Branding Ideas for 5 Unique Industries

No matter how unique or specific your industry, a strong brand will make the difference between a small business’s success and failure. Whether based out of the U.S. in New York or located overseas, the global market and technology dictate that companies distinguish themselves from the crowd. If you own a business in any industry, here are some ideas you could use and apply to your own brand to make clients and customers want to check you out.

Online Retail

If your business is in online retail, your brand will need to focus on your online store and product. Maybe you sell sporting equipment or custom embroidered uniforms. If you own a business like Allen’s Sports uniform, you’ll want to not only market your products as made from durable and quality materials but put an emphasis on customer service.

Consumers are sometimes skeptical about ordering things online. For any retail business, you want your brand to scream customer service. Make it clear, upfront, that returns are easy to do, that customer service is always available, and set money aside to make sure these claims are true. For you, a branding opportunity could be offering discounts to customers who leave reviews. In doing so, you are letting your happy customers do some of the heavy lifting of branding for you.

A strong brand goes much further than quality customer service. Online businesses will need to capitalize on social media to help customers understand why their products and experience will be better with you. Consider what makes your store different. Do you take a portion of profits and donate to charitable causes? Do you hire people who are down on their luck? How did you get there, and what made you want to start an online business? Telling your story and helping customers relate to you is key to building a brand people remember and return to.

Maybe your online store was built by an award winning Shopify developer. Take an honest look at your website. Is it more user friendly than others? Are you using your social media for unique discount codes? If so, you want to show it off. Part of your brand could be those amazing graphics and product codes you put your money and creativity toward.

Branding Ideas: Food Services and Vending

If your industry is food services and vending, you’ll want to consider your target audience. Most likely, you’ll be selling to restaurants, so branding should focus on them. If, for example, you specialize in reusable to go containers or eco-friendly utensils, you’ll want to make this clear to them. Whether it’s through cold-call sales or how you advertise your professional-grade kitchen supplies on your website, it would serve you well to hire a branding professional familiar with marketing to businesses looking for niche vendors.

If your products aren’t different than other supply sellers, a way to brand is a one-stop-shop for restaurant supplies and equipment. Or, consider your expertise in the field and make that part of the brand. If your background is a professional chef, consider starting a blog about that experience and tying it to the products you sell. It’s likely food business owners will feel more confident knowing you’ve got years of experience in the kitchen yourself.

Branding Ideas: Digital Goods and Software

If your industry is online and cybersecurity like MonsterCloud reviews, a big part of your brand should center around how you can protect small businesses and customer data. Like the food supplier above, you’ll want to target your brand message to other business owners. Coming up with a memorable slogan will go far in helping small business owners remember you when they are looking for help with things like spyware protection, data recovery, and more.

Remember: Most people aren’t as savvy as you and hardly understand what you do, so branding in basic language, rather than getting fancy or high tech, will be important for you. Spell out in easy terms what you can do for a business or company and leave the tech talk for the office and digital workspaces.

Website Hosting and Digital Marketing

Maybe you help advocacy groups or nonprofits with campaign slogans, web hosting, web design, social media, and social justice issues. If you are a web host, designer, or even someone who helps with overall messaging and advocacy work, a big part of your brand should be handing someone else the megaphone. That is, while your own messaging or belief systems may be different than the customers you’ll serve, you’ll want to be clear that you can market or build in diverse ways that compliment each customer’s brand. You don’t want to put your voice into theirs and need to make it clear that your own brand is about listening.

In listening to another business’s plans and overall messaging, you can work to maintain your brand integrity by using examples of the various styles, voices, and tones you’ve been part of. For your industry and any work related to digital marketing, web hosting, and social media, a key will be making it known that you can roll with anything.

For this reason, you’ll want an easily accessible and preferably downloadable portfolio of your work. Client testimonials and examples of the hard work you’ve put in on other people’s brands will be paramount to your success. The best part about this is that the better job you do of relaying someone else’s messaging, the faster it will travel by word of mouth.

In the end, whether a web developer or retail merchant, having a strong brand will help you to stand out. Keeping an eye on the global market, social justice issues, and community trends, you’ll go a long way in helping yourself stay connected to potential business across the worldwide web. A strong brand, great customer service, and a product that delivers are keys to business success across all industries branding ideas.