As we drove by a hospital construction site today, we chuckled at Angelo Luppino's forklift, cement trucks and other heavy equipment. Luppino, a contractor in northern Wisconsin, has an unmistakeable brand identity: all of his equipment is painted pink. You can't miss his big, burly workers driving and working from pink trucks. And the pink trucks always elicit a response. It's part of his brand. While pink typically evokes femininity, innocence, softness and health, Luppino uses the juxtaposition as a fun element to reinforce his brand.

Color can be a powerful factor in marketing a brand...but no marketing should be attempted without first branding your business and its products. A few essentials to keep in mind:

1. What exactly is my product?
This is a loaded question that can only be answered by going through the proper steps to branding your business and its products. Your product, your Brand, should convey attitude, have rituals and sacred words, exemplify leaders and come from an existence story.

2. What exactly is my price?
Price is not determined by a guess. It requires consideration of profit, other potential sales, your customers, and comparable and competitive research.

3. What exactly is my brand's place?
Where does your brand fit among its competitors? What are its unique qualities, key selling points, and, most importantly, what is your Brand's Point of Difference? These are all essential elements to a successful, thriving Brand.

4. What is my brand's promotion?
Promoting your brand requires a good understanding of all the marketing options that are available to you. There are hundreds. But do not be overwhelmed. Knowing your unmistakeable brand identity provides focus and direction and simplifies your marketing and promotion.

The key is your Brand.

We can talk about these brands or any given brand, but what is a brand, really? A brand is at its core a tangible thing. But in the real sense, branding is much more. Branding is designing a well defined community of people. We call these communities brand loyalists or customers.

Brands and branding can never be separated.

Your Brand is your core. Brands and branding are so intertwined that they can never be separated. Simply, the brand is the package; the branding is the personality.

Think of it this way: your outer appearance as your brand; your inner personality is your branding. If you are having a bad hair day, an unexpected acne break and happened to forget to your socks, your brand may be a little off. That day, your branding will not be consistent with your brand.

One of the ways to convey your brand is through color. The colors you use in all of your marketing, whether business cards, brochures, stationery, website, signage and office decor, play an important role in establishing your brand. Determine which color will help you convey your message, reinforce your brand, and motivate people to buy from you.

Red evokes aggressiveness, passion, strength, and vitality. In business, it is ideal for accents and boldness or to stimulate appetites.

Orange evokes fun, cheeriness, and warm exuberance. In business, use it to highlight information in graphs and on charts or as an accent color (like we do at boostyourbottomline.com)

Green evokes tranquility, health, and freshness. In business, its deep tones convey status and wealth while its pale tones are soothing.

Blue evokes authority, dignity, security, faithfulness. In business, it implies fiscal responsibility and security and is universally popular.

Purple evokes sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty and mystery. In business, it is right for upscale and artistic audiences.

Yellow is an optimistic color that almost always evokes a positive response. Yellow stimulates creative and intellectual energy and gets customers motivated.

Brown evokes utility, earthiness, and subtle richness. In business, it signifies less important items in documents.

White evokes purity, truthfulness, and being contemporary and refined. In business, it enlivens dark colors and can be refreshing or sterile.

Black evokes seriousness, distinctiveness, boldness and being classic. In business, it creates drama and often works well as a background color.

Gray evokes somberness, authority, practicality and a corporate mentality. In business, it is always right for conservative audiences.

Color is a powerful factor in marketing success. So, what color is your marketing? This week identify whether your marketing colors convey and represent your brand, the core of your business.. As you do your fieldwork, think about those pink cement trucks.