Seven tips for small business branding
Big companies know how to launch, build, and maintain their brands. Small businesses? Not so much. Small business owners know they need to grow their business, but without an in-house “Global Brand Management and International Marketing Communications Department” they tend to be iffy on the details of how to actually do it.
The following tips have been compiled after several years of literally repeating the same things over and over again to the small and mid-sized business that have made up the core of Plumbline’s client list.
1. You have a brand personality whether you create it or not.
A brand is not a logo. Its a feeling. It’s what the customer actually feels or thinks of when he or she hears your name. So you better take some time to figure out how you want your customers to feel about you. The minute you launch your product or business you will start eliciting a response from people. How they perceive you (premium, value, technical, friendly, old, young, etc.) will shape your future. To make things worse (or better), it happens almost instantly on the Web.
Send some time, before you even create a business card, to think, really think about who you are as a brand and who the people are that make up your target audience. Then craft every piece of communication material around that.
2. Know where you want to take your brand.
?You need a plan. Lucky for you, this plan is not a drag to create. You simply need to have a good idea of how far you want to take your brand in the future and write it down. Commit to your vision. You may be a local coffee shop now, but a few years from now there may be some crazy trend toward Italian-style hot beverages made with espresso and foamed milk and just like that your in the Forbes 500. It would be wise to consider this possibility and create your brand accordingly. If you are going to grow, your brand message and image will need to accommodate that growth.
3. Speak Your Customer’s Language
?If you are a stand-up comedian, you better know what kind of room you are working that night. Comedy that kills in San Francisco might just possibly get a good Texas-Style Butt-Kicking in Dallas.
You’ve got to know your audience. More importantly, you’ve got to know what will work for them, what will turn them off and what will make them sit up and take notice. This really is marketing 101: Match the message to the audience. The message may shift over time, but the voice you use should not. If the voice must change or evolve, it should only do so when necessary and after a good length of time.
If you are selling a Cadillac, you should speak in a way that Cadillac customers will understand. Don’t try to sell them a Cadi using the voice used to sell a Scion. They just won’t hear you.
4. Make your audience respond in the way you want.
First, identify what you want the response to be, then craft your message around that.
You can make your audience respond through the use of visuals that tell your story or deliver on your core message. In packaging, it is often said that the package design is the first experience the customer has with the product contained inside. So through two dimensional graphics on a three dimensional product, we can actually communicate flavor and taste – eliciting a response like “mmmm doughnuts” for example. You can also make people respond by connecting to them with images that they are already tuned in to. That’s why beautiful, scantly-clad women sell a lot of beer. Both on TV and in the bar.
Just remember to keep it appropriate. A scanty clad biker dude will probably not help you sell pantyhose. Then again, maybe it will.
5. Control your message.
?You are in control of what you say. You can control the message your brand delivers. However you cannot control what is said about you. Unless your in the movies or politics apparently.
Be very very careful to consider all of the points of contact between your brand and your audience. All messages should be delivered in the same voice. Everyone who works for you should be treated like representative of your company. You know where they do this very well? Disneyland. Every where you go, and every one you interface with–the guy running the Matterhorn, the garbage sweeper, or Mickey Mouse himself– are all working off the same script all the time.
Your brand should be treated the same way. Your receptionist, your stock people, your engineer, should all know the brand story forward and backward and be able to represent (sell) your brand to anyone, at any time just as well as your actual sales team does. Build your brand inside as well as out.
6. Show what’s special about your brand.
What makes BMW different than Audi? or The Gap different from JCrew? It doesn’t matter if you are a landscaper or a lawyer, if you want to stand out form the crowd, you have to show what makes you unique.
However what you think might be your single, most-defining feature probably isn’t. More specifically it’s probably the same single, most-defining feature that everyone else is pushing. And really, do we need another piece of software to increase ROI and CRM PDQ ASAP? Can the world really take another Amazon.com? Do we need the “E-Bay of medical supplies”? If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard a client describe their business as the “perfect one-stop solution for blank” or as the “gold-standard provider of blank for the blank industry” I’d be on the beach of the island I’d be able to buy.
So how will you define yourself? The good news is that once you arrive at that answer the rest will be pretty easy. Or at least fun.
7. Be who you are
Be true to yourself and your customers. Don’t oversell or try to do to much. And once you have defined your brand personality, stick with it. If you are the value leader, then be the value leader. If you want to move from being the value leader to a high-end player, my advice is to launch a separate brand – think Old Navy vs. Banana Republic. Once you are out of the gate, changing the world’s established perception of you will be very difficult so again, think about who you want to be before your hang up your shingle.
Sometimes what you set out to be is different from what you become. That’s okay, even if it wasn’t part of your plan. If your audience leads you to a new place, follow them and deliver on their expectations. Don’t try to force them back to where you originally wanted to be or they will probably abandon you for your competition.
Of course there are dozens of other ideas for building the brand of a small or mid-sized business. And there are probably thousands of experts, books, blogs, lectures, and classes on the subject. This is not meant to be Gospel. It’s just some friendly advice.
Dom Moreci is the creative director of Plumbline Studios – a creative services firm in Napa, Ca.
