Create a strong brand DNA—and watch it grow These days, customers want to have a deeply felt connection to the brands behind the products they're purchasing, which means that if you're starting a business, a strong brand DNA has got to be part of your creative process from day one. And it needs to be more than just an abstract idea: to give your brand life—and a bigger chance of surviving against the competition—you need to have a standout launch strategy and a set plan for growing your brand in a noisy marketplace. In Launching & Building a Brand For Dummies, Amy Will—who launched her first business at just 24-years-old and has been the brains behind four strong and buzzworthy brands—covers everything from crafting a powerful brand identity and planning that all-important launch to being prepared to scale up as you begin to take off. She reveals crucial lessons from her personal experience in launching five companies, as well as detailing case studies from some of the strongest brands out there, accompanied by insights and advice from successful founders and branding experts. Stand out on social media Create viral campaigns Build on Customer Loyalty and LongevityDeal with the competition Whether you're thinking of starting a business or are already building up your market share, memorable brand identity will be the key to—and Launching & Building a Brand For Dummies one of the secrets of—your future standout success.

Discover how brands are created, managed, differentiated, leveraged, and licensed Whether your business is large or small, global or local, this new edition of Branding For Dummies gives you the nuts and bolts to create, improve, and maintain a successful brand. It'll help you define your company's mission, the benefits and features of your products or services, what your customers and prospects already think of your brand, what qualities you want them to associate with your company, and so much more. Packed with plain-English advice and step-by-step instructions, Branding For Dummies covers assembling a top-notch branding team, positioning your brand, handling advertising and promotions, avoiding blunders, and keeping your brand viable, visible, and healthy. Whether you're looking to develop a logo and tagline, manage and protect your brand, launch a brand marketing plan, fix a broken brand, make customers loyal brand champions—or anything in between—Branding For Dummies makes it fast and easy. Includes tips and cautionary advice on social media and its impact on personal and business branding programs Covers balancing personal and business brand development References some of the major brand crises—and how to avoid making the same mistakes Shows brand marketers how to create brands that match their employers' objectives while launching their own careers If you're a business leader looking to set your brand up for the ultimate success, Branding For Dummies has you covered.

Why do consumers pay a premium for a Dell or Hewlett-Packard laptop, when they could get a generic machine with similar features for a lower price? The answer lies in the power of branding. A brand is not just a logo. It is the image your company creates of itself, from your advertising look to your customer interaction style. It makes a promise for your business, and that promise becomes the sticking point for customer loyalty. And that loyalty and trust is why, so to speak, your laptops sell and your competitors’ don’t. Whatever your business is, whether it’s large or small, global or local, Branding For Dummies gives you the nuts and bolts know-how to create, improve, or maintain a brand. This plain-English guide will help you brand everything from products to services to individuals. It gives you step-by-step advice on assembling a top-notch branding team, positioning your brand, handling advertising and promotion, avoiding blunders, and keeping your brand viable, visible, and healthy. You’ll get familiar with branding essentials like: Defining your company’s identity Developing logos and taglines Launching your brand marketing plan Managing and protecting your brand Fixing a broken brand Making customers loyal brand champions Filled with easy-to-navigate icons, charts, figures, top ten lists, and humor, Branding For Dummies is the straight-up, jargon-free resource for making your brand stand out from the pack—and for positioning your business to reap the ensuing rewards.

This book will guide you through the steps necessary to build a brand from the ground up. Each of the key phases of preparing for a brand launch are broken down into practical guidelines designed to help you make the right branding decisions along the way.

Want to start the small business of your dreams? Want to breathe new life into the one you already have? Small Business For Dummies, 3rd Edition provides authoritative guidance on every aspect of starting and growing your business, from financing and budgeting to marketing, management and beyond. This completely practical, no-nonsense guide gives you expert advice on everything from generating ideas and locating start-up money to hiring the right people, balancing the books, and planning for growth. You’ll get plenty of help in ramping up your management skills, developing a marketing strategy, keeping your customers loyal, and much more. You’ll also find out to use the latest technology to improve your business’s performance at every level. Discover how to: Make sure that small-business ownership is for you Find your niche and time your start-up Turn your ideas into plans Determine your start-up costs Obtain financing with the best possible terms Decide whether or not to incorporate Make sense of financial statements Navigate legal and tax issues Buy an existing business Set up a home-based business Publicize your business and market your wares Keep your customers coming back for more Track cash flow, costs and profits Keep your business in business and growing You have the energy, drive, passion, and smarts to make your small business a huge success. Small Business For Dummies, 3rd Edition, provides the rest.

More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times best-selling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions. If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue. In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers. The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more. In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you: The seven universal story points all humans respond to; The real reason customers make purchases; How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.

The nuts-and-bolts for building your own online business and making it succeed Is there a fortune in your future? Start your own online business and see what happens. Whether you're adding an online component to your current bricks-and-mortar or hoping to strike it rich with your own online startup, the sixth edition of this popular and practical guide can help. Find out how to identify a market need, handle promotion, choose Web hosting services, set up strong security, pop up prominently in search engine rankings, and more. The book explores the hottest business phenomenon today—social media marketing—with full coverage of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other technologies that are now firmly part of the online business landscape. Dives into all aspects of starting and establishing an online business, including the very latest big trends Highlights business issues that are of particular concern to online businesses Reveals how to identify a market need, handle promotion, choose Web hosting services, set up strong security, pop up prominently in search engine rankings, and more Covers the hottest social media marketing opportunities, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs Shows you specific types and examples of successful online businesses Provides the latest on B2B Web site suppliers, such as AliBaba.com Build a better online business from the ground up, starting with Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 6th Edition!