Sunday, July 6, 2014

The Omnipotent Brand

A typical response I get even from some veteran entrepreneurs is that small businesses, with not enough money to spend, should concentrate on 'more important' aspects of the business than on branding; or even better - they think they have no need for Branding ! Branding for many small (even bigger) enterprises never go beyond creating a logo and a "tag-line" (whatever that means!).
However, what most organizations don't understand is that every business creates an impression knowingly or unknowingly, positive or negative - that creates a certain perception about them in their customers' mind. The name, logo, ads, service quality, employees' behavior and attitude - everything contribute to this perception.
So, like it or not you do have a brand; what you do with it is, of course, entirely up to you.
The best thing, however, would be to take control of it to your advantage instead of just letting impression happen haphazardly which might result in a negative perception.
Haphazard branding efforts doesn't help your customers associate themselves with your business - they might get confused, you would not have top of mind recall, or they would have no clear idea on what you can do for them.
Branding helps in removing these clutter. In addition, a clear and consistent message sets you apart from your competition and communicates exactly what you are offering. But avoid using repetitive and qualitative standard phrases like best of class", "award-winning", etc. And most importantly, walk the talk so it shows you value your commitment.