Small Business Owners: Holiday Branding is a Good Thing for Small Business

Branding is very important for businesses everywhere. If you aren't branding your business, or don't know what branding is, you need to start immediately. Branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product or business from other products or businesses. Some examples of branding include the golden arches of McDonald's, the Nike "swoosh" and the apple used by Apple Computers.

If you are using branding for your business, the holidays can be a fun time to alter your branding to fit the season. I'm not suggesting that you completely rebrand your business just for the holiday season. Here are some things you can do to boost your holiday promotional season.

Juice Your Holiday Branding

Be colorful. Don't completely change your branding, but just alter your color scheme to match the season. Red and green can be used for Christmas. Red, white and blue for the Fourth of July. Yellow, red and orange for Thanksgiving. The important thing is to keep your brand itself the same, so your customers can still recognize you.

Be clear. Quality is more important than quantity. This is not your dissertation. Your brand should reflect your message in as few words as possible, or maybe even no words.

Be timely. If you will be changing your branding for a particular holiday season, it's important to plan ahead and have everything ready for launch before the holiday arrives. Everything should be scheduled out well in advance of the particular holiday or season.

Be consistent. If you are planning to alter your brand for a particular holiday, it's important to be consistent on all channels. This includes all social media platforms your business utilizes, as well your website and email.

Examples of Christmas Branding

One of the best branding changes for Christmas comes from Coca-Cola. Coke is no stranger to altering its branding for a particular season. Most people have searched for their name on all the Coke bottles at a convenience store. Or their favorite football team's logo this past fall. But at Christmas, all of Coca-Cola's products have a picture of Santa or the Coca-Cola polar bears.

The Starbucks red cup is another great Christmas branding makeover. It started back in 1997 and although the campaign has had its controversies over the years, it's still a fun way to alter your brand to a more festive look.

Charity is a great way to celebrate the Christmas season. Macy's Believe Campaign was started in 2008 and is based on the true story of 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon who wrote a letter to the New Your Sun in 1897 asking if there really was a Santa Claus. Today, for every letter written to Santa at Macy's between Nov. 2 through Christmas Eve, Macy's will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish. Macy's has donated more than $19 million to Make-A-Wish through the Believe Campaign.

Conclusion

If your business doesn't have a brand, it should. If your business has been using branding, consider giving it a makeover for an upcoming holiday or season. It could be the spark your business needs to set it apart from other businesses.

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