Branding Yourself an Expert

Written by Linda Palacios

Wednesday, 07 October 2009 06:14

Branding Yourself an Expert
Customers only see a company as they perceive it, so one local entrepreneur uses his business and his blog to help companies create positive perceptions to win over clients and their business.

You don't have to be Coca-Cola or McDonald's to have a brand. In fact, every person and company has a brand, whether they have created it consciously or not. "Pretty much everything a company does falls under the umbrella of branding in the sense that it creates perceptions of the brand," Three Deuce Branding Owner Matthew Fenton says.

Fenton has branded himself a branding expert in more than just his company's marketing materials. After a decade of owning Three Deuce Branding, Fenton began writing a monthly column for the Cincinnati Business Courier in 2007 to offer insight into the importance and execution of a strong brand.

To strengthen his own brand, Fenton used his That Branding Thing column as an inspiration for his blog at www.ThatBrandingThing.com. Fenton uses his blog to offer his column online and expand upon it between his monthly deadlines.

Readers learn about the dos and don'ts of branding as Fenton pulls from and reflects on both personal and professional experiences as they relate to branding. He offers advice on creating simplicity and consistency in a brand as he provides clarity on a pretty broad topic. But the resource is not really a "how-to" blog but more of a "how-to-think-about" blog, Fenton says.

While he is an expert in the marketing world, he realizes that his audience doesn't necessarily have that background, so he takes out marketing jargon to offer a more helpful approach. "My assumption is that if we can get people square on kind of the first principles of branding, the details of their own situation will be in a better spot to start on their own," Fenton says.

Besides his words of wisdom in his column and blog, Fenton encourages people to consider starting their own blog as part of their branding strategy. Before venturing into the blogosphere, however, you might want a couple more of Fenton's wise words:

"Define your audience so when you sit down at your laptop you know exactly who you are writing for."
"Define your voice and have an opinion. Don't be afraid to take a stand, to be provocative, to go against conventional wisdom."
"Use 25 to 30 percent words fewer than you're currently using … People tend to scan. They don't have the attention span to sit down and read a 2,000 word treatise. So when blogging, when it comes to sheer number of words, less is usually more."

For more information about Fenton's company, visit ThreeDeuce.com, and to learn more about branding, check out Fenton's blog at www.ThatBrandingThing.com.

PHOTO CREDITS
Photographer: Neysa Ruhl Photography
Model: Matthew Fenton with www.ThatBrandingThing.com
Location: The McAlpin

Linda Palacios -
	Linda Palacios is the editor of Cincy Chic. Send her an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .Read More >>

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