"Branding can be a key marketing and usability element when it comes to earning repeat visitors and loyal customers."

In the everyday world, we as the consumer public are constantly bombarded by commercialism. From television ads to billboards, newspaper and print advertising to banner and performance positioning online, there are common elements the mainstream world uses which the public is so used to that they become blind to them and the effect is almost subconscious when it comes t o remembering things like logos, tag lines, motto's, jingles, and personalities which represent brand names.

When considering the large number of sites on the web and the number of competitors we face in the adult entertainment business, branding can be a key marketing and usability element when it comes to earning repeat visitors and loyal customers.

Think of how many taglines you know off of the top of your head for companies like McDonalds (“I'm lovin it!”), Nike (“Just do it”), Ford (“Built Tough”), Winn Dixie (“The beef people”), and more. I'll bet you know at least 10-20 if you think about it for a few minutes, more than you probably realize.

Jingles from TV and radio ads get stuck in our heads like a bad 80's song in a commercialized version of “Name that Tune”. These subliminal phrases and sing song sayings help to reinforce a brand or campaign. These trademarks are protected legally as if they were the Holy Grail of the company's marketing department. But looking at the adult industry where every site uses pretty much the same descriptive phrases, for example “The HOTTEST babes on the 'Net – Cum inside” makes me wonder how an industry that can create a niche for just about every fantasy on the planet be so dull and boring in it's communication to potential customers.

When developing a branding campaign for your company or website, you should first develop objectives regarding what you want your brand to do for your company and what things do you want your consumers to know about your company or product that differentiates you from your competitors.

Once you can list these elements off you can begin to work on a logo (graphic) and tagline (text) which will reinforce those elements. Although taglines can vary by campaign, the logo should stay as consistent as possible. For corporations or companies with short names, you may want to create a logo out of symbol with the name below or create a symbol out of an acronym that represents your product/services.

For adult websites, it may be best that your logo is your actual dot-com name/location. This is important because your user may never remember what URL is in the location bar, or even how they got there. But if they consistently see your domain name the odds of remembering it increases. If in fact you decide to go with YourLogo.com, perhaps laid out in the shape of a girl's body or something themed with your product or service, you can trademark your logo, domain name, and tagline.

Legally it is important to remember that you do not OWN your domain name. You simply lease it from ICANN or sublease it from a domain company and retain ownership for as long as you continue to pay your annual registration fees. It is not until you actually trademark your domain name do you have legal rights over ownership if you happen to lose the domain name, and you can even stop “copy cats” from using likenesses of the domain name and acquire it from owners who use the likeness to compete with your website.

For example, if your business trademarked their business name and dot-com domain name like “Fetish Factory” or “FetishFactory.com”, you can actually stop someone from using Fetish-Factory.com to compete with you. This protection over domains and even keyword phrases used in the search engines can help to protect your branding efforts for the long term.

Taglines (especially keyword friendly taglines) can be trademarked as well and repeated often throughout your promotional efforts. Cross media promotions and keeping consistent branding and theme per campaign can help to reinforce certain aspects of your product to your customers and how it differs from competitors. In fact if NaughtyGirls.com is my logo, my tagline could be “Nice girls get Naughty” for one campaign featuring particular home page models in banners, print ads, and other media. But 2-3 months down the road you can update those models and your media and NaughtyGirls.com becomes “Spanking Allowed” and features girls bent over one another's knees, creating sub niche marketing campaigns to draw in content specific visitors and target customers by showing variety, as well as relaying the fun/naughty/sexy feelings or other feelings you outline in your brand strategy.

Remember, Target, Differentiate, and be Consistent.

Protect every effort you make to please your customers, from investing time in creating a logo and tag line that works to represent your site or company to implementing them in your marketing and advertising efforts.

Branding is a long term marketing strategy that works under the current of conscious thinking, as the mainstream world bombards us ever day with their often cultural changing marketing themes; we in the adult industry have our work cut out for us.

Take a look around you once a day – there are marketing ideas in every aspect of our daily life. Ideas are yours for the taking. Until next time, Happy Promotions!