Ed Roach of The Branding Experts shares the branding process he does with companies that hire him.

1. Put together an effective team consisting of stakeholders, employees, suppliers and customers to look at the brand. Once this team is in place, the first step is to identify what the brand stands for. What’s the personality of your company? What’s your brand’s story? What service or product are you offering and what differentiates you?

2. After that, do an image survey. Where are you consistent and inconsistent? Sometimes a lot of companies have one company do their logo and a different company do their signage. Logo is such a small part of it. It’s important, but once you go deeper, that’s what the brand is all about.

3. Make a note of these deficiencies and correct them.

4. Do an analysis of the competition. What brand positioning are they involved with? Do a small brainstorming session with your team.

5. Establish an image strategy. Once you determine your brand colors, fonts, logos, photographs, general theme and feeling, put it all together in a document that would be set in stone. The team could then follow this strategy.