Know-How Exchange : Branding

It sounds like your graphic designer was trying to do HER job. YOUR job would be to provide her with a written "creative brief" as a guide for developing a new logo. Apparently, your designer was attempting to help you develop such as document.

Do you have a written marketing plan? With a financial background, you probably have a written financial plan for your venture, with sales forecasts and the like. How are you going to get the sales revenue? The answer, and planning process behind it, should be reduced to a written marketing plan for you and all your business constituents to refer to when making key decisions.

Lastly, have you tested your "Simply Captivate" name choice with your target customers? What feedback are they giving you?

Several of the MP top experts (listed on the right) can help you with the planning and logo development. Just click on their names to see profiles and email addresses to contact directly.

As Steve says, she's a graphic artist - not a marketer as such. Getting the horse before the cart helps people like her immensely. Okay, so it wasn't obvious, was it? And sorting out the muddles that are typical of new businesses is far from easy, and part of forming a marketing plan is just to get your own ideas into one line!

What drew you to home staging? This sounds the kind of thing that is better suited to someone with an imagery background than one with a financial background. Not that this matters, just as long as you enjoy your work and are getting results - and most important of all, you're pleasing your customers. Because that is the core of your business after all. They are the ones who spread the word, they are the ones who recommend you.

So let's look at what you do. You make a home looked lived in - only in a way that sells the home. That isn't easy to put into a graphical form. You could have a house with a nice green garden that happens to be a dollar bill (if that's allowed). Or one where the front door is open and showing a dollar sign - implying a sale? - - - you can tell I'm struggling here!! Well I guess your graphics girl was too. How about a simple block of a house surrounded by $$$ signs in a circle?

Colors: you want it to be engaging and attractive - and soothing to give your customers the impression of ease. Pastel colors - green perhaps? Dark brown for the house so that it stands out but isn't too garish by contrast.

Tagline? "Your home sells better when it's seen at its best" ( a bit wordy, but something to start with). "We make your home captivate buyers" (needs tweaking).