Last week I had great fun running a branding clinic for small businesses local to me in Canterbury.  It was a collaboration between the Chartered Institute of Marketing (for whom I am the Kent small business champion) and Canterbury Christ Church University's Business Forum.  The subject obviously struck a chord as the event was packed to bursting!

The highlight of the session was a peer review of each company's branding - which really brought home to everyone that you should never be complacent or make assumptions about how well your branding is working!  To help make the process more effective the first half of the session concentrated on the importance of branding - no matter what size of business you are - and some of the critical issues that have to be addressed, such as:

• Brand values - are you clear about what image you are aiming to communicate?  Your brand is a shortcut to creating an emotional response in customers - make sure it is the response you are after!
• Consistency - do you carry your brand values and design diligently through every aspect of your promotional activities?  This includes leaflets, websites, business cards, reports, invoices, signage, vehicles, entrance halls, etc. 
• Service/behaviour - how is your brand reflected, and reinforced or weakened, by other aspects of your business such as service delivery, the behaviour of your staff or the cleanliness of your vans? 

Although the presentation section of the event was not as popular as the clinic, I know it was important to get everyone to a common understanding of the importance of branding and ways of approaching the subject.  This meant all participants were better placed to give constructive feedback on the materials everyone brought along.   It was a noisy and energetic session, with discussions ranging from the use of specific words/language, positive and negative aspects of expensive-looking brochures, weight of paper used for printing, and the emotional meaning of different colours!  Everyone who attended took away ideas they could use to improve their business - which was, of course, our objective.

Looking after your brand is essential if you want a great future for your business - it doesn't have to be expensive, but it does have to be thoughtful and considered.  Peer review proved to be a powerful tool for getting really valuable feedback, and is something that you can all do with friends, family or colleagues as long as they are some-what representative of your target audience.  Don't ask a teenager for input if they are not in your target market - you could be sent off down the wrong track completely!  If you haven't asked recently then I suggest you give it a go and find out 'what does your brand say about you?'