Part I

To build that world-class corporate, Internet, product or service brand there are three things you will need to define or create:

1) The brand's personality.

2) The relationship the brand has with the audience.

3) Visual icons, symbols or other representations of the brand such as the logo or a character.

So the three steps to building a brand are:

- Create a character or personality for the company, the product or service. Just as you would for a real person, based on that brand-person's reputation, attitudes and behavior.

- Build a relationship with your target market based on that personality. Do this over time, using advertising in addition to all other communications, including the way employees are trained to interact with customers.

- Reinforce the relationship and trigger recognition with consistent visual symbols. These symbols can include everything from a color scheme and logo to an imaginary character, or even the president of the company.

Part II

Before you create your campaign, your brand, you should determine the stage of the relationship between the brand and the target audience.

Like human relationships, brand relationships evolve over time, and can be divided into three general stages:

- Stage 1: Most prospective customer do not know the company or product or service.

- Stage 2: Perspective customers know the name or visual symbols representing the company or product, but they don't really understand what that company or product can do for them.

- Stage 3: Many customers and prospective customers know the company and what the product can do for them but they have no emotional connection to the brand.

> Click to see example campaign

> Click for a step-by-step process: The Brand development worksheet R