How to Protect Your Organization’s Brand Identity in 3 Steps

We’ve all been there: you’re browsing the supermarket for a product you love, one that you’ve bought a few times before, and one where you know its exact location is in the store. You get to the aisle and notice that the store brand is on sale and is close enough to the name-brand product you’ve grown to love. Which do you choose? Most of the time, consumers choose price above familiarity and software purchases are no exception.

Why does your organization need to protect its brand identity? Because not doing so will cost you revenue!

Whether you’re running an e-commerce business or you’re running a tech company, here are a few ways your organization can protect its brand identity and win over the competition:

1. Copyright everything that pertains to your business

   This is especially important when dealing with your logo and tagline. If you have a great idea, chances are there’s a competitor on your heels who will try and monetize that idea as well. Make sure your original ideas are protected with a copyright.
   
   

2. Harness the power of social media

   There’s no denying it: social media is a marketing powerhouse and if your brand doesn’t have a social strategy, you’re losing out on potentially millions of customers. There are over 3.4 billion active social media users a day and every single one of them can become evangelists for your brand if you’re connecting with them on social media in a meaningful way. Partner with brands like Credly that take your product, service, learning, or training and encourage users to share their knowledge on social media. Every time a badge is shared from Credly, there’s another opportunity to reach users your organization may not have had the chance to get in front of.
   
   

3. Establish brand guidelines

   It is important to have an established brand guideline for employees/contractors/vendors to follow. 

   Your brand is not just your logo. It’s your company culture, it’s your leadership, and it’s the colors you choose to use on your website. Your brand is any way that someone can take a visual representation of your organization and associate it with your product or service. If you’re partnering with organizations that will use your logo, tagline, website copy, or social media content, make sure they represent your brand the same way you do. Keeping tight control over how your brand is represented outside of your organization will only reinforce quality control.
   
   If you’re interested in learning more about how to protect your brand with digital credentials, you can catchup on our webinar titled, 
   "How to Promote Your Brand With Digital Credentials," and get a look into how IBM saves over $10M a year in marketing costs just by issuing digital credentials.