Branding is a critical process for small businesses as well as global enterprises and individual consultants. As a process, branding is about more than creating a logo or website. While both are undeniably important as the face of your brand, they are not the brand itself.
Instead, branding starts with developing a self-aware, honest understanding of who you are, who your customer is, what makes you unique, and how you fit into the market. Then, developing a strategy to get the right message in front of the right people, with the right visuals and tone-of-voice, at the right time.
Branding can be broken down into seven steps:
- Understanding external forces such as your industry, competitors, and customers
- Objectively studying internal factors like your past, present, and future objectives and goals.
- Defining and differentiating your products and services to hit those goals.
- Developing a brand personality that includes visuals, messaging, and tone of voice that emphasize your differences to your audience.
- Detailing the best way to reach your specific audience
- Consistently executing that brand personality across all touchpoints, both internal and external.
- Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The role of branding.
The role of branding is to discover that fine line that separates you from the pack. Then you, or brand professionals, take that line, make it bold, and use it to write a story that deserves attention. To share it, give it a name, a face, a voice, and the perfect soapbox to amplify the message. Then, your story transforms into a genuine and engaging conversation with your audience.
The importance of branding.
Think of someone in your life that lacks self-awareness and isn’t true to themselves or those around them. Spending time with them is uncomfortable enough, but if this person doesn’t share your values, associating with them is even more painful. Now compare them to someone that has a deep understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and truthfully represents themselves to others. Who do you want to spend your time and money with, and who’s association reflects best on you as a person?
The same is true for brands. We are less likely to engage in a meaningful way with brands that try to be all things to all people or lack self-awareness or direction. On the flip side, we want to be associated with brands that know who they are and reflect our values and ideals. Maybe you are driven to associate with innovative companies, performance brands, luxury brands, brands with heritage, brands that stand up for social causes, or perhaps you desire the cheapest product available.
“Branding is the process of connecting good strategy with good creativity.”
Whatever the reasons for your brand allegiances, their valid. Keep that in mind when contemplating your customer’s brand preferences.
Instead of trying to convince someone that their viewpoint is wrong or that you are something you aren’t, be yourself and speak to the people that align with your brand. It seems self-limiting to specialize and target a specific consumer with a particular mindset. But knowing yourself and your audience allows you to connect in a meaningful way with people that are more likely to become brand ambassadors. This point is one of many essential branding tips for small businesses that lack massive marketing dollars.
Longtime branding pro Marty Neumeier stated, “Branding is the process of connecting good strategy with good creativity.” He also said, “A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization.” While Jeff Bezos of Amazon summed it up as, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
In other words, your brand lives in the mind of the consumer, and branding is your attempt to define and shape that mental picture. The importance of branding is tough to deny.
The advantages of branding.
The foundational work you put into developing your brand strategy is pivotal when creating logo design, web design, graphic design, and marketing materials. Plus, the advantages of branding go so much further than your design and marketing. For example, the things you learn about your business and customers during the discovery process should drive hiring and training decisions. Imagine how knowing your target employee can reduce turnover and improve company culture.
More branding tips for small business: Hiring people that fit your company culture and believe in your brand and your customer creates brand ambassadors. Employees and consumers acting as self-appointed brand ambassadors can take you further than your marketing budget ever will.
Brand consistency.
One more small business branding tip: A brand needs to be consistent across all internal and external channels at all times.
If your brand is about fun, then fun needs to be represented in all appropriate employee and customer experiences. From the website to printed user manuals, to how customer service handles calls, a fun vibe should be communicated. But context is key. For example, any on-site first aid instructions should probably be straight forward.
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
If your brand is about health, then lead by example and make sure your employees are happy, healthy, and positive brand ambassadors. Make sure they have work-life balance and encourage them to participate in community health events on company time, of course. And maybe you should consider getting rid of the cigarettes and junk food in the gift shop.
If you are a family-oriented pizza shop known for sponsoring local little league, you need to make sure the bumper stickers on your employees’ delivery vehicles aren’t too raunchy.
Pay attention to your favorite brands, and you will see that even the best brands have inconsistencies. You might notice a tweet is out of character for an organization. Or, maybe a brand is spending millions to convince you their customer service has improved. Still, at the same time, they are frequently making headlines for sketchy customer service practices.
It’s the frequency and severity of brand inconsistencies combined with how they are addressed that separate the best brands from the pack.
The importance of brand management.
Your brand is an ever-evolving organism that deserves ongoing review and adaptation to changing consumer and business environments. Branding is not a set it and forget it process.
So how should you handle brand management? By continually repeating the seven steps at the top of this post. Beyond external factors, opportunities for brand review occur with each new document created, while hiring, during exit interviews, acquisitions and mergers, new product launches, press releases, and more.
So, what is branding?
Branding is any effort or lack thereof; you put into controlling how you’re perceived.
Deciding not to manage your brand is a branding choice that puts all the power into the hands of your competitors and the general public.