Local businesses, much like startups and bigger enterprises, need to undergo the branding process during their birthing phase if they are to survive beyond the early months.
Branding is more than just a chance for these enterprises to define themselves; it is also a chance to set roots in their immediate locations and capture an immediate audience on the get-go.
As always, good branding can be attained with minimal expenses. For local businesses embarking on the process, the guide below shows you some ideas you can pick.
Use your name in the business name
If it is a one-person business or a company revolving around the skillset of one individual such as a plumber business, real estate manager or electrician, the best branding you can do is to include the owner’s name within the business name.
A good example is Harry’s Electrical Shop or Wendy’s Ice Cream. It is not only a smart ploy for future promotion purposes; it also helps create a short, memorable business name that is easy to associate with a particular service.
After setting up your local business with your name, you can always emblazon your logo onto shirts, pens and other promotional items for marketing purposes. Empire Promotional Products has hundreds of products that you can easily customize and get for amazingly low rates. Their online shop is a one-stop-shop for local businesses looking to stock up on any item affordably across the United States.
Incorporate your town or city’s name in your business name for a local touch
Local businesses get the added advantage of having a deeply customized name. The ideal name for a local business is one that captures both the business’s services and its current local setting. Both work in the business’s favor as regards promotion, the latter adding the local setting punch.
Local customers everywhere have always liked to feel like they own their local businesses, going as far as giving them business instead of nationally franchised competitors.
Giving your business a name with a local suffix or prefix allows it that privilege. A simple example of a business name with a local touch is Dunder Mifflin Scranton, for a paper company based in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Use colors that suggest your product or service
While using any color you fancy for your local business’s brand color sounds fun, it can also be disastrous. An ice cream parlor shouldn’t deal with color green, much like a cannabis dispensary shouldn’t tamper with pink for its brand color.
The power of a brand color is such that it gives customers an idea of what to expect even before they enter its doors. Particular colors work best for particular businesses or their accompanying industries; you can determine yours by looking at your product and its target audience.
Employ fonts that are suggestive of the vibe of your business
Local businesses can choose between different fonts when branding, but they need to use fonts that capture their overall vibe. The vibe is automatically by the business’s owner and the industry the business subscribes to, in addition to the clientele it wishes to attract.
If you aim to appear very professional, sharp, dull, traditionally professional fonts such as Verdana and Times Roman are the only way to go. These fonts work for local businesses such as attorney offices, veterinary offices, and local real estate businesses. Fun, playful fonts work best for businesses in aligning industries, such as ice cream parlors, tattoo shops and boutiques.
Use a photo (of yourself) in your branding items if possible
For country-level businesses, using a photo in branding may not be as important. But for local businesses, a photo of someone recognizable in the neighborhood is a great way to do branding. The photo (preferably of the business owner, a local resident) becomes synonymous with the business, ending up a marketing tool of its own.
The photo can be incorporated into the logo, the business icon and other branding items. That it is of a local resident, adds cachet to the business, making it feel local and ‘for the people.’
