Branding ... the Heart of a Strong Marketing Plan Where's the love?  As Valentine's Day approaches, there are many ways of proving your love.  Struck by cupid's arrow?  You might expect cards, chocolates, jewelry or roses.  Without that special gift, the holiday feels a bit like a promise unfulfilled. The Valentine's Day brand experience is romance, passion and love.  Its brand image is hearts, flowers and cupids to name a few.  The brand, "Valentine's Day," is the promise of the fulfillment of what is expected. According to Hallmark, it sells more than 191 million greeting cards, the second largest day for card giving.  You can now "Love Out Loud " by recording your voice in a heart-felt message.    Travel Web sites such as, Expedia, cash in on the holiday by offering romantic travel ideas and vacation packages.  Web sites such as valentines.com and mydearvalentine.com are leading the competition.   Branding is essential to products, services, corporations, non-profits and communities.  Each has "consumers" who expect their promise to be fulfilled every single time they interact with their brand of choice.  Many corporations get it. Many do not.  BP is an interesting example.  Its " Brand Promise" is shared on its Web site.  Read it.  It's about much more than selling gas! What's your brand?  A successful brand will increase visibility and customer awareness. It can help to boost revenue.  The emotional bond - the promise fulfilled - builds customer loyalty.  Building Company Recognition Your company's personality should be easily identifiable at every customer touch-point, from word-of-mouth to final sale.  Every component of your company: presentations, Web site design, communications, marketing, etc. should speak with a brand-consistent look and voice. Appointing a Brand Cop Every staff member should be educated about your company's brand.  Branding guidelines should be created and enforced.  Consistency is critical.  Otherwise, confusion occurs that can damage your relationships and affect your bottomline. A strong brand is invaluable.  It is a fundamental piece in your marketing plan and something your company shouldn't do without.  It is important to spend time researching, defining and building your brand.  The professionals at Vehr Communications can help to strategically create a brand or fine-tune an existing one. Subscribe to "Vr3" Please visit our blog.  It's called Vr3 .  The "r3" stands for reputations, relationships and results.  That's PR.  That's what we do.  And, that's what we exchange ideas about on Vr3.   Good Reads on Branding  Amazon: 1. Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building & Maintaining Strong Brands by Alicia Wheeler 2. Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People by Marc Gobe & Sergio Zyman 3. Brand Simple: How the Best Brands Keep it Simple and Succeed by Allen Adamson & Martin Sorrell PR News, PR Insights This edition of March Forth provides links (on left) to some excellent blog discussions concerning this important topic. As practitioners, we use communications to manage reputations, build relationships and deliver results.  The Internet is changing how we do it, but how we have always done it is just as important. We hope the connections we provide here, and the various additional news outlets and blogs we connect to on the Vehr Communications' Web site, help you to understand this rapidly changing industry as much as they help us.