Marketing is more than just advertising.

Marketing is often a multi pronged process that involves making sure your company gets noticed, gets noticed again, and eventually becomes recognized quickly and easily for whatever it is that you have to offer.

Branding is a familiar term both in the sign industry, and in marketing discussions in general. You, your company, your company name, & any visual reference associated with your company, become part of your brand identity.

If you have a graphic representation that you wish to use to represent your company, this should be well thought out,  & should work well in a variety of situations. A logo design is an intentional graphic representation, designed to work within the constraints of a variety of media, and designed to properly represent your company & it’s products or services. If you have a logo, it is an integral part of building your brand identity.

I recently attended a Maui Chamber of Commerce luncheon as a small business exhibitor. The function was an SBA awards ceremony to honor recipients of various Small Business Administration awards. The Chamber offered this opportunity to it’s members, to set up a table & display literature or products to help promote our business.

As part of my multi pronged approach to marketing, I used this opportunity to be seen and mentioned on stage as an exhibitor, to help build my brand recognition & create top of mind awareness. The event did not allow actual “selling”, and that would have been unlikely for my business anyway, as we primarily do custom work.

Instead the event was purely to raise awareness within the business community, of the products and services I offer. Of course I handed out several dozen business cards, spoke with several prospects & had numerous samples of my work on display. I even brought my laptop & ran a slide show of work from my Flash Site galleries.

Here is an image of the table & the banner I used to help establish and increase the brand identity of Island Sign: