ADgination — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:50:30 +0000

Branding is not only for Fortune 500 businesses or large conglomerates. Branding is for every business, from one-person operations right on up to the big kahunas. So what is the big deal about branding, and why is it so important?

Fact #1: A brand is a company’s identity: it is the defined image of the company and what it stands for. The brand sets the tone for how a company’s message is conveyed to the consumer. A business is shaped by values, preferences and opinions which directly affect customer relationships. This concept does not discriminate by a company’s size, market share, or profit margin. All of the above factors become integrated into and set the standard for a business’s brand.

This essentially means that whether or not you’ve advertised your business or services; whether or not you have a company logo, a website, an outdoor sign, an interior design theme, or even business cards; whether or not you’ve considered branding your business now or waiting until later, your business already has a brand because it already has an identity. What does this existing identity say about your company- about you? Does it convey your attention to detail, your standard for excellence, the pride in you take in your work? Let’s delve into why this is so important, and what can happen if it’s overlooked.