Branding
Branding is all about association, what can you do to make people immediately remember you and know who you are. Here are some tips from Lisa Chipetine
- Catchy Phone Numbers: What does your phone number spell? and 800 Numbers for Your Business
- Firms that can assist you in: content and branding (logicalexpressions.com)
- Email: A Large Part of Your "Brand"
- Don't have your website be for example www.lisachipetine.com and your email be LChipet745@aol.com. This breaks your brand! Even if you have an aol or other account that you are comfortable with, you do not have to give it up. Most website hosting sites provide you with a certain amount of email boxes, as well as, the ability to forward your email to another account. So if your website, business cards and other marketing material have the email lisa@lisachipetine.com, it can forward to your aol, yahoo, gmail or other email account to you to collect it. You need to remain consistent when promoting yourself-it's all a part of branding.
- Website: URL Names
- If you have a difficult name to remember or spell, it may be wise to find an easy tag line website name for people to remember and associate with you. For example, Chipetine is hard to remember and most often misspelled, so I elected for www.threadplay.com.
- You can also have other web domain addresses forwarded to your key website address. For example: if you go to www.lisachipetine.com, it will forward to my main website at www.threadplay.com. So I have covered several marketing variables for an investment of $50 ($35 to buy the domain name and $12 to forward to another webs address). Make sure you cover all domain names that could pertain to your personal brand.
- Develop an original Logo from either a caricature of yourself, or perhaps from a detail of one of your quilts. Be sure to include this logo in all your materials, print, web, stationary, emails to that it becomes recognized as belonging to you.
- Tip: If you can create this logo in black & white, not color, it will save you money in print costs
- Always carry postcards to help promote your work. For example, I say: "I am internationally known artist, here is an example of my work". After the response, I say "yes, I work in textiles and do contemporary quilting". Allows me a lead in to explain the process and the advantages of the medium (its tactile, warm, etc.).
- Develop your own "Trademark"
- Arle Sklar-Weinstein has a pair of earrings that she wears to every opening; and she is always photographed in these earrings.
- Have a colorful piece of clothing that you wear to every opening.
- Your hair can be a statement!
- Decide on a title for yourself What do you call yourself? (e.g. Quilter, Fiber Artist, Artist, etc) and Why? What's in a Title? Here are some examples:
| Name | Title most used | Why |
| Lisa Chipetine | Artist | allows me to expand in an explanation |
| Linda Colsh | Artist | see QNM article by Julia Pfaff and I was an artist long before I learned to quilt |
| Carolyn Lee Vehslage | Artist | It always leads to the question of what do you do. Then I can explain my style and materials without hearing about granny's quilt. |
| Martha Ginn | Fiber Artist | I explain that I create art using fabric and threads rather than paint; from traditional quilting I have moved to making art for the walls, sometimes framed, sometimes totally fabric. |
| Jayne Gaskins | Artist | I don't like constrictive labels. I'm an artist who is as likely as not to combine any number of media (photography, illustration. etc.) with any number of fiber techniques. |
| Jean M. Judd | Art Quilter | Simplistically, the title seemed to fit -- I can't consider myself an artist, because I can't draw to save my life. I'm a very detail orientated person and find it difficult to "just let things go and create". Although, I do have to say also that what is "in my head" rarely completely shows up in the pieces I create. |
| Heidi Field Alvarez | Artist | ....because I am not just a quilter, in my mind not really a quilter at all. Artist first. I quilt to get the results I want. It opens more doors. |
| Julia E. Pfaff | Artist | Because I make art. |