Exploring Small Business Branding & Marketing

Any organization that intends to thrive must begin by gaining a profound understanding of its customers.

Who are they? What are their hopes, needs, fears, desires, aspirations, values and anxieties? What need(s) do your products and services fulfill for them? Why would they choose your organization’s products and services over those of one of its competitors? That is, what makes your organization different in a customer-relevant and compelling way? Put another way, what would your customers miss most if your organization ceased to exist?

Next, the organization must identify the primary benefits it delivers to its customers.

Benefits can be:

•functional (This car was rated the safest in its category by Consumer reports)

•emotional (Harley Davidson makes me feel like a rebel, a free spirit.)

•experiential (I pamper myself when I take a break at a Starbucks. It is an inexpensive indulgence. They make me feel so welcome there.)

•self-expressive (People know I have money and good taste when I carry a Gucci handbag.)

Emotional, experiential and self-expressive benefits are often more compelling and less easy for competitors to copy than functional benefits.

It is very powerful to translate that brand promise into a tagline (The Nature Conservancy: Saving the last great places on earth or Nike: Just do it). Typically, that tagline would accompany your organization’s logo wherever it appears.
 Ideally, your brand’s name, logo, colors, visual style, tone of voice and personality will also reinforce (or at least not clash with) your brand’s promise. All of these should be carefully crafted and consistently applied to all of your organization’s internal and external communications.  You can achieve this by developing ‘brand identity standards and systems’ and mandating that all of your employees use them.

Next, you can ideate ways to make your brand’s promise real at each point of contact your organization makes with its customers – pre-purchase, at the point of purchase, immediately after the purchase, during product/service usage and ongoing to build loyalty. The following are possible points of contact: advertising, sales associate contact, product/service usage, newspaper articles, customer support, technical support, special events, membership organizations, web site, promotions, direct mailings, newsletters, etc.

If your organization is relatively young, the most important thing you can do is build brand awareness quickly and aggressively. If your organization provides the highest quality products available, supported by outstanding service at the best prices, but no one has heard of it, it will not sell anything. Brand awareness building is the most important aim of advertising and almost any other marketing activity, especially for smaller and younger organizations. Find and use every way possible to let people know about your brand and its promise.

One of the least expensive and most powerful ways to build brand awareness quickly is through proactive publicity and ‘word of mouth marketing’ that creates ‘buzz.’  Saturn transformed a potential crisis into positive publicity and a television commercial that spread the news about one of its dealers flying to Alaska on a rented plane to replace a part on a recalled car in the customer’s own garage. And many brands do the same without the advertising. All of the following brands initially built their business with little to no advertising: Harley-Davidson, Body Shop, Starbucks, Gateway, Compaq, Wal-Mart, Haagen-Dazs, Palm Pilot, Hotmail, Trivial Pursuit and ICQ.

Another thing to consider, if your organization is relatively new is the importance of building trust with and offering assurance to your customers and potential customers. That’s what brand building is all about — building trusting relationships and emotional connections. But, it takes time.  First someone has to know your brand.  Then it takes time for them to like it. Finally, they begin to trust it.  In the interim, these are some things you can do to build trust quickly: offer guarantees, provide testimonials from current satisfied customers and deliver outstanding service.

Following are some marketing tactics that smaller to medium sized businesses should consider:

•Conduct demonstrations, classes and workshops.
•Speak at conferences and for professional associations.
•Hold contests.
•Write articles for newspapers, periodicals and professional journals.
•List employees as experts.
•Be a guest on or host a local radio or television show on your area of expertise.
•Network online and offline (in professional associations, conferences, trade shows, benchmarking groups, chambers of commerce, usenet groups, chats, online forums, etc.).
•Publish newsletters (online or offline).
•Write a book.
•Hire a publicist.
•Maintain relationships with the press.
•Get involved in civic organizations.
•Donate money to local charities, especially complementary causes.
•Volunteer to judge competitions.
•Wear branded shirts and other clothing.
•Cross-promote with complementary or nearby businesses.
•Give away insignia merchandise (featuring your business’s name, logo, tag line and contact information).
•Write letters to new residents introducing them to your business (perhaps offering them a free or reduced-price trial).

Finally, the most important thing a business can do when it markets itself is to put itself in its customer’s shoes. What does the customer really want? What are the most important factors in the purchase decision?  Where or how does the customer prefer to shop?  What information sources does the customer rely upon to make purchase decisions? When is the customer most inclined to buy? What can our brand say or do that will make the customer choose us over the competition?  Ultimately, the success of your marketing efforts will depend on thoughtful, honest analysis, a good understanding of customer psychology and behavior and common sense.

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Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

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