Business Branding, Location, and Identification Strategies
Identification of Products or Services
A. Market, Utility, and Utilization Strategies
Utility Brands: The brand is a name, sign, or symbol that identifies a product or service. Brands are used to clearly differentiate our products and services from those of competitors.
Importance of Brand Name Choice
The brand name is very important. We must take into account the use that will be given to the product and the characteristics of the market that it wants to conquer. The name must be original and sound good. It must also convey to the public the message you want and suggest something about the characteristics of the product or service.
Utilization Strategies
a) Strengthening the company’s image
- Using the company name as a trademark.
- Union of the company name and product brand.
b) Strengthening the product’s image
- Use a different name and product brand.
- Use of secondary brands.
Location of the Company
The decision of the location of the company will be determined by a set of circumstances, among which we highlight:
- The type of activity that we’re going to undertake since different activities determine *a priori* the possible location of many types of business.
- The size of the project the company will have. Small businesses have, in this sense, more flexibility.
- The available investment or expenditure capacity.
- The supply of spaces for each zone.
A. Determinants of Company Location
Every possible business location space is determined by so-called location factors, which correspond to the most significant features of it.
These factors are:
- Access to raw materials: suppliers.
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Tax incentives: They are intended to eliminate or reduce some of the tax burden borne by businesses, using different instruments that apply to different taxes or fees. The most commonly used are:
- Reduction in the applicable tax rates.
- Subsidies in the tax bases.
- Reduction of contributions to be settled.
- Other tax incentives.
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Grants and Subsidies: New firms have economic aid for their creation and implementation. It basically consists of:
- Outright grants.
- Partial subsidy.
- Subsidies in employer’s contributions to Social Security.
- Advance of unemployment payments.
- Rural Employment.
Identification of the Company
The image society has of a business is a very important point. Companies are presented and identified by a number of elements that determine and differentiate between them. These identifiers can be either the name or corporate name, like logos or anagrams.
A. Company Name
The name or company name can be chosen by different criteria:
- Because of its meaning.
- Because it has appeal.
- Because of its ability to identify the business.
- As the name of the person that owns the company.
- Because it is a word well known and socially accepted.
B. Logos and Anagrams
Anagrams are logos and symbols designed with letters, numbers, abbreviations, lines, drawings, etc., identifying a particular company.