Create your own unique brand - don't try to be like Apple

I hear this a lot: "We need to be more like Apple." This is understandable since the computer maker has been wildly successful with their products and their brand. Everything from Apple's easy-to-use computers, iPhone, and iPods to their packaging of their products is very simple and clean - yet it evokes Apple's own style and unique identity.

A big part of Apple's branding success comes from their being different. Imagine how Apple might be today if they had tried to imitate Microsoft. A big marketing disaster.

There is nothing wrong with a business or freelancer wanting a clean and simple branding philosophy. But when they say "I want to be more like Apple," they begin to enter the 'danger zone' of being a copier, not an innovator.

When a business begins a conscious effort to be more like Apple, they start looking fake and their branding becomes forced. The public will see right through this and your business will suffer as a result.

So how do you create a unique brand for your company? This involves looking at your company, what it does and how you want to project that to the public. For example, let's pretend you run a gift basket company. Customers order custom-made gift baskets that can be sent to a loved, friend or anyone else they choose.

Gift baskets are usually filled with all types of candy, cheeses, meats, jellies, jams, maybe even a bottle of wine. You want to reflect that in your marketing. You don't want your brand to mirror an accounting business, for example. Your logo might be a gift basket with your name on it. Or maybe a horn of plenty with your different selections spilling out.

Your website might feature photos of gift baskets with lists of all the different products that can fill a basket as well as the different styles of the baskets themselves. Maybe you even offer free shipping on orders over a certain amount - that's something to definitely promote on your site.

You get the idea.

The brand of a gift basket company should be one of joy and cheer and the virtues of gift giving. So if your website is designed like an accountant's site, business-like and formal, you will probably confuse and turn customers off to your business.

The same goes for your print marketing material. Your brochures, newsletters, advertisements should all project a common theme and compliment one another so that customers can instantly recognize your brand. And more importantly, your print materials should also compliment your website.

Therefore if your brand is unique, personalized and reflects what your business does, then customers will remember you better and will be more likely to give you their business. Be yourself.