Branding for Small Companies

Brands are often thought to be names and logos designed at great expense and promoted via advertising at even greater expense.  Yet if you think of them as a shorthand communication of a company's unique identity, they can make a major contribution to surviving and profiting in today's market downturn.

Names and logos are the means of identifying the brand.  The brand itself is the summation of all the thoughts and feelings about your company or product.  So the brand is not something you own; it is in the minds of customers, suppliers and contacts.  Your company is the major influence on your brand.  To get the best message to your audience you must  plan what you want to say and then ensure all channels of communication under your control give that message consistently.

Start from your USP, your unique selling proposition.  This should define how you expect to differentiate your company from the competition.  Assume that all competitors will claim top quality, value for money, friendly service etc.  These  attributes are normally essential for survival rather than unique attributes.  So if you do want to make such a claim, you must also be able to  prove its validity.

Your aim should be to ensure all your contacts know what differentiates you from the competition.  Then surround this knowledge with all the warm emotional content you can.  Purchase decisions are often not logical.  In fact some markets, like watches and cosmetics, defy a logical approach all together.  So consider carefully the emotive factors most likely to be of importance in your market.

Personal contact with your clients always helps - so long as you give them good service - because they will associate you with the brand.  Past performance gives an expectation of similar treatment in the future.  I know for example there are only 2 suppliers I trust to provide excellent service by phone because they consistently manage to have a human answer the phone in seconds.  The moment I get a recorded answer, my brand image changes for the worse immediately.  So  your brand image will be affected just as much by any negative associations as positive.

The power of the personal experience of a brand is an important advantage for small companies.  Larger companies have to spend more on advertising because they are unable to have that personal contact with the same percentage of potential customers.  Local businesses as a result have a head start on those further away.

Building a brand image is a long term strategy.  You must be careful not to sabotage your own efforts by short term change.  Your customers will want consistency in your overall business approach combined with updates, changes and promotion to keep that image fresh.  There is no overall rule on how best to balance these conflicting demands.  As a business owner, however, you need to think carefully about the long term message you want your customers to know.  If your market changes the brand is likely to have to change as well.  A series of new products in the same market should probably not affect your brand image.

Successful brands are those that keep the customers are happy.  It is their brand, you are just the guardian!

Talk to you next month,

Stephen Orr