The old-fashioned way of looking at a store’s brand was limited to a catchy store name and logo, but today’s concept of branding goes way beyond that.  A brand now often includes a tag-line that describes the store in just a few words, and as well as a web site, a font and certain colors automatically associated with the business, and the look and feel of social media postings.

Having your store branding in place is very helpful in planning visual merchandising, store design and marketing.  A tag-line also is very useful in determining your buying decisions. A store that has the tag-line “great gifts for Mom and baby” probably doesn’t need to dabble in men’s accessories.

A “brand statement” is another aspect of branding, and may be a trickier concept. It is the way you define your store: what makes your shop different from others? What do customers expect from you? What is the story and even emotion associated with your retail presence? The answer to these questions will help you decide what tone to take in your promotions, as well as what type of advertising is right for you.

Once you’ve defined who you are as a business, you can brainstorm about your target customer. That may be more than one group: our shop prides itself on carrying everything from toys to toasters, and while we try to create a shopping experience that meets the expectations of all of our shoppers, we recognize that children spending their allowance are different from passionate home cooks looking for great knives.

The physical aspects of our branding (the logo on our bags, the feel of our web site, etc.) help unite the different groups the store appeals to. But beyond that, we know that we one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to promoting the store and its products. We have to make choices in our marketing to prioritize those we feel are our core market, and also to target the customers that are most promising for our future success. Today would be a great time to take a look at your branding: it is not a stagnant decision, but rather part of an ongoing discussion about how you can best present your store to the shopping public.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder