A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, intended to identify the product of a seller and to differentiate it from those of competitors. Expenditure on promotion gives rise to brands. The more you spend on promotion and advertising; the most likely you will be able to build a brand.

The following can be associated with the advantages of branding:
(a) It helps build a strong and positive business image, especially if the brand name used is the company name. It is not so important if the company name is not used. For example, Microsoft doesn’t use his name when it comes to its search engine Bing. On the other hand, Google uses its brand name for his search engine.

(b) Branding makes it easier to link advertising to other marketing communications programmes.

(c) If branding is successful, other associated products/services can be introduced.
(d) The need for expensive personal selling may be reduced.

What a small business owner must know is that branding is not relevant to all products/services. Branding is important only for products/services that can achieve mass sales-this is because of the high cost of branding and the subsequent advertising. And also for products/services whose attributes can be evaluated by consumers. Baby Napkins can be branded, but not coals.

Start-ups and business owners are always on the look out for an expert in branding. Someone to help them in their branding strategies. Before hiring a specialist, you must know the reasons for branding.

(a) Advertising needs a brand name to sell to customers. The more similar the service or product you sell is to your competitors’, the more branding is necessary to create a separate product/service identify.

(b) Customers, salesmen and wholesalers are much more willing to accept branded products/services. A product or service they once saw in newspaper, magazine, TV ads, or put it simply via Google advertising program and his affiliates.

(c) A business has an upper hand and more control over marketing strategy because customers are more attached or loyal to a brand. You could increase the product/service price with less resistance from customers; because they trust you.

Branding should be a central and strategic part of both your product/service and promotional planning. To have a successful branding strategy, the following criteria must be met:

(a) Always suggest benefits customers can derive from your products/services. For example, Microsoft says that Bing, his search engine is much more accurate and offer web surfers exactly what they’re looking for, no more, no less; i.e. quality over quantity.
(b) Always suggest qualities. Zemanta, an Online production contents, says they improve the way we blog and write e-mails with contextual links and images. Well they do!
(c) Be acceptable in all markets both linguistically and culturally. Your offerings should be marketed all over the world without problems.
(d) Your offerings should be distinctive.
(e) Be meaningful. For example, if your product/service name is in English, and cannot be translated in other languages, the original name must be meaningful for someone based in South America.

When implementing your branding strategy be aware of legal constraints that may limit your possibilities for a global brand. This is the case where the brand name has already been registered in a foreign country. Brand imitation is high in certain countries; therefore protecting your brand name from piracy is almost impossible.