Why the Branding is the most valuable asset in your business?

It is a fact that your branding is the most important assets in your company, it is the only corporate asset that, managed properly, will never depreciate. Patents expire, software ages, buildings crumble, roofs leak, machines break, and trucks wear out. But a professional image will increase the value of your products and services.

But unfortunately branding has long been misunderstood. Too many business owners believe branding is a matter that only concern to big companies, but this is totally wrong; branding includes everything your company does, from the logo on its letterhead, to the way it handles customer complaints, to whether its uniformed personnel keep their shirts tucked in. It’s easy to limit your perspective of branding to the verbal and visual expressions your company puts into the marketplace, but there isn’t anything that anybody within your organization does that doesn’t affect at some level how your brand is perceived.

In other words, branding is your business reputation, all companies are careful to avoid doing anything that would harm their reputations, it takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute. Effective branding improves the visibility and respect for your product, services, or company. It attracts attention and drives sales. It also enhances margins, as customers are willing to pay more for products and services from companies they know and trust. Branding can also improve the internal dynamics of an organization and influence both recruiting and employee turnover.

Successful business branding is one of the most important aspects of building a successful company or business venture. Branding, when done right, will increase your visibility on the marketplace, draw your target market to you and increase your revenues. Branding is the solution for anyone who deals with people, even if you’re not in business.

One of the most crucial aspects of branding is continuity. There are many different ways to reach out to customers, publicize and promote your business and get your business name known and recognized. But sometimes it can seem difficult to transfer your brand image from one medium to another. What works well on a billboard may fail when transferred to a business card. When embarking on a branding or re-branding project for your company or business, you need consider all of the possible media which might be used to promote your business in the future, and consider how the brand image will translate across all of them fluidly, consistently and recognizably.

 

Is your business attracting the growing Hispanic market in the United States?

If the U.S. Hispanic market were its own country, its buying power would make it one of the world’s top 20 economies? Recession or no recession, U.S. Latino households earning $50,000 or more annually, are growing at a faster rate than total households? The U.S. Hispanic market is projected to account for $1.5 trillion in purchasing power by 2015? These stats are from a recent Nielsen report on Hispanic households in America. And I sure hope they whet your appetite to cater to this important and growing consumer group.

There are more than 52 million U.S. Hispanics, Nielsen says, and they are the fastest- growing ethnic group in the country. By 2050, the Hispanic population in the U.S. will grow by 167 percent, compared to just 42 percent for the overall population. One thing that makes Latinos a particularly profitable market is their youth. While the U.S. as a whole is graying, the median age of Hispanics in the U.S. is just 28 (almost 10 years younger than the overall median age of 37). More than half the U.S. Latino population is under 35 years old.

That means Hispanics are in the market for:

• New homes and everything that goes with them (appliances, furniture, décor, home services).
• Weddings and everything that goes with them (flowers, catering, honeymoons and travel).
• Children and everything that goes with them (clothing, accessories, toys, education and tutoring, extracurricular activities).

MediaPost reports that research firm IBISWorld has identified seven industries that will benefit most from the growing Hispanic population:

1. Residential buying, food (grocery and restaurants)
2. Retail (especially clothing and electronics)
3. Education (higher education and technical schools)
4. Financial services
5. Transportation (automotive and airline)
6. Entertainment
7. Media

Some additional facts for consideration:

• U.S. Hispanic purchasing power has surged to nearly $700 billion and is projected to reach as much as $1 trillion by 2007, nearly three times the overall national rate over the past decade. (Source: HispanTelligence®.
• The top areas where Hispanics spend more than non-Hispanics are: groceries, telephone services, furniture, men’s and boys apparel, children’s clothing and footwear. (Source: Selig Center.)
• The U.S. Hispanic market ranks as the third largest “Latin American economy” behind Brazil and Mexico.
• In 2002, there were 37.4 million Hispanics in the civilian, non-institutional population of the United States, representing 13.3 percent of the total U.S. population. Among the Hispanic population, two thirds (66.9 percent) were of Mexican decent, 14.3 percent were Central and South American, 8.6 percent were Puerto Rican, 3.7 percent were Cuban and the remaining 6.5 percent were of other Hispanic origins. (Source: US Census Bureau, June 2003.)
• There are more Hispanics living in the United States, than the entire population of Canada, which is 32.5 million. (Source: U.S. Census.) We are like a country within a country.
• Hispanic advertising by U.S. companies grew 24 percent in 2003, compared with 8.6 percent for the general market. (Source: Media Economics Group, research firm that tracks Spanish-language marketing.)
• By mid-century, 25 percent or one out of every four people in the United States will be Hispanic. The African American population by mid-century will remain at the current rate of 13 percent of the total United States population. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau.)

Are you targeting Hispanic customers in your marketing tactics and how is it working for your business?  if want to reach Hispanic consumers and introduce your product or service to this growing market, do not hesitate to contact us, this is a market we understand perfectly, we know the language, we have the experience, we have the connections and all the required elements to position your product and increase your sales and recognition

 

Tips to help you start your business on the right foot in 2014

Entrepreneurship is a hot topic in today’s society. The number of people starting businesses this year will likely be the highest ever. Business isn’t something that can be learned over night, nor is the learning the most important part in all honest. Building a business takes time, sweat, and persistence. If you want to be able to call yourself a successful entrepreneur, you’ll have to earn that title. However, it really isn’t that complicated of a thing to do (depending on the industry you are in obviously), and can be extremely rewarding. So here you have some tips that may help you to start a business in 2014.

 

Refine Your Idea

Before you get started, you’ll obviously need to have some sort of idea to run with. It doesn’t have to be unique (in fact, the best ideas usually aren’t), it doesn’t have to be super creative, but put some effort into this. Once you have a general idea of what you want to do, you should seriously consider niching down. What I mean by that is to focus on doing one specific activity for one specific group of people.

For example, if you want to start a freelance web design business, focus on one type of business to design web sites for, like maybe dentists. Or if you are thinking about doing landscaping, focus on a specific type of landscaping. There are endless possibilities, and it is better to be seen as the niche expert than a general business that doesn’t specialize in what a customer needs.

 

Get a plan

Many people think that they need to write a massive business plan if they want to start a business. However, this simply isn’t true anymore. In the modern day business culture, there is no reason to write a massive plan full of projections that are based on nothing more than conjecture. Your time and energy are better spent on proving you have a viable business model. This is oftentimes called the Lean Startup approach. You can read more about it here.

In essence, what you want to do is come up with a minimum viable business model which you can test. For instance, you may think your freelance writing business will do very well if you approach bloggers and pitch them to accept your writing. You would then test this by actually trying it, and if it worked you would scale the business. This is the basic formula that your business should follow regardless of the industry or scale.

 

Get Legal

You’ll of course need to legally file your business before you do almost anything else. While most businesses are legally Sole Proprietorships, I highly recommend that you file as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), regardless of what your business is. An LLC will protect you from personal legal liability in case your business gets sued, which is incredibly important for any business.

Say you get sued because you messed up installing a sink in a home, causing thousands of dollars in damage. The owner then sues you. If your business is a Sole Proprietorship, they can go after both the businesses assets, and your PERSONAL assets. That means they can take your house, car, and anything else you own. However, an LLC makes it so the business is liable for itself, and the owners are not legally required to pay such debts.

 

Get a website

It is really important that people can access your website at all times and that they can find the information they need in a simple way. A proper good quality website can really help you boost your business’ brand. So make sure that your website is up to date. You can even re-launch it to better suit your brand image. There are plenty of good website tips at the Flyte website. Make sure that you also optimise your website for mobile phones in 2014.  

 

Start Marketing

Once you’ve made the necessary investments, you’re ready to start marketing. This will of course vary widely depending on what kind of business you are starting, but the key is to simply make it happen in some form or another, which is what most people tend to do.

If you need some help creating a website or creating some marketing for your business, please contact us, we are here to help you.