Branding For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

      Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

      Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

      Published simultaneously in Canada

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      Library of Congress Control Number: 2014945062

      ISBN 978-1-118-95808-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-95809-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-95810-0 (ebk)

      Manufactured in the United States of America

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      Introduction

      Congratulations! You’re about to take control of your brand.

      If you’re thinking, “I don’t even have a brand,” then this book is definitely for you. It’s also for anyone who wants to build a better brand, repair a broken brand, extend the power of a valuable brand, or start from scratch and create a brand-new brand.

      Branding is a red-hot topic (pardon the pun) that keeps increasing in importance for good reason: Brands pave the way for marketing success.

      When people hear your organization’s name – or your personal name, in the case of personal brands – thoughts pop up that influence what they believe and how they buy. Those thoughts, held in the minds of others, are the basis of your brand. They may be the result of direct associations with you or your organization, but chances are even greater that they’re the result of web searches, online reviews, word-of-mouth comments, or other impressions that you’re making even when you’re nowhere in sight.

      This book is all about defining the vision and idea of your desired brand image and then making sure that the impressions you’re making lead to the positive set of thoughts you want people to have, trust, and believe about who you are and what you stand for.

      Count on this book to guide you through the branding process and to lead you to a better, stronger brand that can compete successfully in the big, branded world around you.

      When the publisher For Dummies books, one of the world’s most recognized book brands, first asked us to write a book on branding, we knew we were looking at a tall order and sky-high standards to live up to. Since the original edition of this book was published in 2006, Branding For Dummies has been read by thousands upon thousands of readers, translated into multiple languages, and excerpted in hundreds of other books and sites. Now, eight years later, we’re happy to introduce this heavily updated second edition.

      Branding For Dummies, 2nd Edition, is still the only plain English, do-it-yourself guide to branding we’ve seen, and we’ve looked high and low. What’s changed is that this second edition includes new chapters on personal branding and one-person business brands, digital communications, and social media, which has emerged at rapid speed to become today’s all-important brand-communication channel. Plus nearly every page of this book has been brought up-to-date with current advice, examples, and step-by-step instructions to follow.

      As with all For Dummies books, this one can be used as a reference, so you can jump around and still make sense of the information, even if you haven’t read all the chapters that precede it. Sidebars, the shaded boxes of text, cover bonus content that’s interesting but not essential, so you can skip them if you’re in a hurry.

      Here’s our pledge: You don’t need an MBA or even a marketing or business background to make sense of this book. All you need is an interest in the topic of branding and a curiosity about what it is and how to do it. We take care of the rest.

      You probably already know that branding works. This book shows you how to make it work for you.

      First things first: Anyone smart enough to want to know more about branding is no fool. Thanks for entrusting us with your interest. We’ve done back flips to make sure that this book includes everything you need to know about branding, all presented with easy-to-understand translations for every technical term.

      In writing this book, we made a few assumptions about you and the many others we hope will use this book.

      This book wouldn’t live up to the For Dummies brand promise without the symbols that sit in the outer margin alerting you to valuable information and advice. Watch for these icons: