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At A Glance

Kamloops Business News-Branding Your Business
Local Interest Reviews-Kamloops Regional Farmers' Market

"Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.-- Jeff Bezos"

Kamloops Business News

Branding Your Business

What comes to mind when you hear the word brand?

Probably some familiar names like Coke, Nike, Tide or McDonalds...easily recognized names and their various slogans over the years such as "Coke Is It", "Just Do It", "Tide's In; Dirt's Out" and "I'm Lovin' It", right?

Brand development has become increasingly important over the years as the global competition has increased along with getting your message out about your product/service "brand" (which also includes your logo) to ensure you are seen and recognised.

It's a concept that has been around since the days of cattle ranchers when cowboys marked their livestock with their ranches "brand" to set them apart from those belonging to others. (Now you know why or how we've moved between brands and logos)

Brand building is not something that should be reserved only for big business and mega corporations...

It's something that local small business, family owned mom & pop operations and kitchen tabletop entrepreneurs should be eager to embrace.

It can be a huge part in the growth of your business and helping to increase your bottom line especially with a solid online marketing strategy. (Web site and social media marketing in particular!)

Branding is a Combination of Elements

A brand is so much more than a product.

It's the brand and slogan (which is also part of the branding process) that people remember about your product or service.

For example:

McDonalds is recognized for their big "M" (The Golden Arches) and for the phrase "I'm lovin' it."

They've gone even further by also having a clown and other animated characters like the "Hamburgular" that represents fun.

Their brand is also about quality ingredients, fast food and even their charitable organization Ronald McDonald House.

Good branding helps your products/services to get recognised and, helps them stand out whenever someone talks about your business niche or category.

Take a moment to consider a local favorite Kamloops shop...what come to mind?

Whatever it is that you just came up with in your "minds eye", the qualities that you associated with that particular retailer that is all part of their branding strategy.

Creating Brand Awareness

Different components come together when creating brand awareness.

Depending on your resources, your branding efforts and priorities may include:

• A website that showcases уоur qualities, benefits of уоur products or services above your competitors,
 
• Having а slogan оr tagline that conveys your marketing message and attracts your ideal target clients,
• Social media channels to engage with your clients and shows your involvement and interaction within the marketplace

A brand identity is a way to set yourself apart from the competition and it helps your potential customers distinguish уоur unique product/service from similar products that are available for sale within the marketplace.

Most everyone has experienced the price of a product (say a pair of jeans), that is more expensive at one place than it is at another... That's also branding!

...For example you may go to a long established store that "brands itself" as being "The Place Of Quality And Service" while the other store's "branding" is "We Sell Everything Cheaper Than The Other Guys Do!"

Study the impact of building brand awareness in terms of monetary benefits and уоu will realize that branding helps generate more word of mouth (WOM) advertising which in turn can lead to more customers and greater profits.

Branding your business is an intelligent and strategic way to create awareness and position your product/service in your chosen marketplace be it online or locally.

A strong branding strategy will put your business "Front Of Mind" when searching for your product or service and also enable you to potentially reallocate your sales and marketing budget to other areas of your business such as increased online promotions once you've fully targeted your ideal client.

If you start noticing the various branding strategies of businesses in and out of your specific niche, you'll be able to see what they are doing, especially your competitors.

You'll also get a better understanding of the importance of building brand awareness.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or feel that you would like my help in setting up or implementing your branding strategy.

Alternatively, you can also download a copy of my "Achieve Your Goals" manual (the link is at the bottom of this newsletter) which will also help you set yourself up for success!

Local Interest Reviews

Kamloops Regional Farmers' Market

The market has gradually evolved to where farmers make all the decisions and everyone on the board is an agricultural vendor.

Make it, bake it or grow it to be a vendor at the market

Annelise Grube-Cavers, Saturday Market Manager says you’ll need to raise, grow, make, bake or harvest your product.

“You can’t buy things from someone else and then resell them at the market. This is a producers market.

Annelise says,"the whole mandate of the market is to create an outlet for local producers to connect with local consumers and is a more pure form of helping the local economy.

When you start reselling things, it becomes difficult to trace where the stocks are coming from and it’s introducing a middleman into this economic transaction.”

Kamloops Regional Farmers' Market extends up to Barriere, West to Merritt, East to just past Sorrento, and to Falkland.

Other vendors are sometimes allowed to come from other areas if they are selling something that’s not grown or produced within those regions or there's not enough supply.

"We have a blueberry vendor who comes up from the coast and also some tree fruit vendors from the Okanagan to solve those things.”

Range of products at the Farmers’ Market

Annelise says even though produce doesn’t have to be certified organic there is a wider variety of organic produce available than you would find in your local grocery stores.

“There’s also honey, sauces, herb mixes and other prepared foods, which are subject to Interior Health Authority approval and even specialty items like wool.

We have one producer who provides lamb and they do shear their sheep. It’s sent away to be cleaned and dyed and spun and that product is sold at the Farmers Market.”

As the Saturday Market Manager Annelise says it’s a natural fit to be working with all the vendors in the interest of local food.

"I actually live on a farm and we have a family booth at the Market.

I grew up, going to the Farmers Market as a vendor with my parents and I’ve always loved the market.

My grandfather started farming corn and potatoes in the 1940s and my parents continued doing potatoes and corn and then diversified quite a bit, adding strawberries and a market garden.”

From April 25th until the end of October visit the Kamloops Regional Farmers’ Market for a range of everything that is grown in this area.

Starting with asparagus, greens and radishes, honey and jam and all kinds of different arts and crafts and homemade soaps and lotions and creams right through to pumpkins and sweet corns.”

Continuing reading what Annelise has to say about the impact of the Farmers' Market on the local economy.

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