Branding is most often associated with the upper echelon of business market . The big names such as Apple, L'Oreal, Mc Donald's who have built a good reputation with consumers is deemed to be at the forefront of branding . However the author has decided to explore the impression about branding amongst small medium enterprises.
5 MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
Branding is for BIG brands !
If you are small timer, branding isn't the thing for you.
Because the typical mindset of any entrepreneurs is that branding costs alot of money and only big brands can do it. Branding reminds of us big huge billboards, colourful and pacy TV advertisement which will costs up to thousand and thousand of dollars. However branding is not necessarily costly and every small medium entrepreneurs need to embrace branding efforts in their everyday marketing because branding creates trusts, motivates employees and increases revenue. there are so many ways you can do it with less cost.
Sales track record is more important
How is sales more important than branding
We are so focused on the daily task of generating sales than we forget to pay attention to branding. What are the mistakes that we do ?
We sell products without caring for details on packaging and logo.
We hardsell to customers hoping to make a quick buck!
We undervalue our product and sell it at price than its value.
We allocate all our budget to mobilize our sales force and forget about investing in branding
My Brand Will not Stand Out
They won't remember you anyway, too many brands , its cluttered
My brand will not stand out in a cluttered environment because I am not well known.
Business are not keen in building reputation and building customer loyalty. You can stand out by implementing the brand value in your business process. For example, it can be reflected in the way you service your customers, resolve their enquiries and manufacture your products. All this do not cost extra money because these are processes that are incorporated in your operating procedure.
With or without branding I am still doing good?
Yes that's right for many of us we are still doing alright without investing on branding This situation applies when you are the only supplier of a product in the market and you have customers flocking to you nevertheless. But the market is not the same always, you will have competition and your customers may get diverted. In order to manage competition, you have several ways to make your brand
Focus on building your online and offline community. Find few places where you can grow your community and spend your resources there.
Branding is Time Consuming.
The reason why it is time consuming is because you have to brainstorm to create a creative logo and then place them in all your banners, brochures and merchandize. That does not end there, you even have to think of a tagline .
The truth is, it's not time consuming if you stick with your actual brand value and duplicate it across your marketing materials. The brand value should be consistent across all marketing platforms.
For example, if you have a serious tone on your website it should be the same on social media, tradeshow etc. When people can recognize you and be familiar with you, they will be more inclined towards your business