Branding is all about creating a business identity - something recognisable to your customers.
One of the most important questions to consider when it comes to your brand is -
What does your brand tell your customers about your business?
Anything available for the public eye contributes to the brand of your business - from logo placement e.g. on stationary, merchandise, uniforms etc, signage, all forms of marketing collateral, advertising and of course your business website.
It is all about providing consistency of identity.
How to avoid branding embarrassment
Let me start this article by telling you a short story about a website domain that could have caused all kinds of problems for a business...
Simon one of the web developer's of the GemStar Interactive network, worked many moons ago on a sheep farm. There was another farm nearby called Mole Station - as it was located on the Mole river. Several years later when he was working in web design he came across a blog article about domain names gone wrong - and one of them was www.molestation.com - don't read it out aloud.
Fortunately this business eventually picked up on how their domain could certainly be misinterpreted, attract the wrong type of traffic and possibly even deter potential customers from their site - unfortunately too late before the world wide web had marked it's history.
Always, always have someone else outside of your business read through your marketing material and provide feedback before it is published.
Now let's talk about Logo design ...
The same principle applies - always have someone else outside of your business review your logo - ask them - what does it portray? - how does it make them feel?
THINK about how your potential customers and the general public will perceive your logo.
Here are some examples of logos where alternate connotations were not thoroughly considered:
