8 Questions about your Brand on the Web
- How do you want your customer to interact with your brand?
- How do you want your customer to interact with your website name?
- Do you have a good company name?
- What would make your brand seen as first in your category?
- If your brand is local, does it have potential appeal to everyone, even globally?
- Is your brand first to your customer’s head?
- Does your brand convey humble confidence born from success?
- Does your brand work well on the Internet, on the wall of your office, on a shipping box?
10 more Questions
- How can you keep the scope tight so that you can excel at delivering a supreme product/service offering?
- What public-facing activity can you do to reach your customers with your brand?
- Do you have the budget to advertise your brand promise regularly?
- Do you have one word your brand can own and resonate with in the mind of your customer?
- How can your customer perceive your brand as authentic at what you promise?
- Is your logo horizontal or at least square?
- Are you using a colour in your brand that is the opposite of your most well-know competitor?
- Are you prepared to defend your brand with a plan over 5 or 10 years?
- How do you build the perception of quality in the mind of the customer?
- Does your brand have a friendly relationship with other brands in your category?
Steps in Designing your Logo (to beat your competitors)
- Collect the Logos of the competitors your customer will see in your category
- Blur them to colours and broad shapes
- Pick the opposite as much as possible
- Now take the one word you want to own in the mind of your customer and work it into the logo or imply it with the logo
- Test the logo with your customers
- Survey their memory of what they think the logo means and stands for
- Correct the logo where applicable
- Map your mission to your logo and set the foundation of your messaging to defend this value to the customer
The first logo startup founders design is something that feels good for them. If they like cats with bandanas, then their logo will have cats with bandanas. Logos are the extension of the brand. When we build a logo it has to bring forth the promise of the brand in the consumer and fight against other mental images. The best logos (and by extension the best brands) make the customer feel good. Design your logo ONLY with your customer in mind.
Andrew Opala
Chairman
Branding Report Sample
Category
Quick Service Restaurants
Sub Category
Coffee and Snacks
Customer Need
Customer wants to know the food is tasty, fast, and of consistent quality
Competitors
- Tim Hortons
- Coffee Time
- Country Style
- MacDonald’s
- Starbucks
Notes
- A customer survey in the territory of operations showed that the customer wants consistent wait times first, then consistent quality compared to the last visit, then to variety of items
- Most of the people traffic was from people on foot from trains in a food court area before the working day began
- Most customers wanted an order they could carry and enjoy (almost 80% wanted only a beverage)
- Competitors have very large selections of items and longer lines
- Competitors have logos with Red, Brown and one stands out with Green
- Three competitors have very consistent coffee, this brand wanted to be the 4th choice in this cluster of QSRs
- The customers have a loyalty program where if you pay with the same debit or credit card every day your 4th purchase is free (no secondary loyalty card needed)
Results
Motto: Consistent, Fast, Rewarding
Logo: 
Advertising: We placed sandwich boards at both entrances to the hallway with very very simple messaging and gave out “one free coffee or tea next week” coupons to people who did not enter the kiosk.
Business Results:
- Two smaller competitors closed within 4 months, 143 Coffee added 2 full-time employees to handle the extra load.
- The company also lowered their food offering to only muffins, dropped breakfast sandwiches, bagels, and lattes, and made only pre-brewed green tea.
- They nearly doubled their morning rush throughput.
- One of their competitors is testing an express line idea to get more people through their own process.
Notes: The initial logo designed by the company was a smiling person enjoying the smell of a cup of coffee in one hand while caressing the saucer in the other. A great logo, it conveyed quality, enjoyment and engagement, but the consumers wanted fast and consistent (and the company added rewarding after the branding exercise),”