Branding

No idea whether your business needs a brand? The basics of how to create a valuable brand and how to exploit it for business advantage.

A memorable brand can reinforce your identity and encourage customer loyalty. But there's a lot more to a lasting brand than a well-designed logo.

What you need to do if you change the name of your business, from notifying Companies House to updating your website and literature.

Small businesses can create an effective brand by examining how the business works and what it means to customers. Our guide to business branding.

Effective use of design in your business can increase sales, reduce costs and present a new image to customers. Our guide to getting design right.

If you are a small firm, you could be forgiven for thinking that branding is not important for small businesses, but this perception is wrong.

If a trademark is to be registered, whether a word, logo, shape, sound or smell, it must be represented graphically on the application form

Your brand is potentially under threat in many ways online. Expert Chris Barling provides his eight top tips for safeguarding your business

Branding is just as important for small businesses as it is for big names. Dan Einzig explains how to develop your own brand identity.

Many companies do not understand the important differences between brand and marketing. Find out why the two are important, but in different ways.

Every business has a brand that it needs to promote and protect. Even with only a small budget, small firms can create their own powerful brand.

Read these handy FAQs and find out how to build a brand, including creating a logo, registering a trademark and branding on a budget.

The first thing a customer will notice about your business is its name. Creating the right first impression is essential, but not as easy as it looks.

Produce top-quality business marketing materials to convey your brand on a shoestring budget by doing it in-house, with this handy guide.

A useful step-by-step guide to creating a unique selling point (USP) for your small business, and identifying that gap in the market.

No business can afford to rest on its laurels. Your business may be keeping up with economic and market changes but is your brand keeping pace?

A poor or out-of-date image could be holding your business back, while simple changes could make a huge difference. But where should you start?

Commissioning a professional graphic designer can ensure that your stationery and marketing collateral impress, but how do you find the right one?

Paul Reddington, managing director of Nottingham-based Spike Photography Ltd on how he overcame the perception that small may mean unprofessional.

Neena Trehan of Surrey-based beauty salon Spa Fabulous explains how she came up with the name for her business and offers advice to others.

The AdCracker website has some useful sample briefs to help you if you've never briefed a creative team before. Or even if you have.

Your creative people can be your strongest business asset, because they can give you something that is valuable — ideas. So how do you motivate them?

Customers can worry about small firms, fearing they lack the capacity and experience to match their bigger competitors. So how can you look bigger?

Use this handy tool from the Intellectual Property Office to find out what intellectual property you own, and how you can protect and exploit it.

Your firm's intellectual property may include anything from website content to your company logo. To exploit it you will need to protect it legally.

A trade mark is a sign or symbol that enables your customers to distinguish you from your competitors. Find out how you can protect yours.

Find out how you can stop others from damaging your business by registering or using the same or similar names or brands to yours.

How your business might be able to produce stationery and a range of good quality marketing materials without spending a lot of money.

Intellectual property (IP) theft is common. Take steps to protect your logos, designs, trade marks and copyrighted material to help prevent it.

The real work on branding begins long before the creatives are let loose with their crayons. Here are five principles that create stand-out brands.

The culture of sharing is already well-established among consumers. Now businesses are discovering that by collaborating they can reach new audiences.

You can register your trade mark to protect your brand (eg your product or service). Use the Intellectual Property Office's online service to apply.

People don't only have perceptions about products, services and organisations - they also develop perceptions about the people they meet.

Potato farmer Will Chase started the gourmet snack brand Tyrrells Crisps in 2001 and since 2008 he's been making vodka from his potatoes.