Archive for the ‘Branding’ Category

How to market like a large corporation on a small business budget.

When ever I talk to small business owners about how to best market their business they often respond the same way, “I don’t have the budget”.  You don’t have the budget?  How can any business say that? 

If we look at the common strategies used by large corporations we can see some comparable and often equally effective (relative to our market share and needs) strategies. 

Branding your small business

Large corporations spend tons of money here.  The brand perception, or brand equity, is critical and is often the foundation for every marketing campaign, sales collateral and underlines the complete company culture.  They spend money not only to influence the buyer but also their own employees.  Creating the brand through colour, styling, holistic messaging and so on keep the marketing departments of these corporations busy.  The brand speaks large to the buyer and is a major component to why people buy from them. 

So how can I ‘Brand’ my business and why should I?

If you’re wondering what your ‘brand’ is you are sitting to close to the window.  Take a few steps back, no run far away from your company.  Now looking from 50,000 feet can you see your company?  I doubt it; all you can see is a small dot in your hometown.  Now as you move closer in down to street level and walk toward your company what do you see?  You’ll either see a store front, your company van, truck or car and then finally you.  If we stopped here we could talk for hours how each of those elements to your business have strong brand value.  Each influences customers to either buy from you or run for the hills.  Imagine a handy man pulling up to the job site in a beat up 1972 cargo van with rust held together by duct tape.  Nah I don’t think I’m going to spend $20,000.00 to fix my bathroom with this guy regardless who has referred him.   No when you walk up to McDonalds, one of the worlds best brands, what do you see?  You almost always see a very well kept store.  The front is colourful the inside is clean, the furniture is new and the personnel are very eager to help you.  At this point you haven’t even bought anything and you’re happy to be there.  They have used a strong well laid out brand strategy to make you feel at home; after all you’re going to have dinner with them. 

• Work on your store front even if it’s a car.
• Keep your appearance professional and reflective of your customer’s expectation
• Make them feel welcome

 Now we have only touched the surface of branding and small business brand strategies.  Take a look around the site and you’ll find a number of related articles on how you can build a brand and strengthen your brand value simply and easily. Check out 6 Tips For Small Business  or more branding info in What is Branding and How Important is it to Your Marketing Strategy? If you don’t find what you’re looking for leave a message and we will help you to find it.

 The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

• Delivers the message clearly
• Confirms your credibility
• Connects your target prospects emotionally
• Motivates the buyer
• Concretes User Loyalty

SEO Branding

Many organizations that display a dynamic brand name see branding as a subset of marketing management. This is demonstrated by an organizational design that puts the customer at the center of the business. Those organizations recognize that marketing is the name of the game: If you don’t sell, you aren’t in business.
   
Unfortunately this by no means describes all organizations. For sure, marketing has made progress in boardrooms lately. The competitive pressure and the fast-changing environment of the last decade or so have pushed many more organizations to be in tune with their market, e.g., TI in the US, Renault in France. Nevertheless, there are still executives who declare that: "marketing is not a priority for us."

Although those skeptics would be interested in increasing sales and profitability durably, they resist the idea that the marketing function can help them reach that objective. In fact, they may confuse long- and short-term planning:

Coca-Cola’s customers would surely shy away from Coke, and would perhaps take to the street altogether, if the taste of the iconic soda changed daily from bitter to sweet. Building trust in a brand therefore requires consistency over a long period of time. It is the task of strategic marketing.

   
When a Kmart department store launches a promotional event, the chances are that Wal-Mart’s market intelligence will pick it up immediately and counter it if necessary. Thus, the quick reaction time of Wal-Mart builds sales, as it can annihilate its competitors’ price advantage in almost any region. This is a short-term plan, and it is the job of operational marketing.

It can be said that the short-term of today is the long-term of yesterday. As such, operational marketing must fit into strategic marketing.

Operational Marketing

Operational marketing is concerned with all the tasks popularly called marketing, including advertising, merchandising and promotional events. Strategic marketing is concerned with long-term objectives and planning. Among other things, it covers trend analyses, customer service processes, intelligence gathering processes, product development, and branding. In many successful companies, such as Nike, Dell or Staples, the branding strategy will deeply influence the entire organization, as they seek to touch their customers in the same way at every contact-point. For example, Staples, an office-supply retailer, aims at making the purchasing experience easy, as communicated in its trademarked slogan "that was easy." In practice, it may mean training the front-line personnel to customer service processes (e.g., to minimize check-out lines), designing the website for instant product reviews and actual delivery time, and scheduling fast delivery of orders and pick-up of returns. All those organizational aspects thus reinforce each other and converge to the same strategic objective.

In addition, those marketing-focused companies build brand equity that is bankable. Indeed, once a brand starts being recognizable, it can have a dollar value in the eye of investors and lenders. As such, it goes to the core of business valuation, a metric that is the livelihood of Wall Street analysts and venture capitalists. We may think that it takes decades to generate brand equity unless you are an Internet business; but the shoemaker Nike, for instance, demonstrated that a top global brand could be built in less than 15 years.

As a strategic factor, branding can also contribute to a corporate strategy by erecting entry barriers against competitors. For example, when you think about safe family cars, the chances are that Volvo will jump to mind. Volvo is so entrenched in its position of safe family car, that it would be foolish for any other car maker to challenge the Swedish brand on its turf.

Branding can also help a corporation deliver on its going-concern mission. The strengths of the Harley-Davidson and the Ford Mustang brands both saved those products from disappearing at a time where their American competitors were collapsing.

Any business organization has the power to take control of its future and can have an emotional impact on its audience. It requires understanding the role of marketing as being different in the short- and the long-terms, with strategic marketing and operational marketing being two distinct activities.

Although branding is as much art as science, it goes far beyond cute logos and curvy package designs. It is a discipline that has the power to lead and influence; a discipline that belongs to the long-term strategy of an organization.      

AMR Media (http://www.amrmedia.com) is one such company that has built a reputation on providing leading website design in the Durham Region.  I would check them out if you’re looking for a website designer in the Durham Region or in Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, or Whitby.

When you see the iron glowing red pull it out and brand everyone and everything in your business.  The art to branding is a combination of messaging and consistency.  Everything you do has to be branded, and when you do make sure you have the iron HOT.  Strong brands attract serious prospects while weaker brands scare them away.  Now when I say strong I don’t mean bully strong, I mean strength in your business.  Showing leadership is critical to demonstrating to your potential customers why they need you.  Regardless of what type of marketing you are doing your brand image is critical.  Your website must have a strong brand image and consistency.  Don’t try to fit yourself in to a template web design or a used look.  Stand out from the box and stake your claim as a leader in the marketplace.

So branding for your company starts with where you want to go.  Think beyond today and in to the future realizing your leadership position.