Branding for Small Business

1. Branding for Small Business Sanchai Thiewprasertkul September 2007

2. Know What is Branding! • Branding is the process of creating a clear, distinctive and durable perceptions in the minds of consumers. • Most people associate branding with big company • Small company can also use branding technique with great rewards • Technique of branding include association of a company with: • Logos • Distinctive colors • Slogan, musical jingle • Unusual qualities and product uniqueness • Packaging • Mascots • Memorable name • Behavioral incidences and hallmarks • Brand strategy must be a vibrant interaction between you and your target market

3. Why Branding Pays Off? • Time, money and efforts spent on branding comes back when the process is done intelligently because of things that it create: • Memorability: It is easier to remember the branded company than the non branded one. • Loyalty: With positive experience with a memorable brand, they are more likely to repeat buying, and less likely to go for competing brands • Familiarity: Familiarity create liking and this makes even non-customers to recommend a brand they know • Premium Image and Premium Price: Brand can take you out of becoming commodity and price competition. Customers are willing to pay more for a well known brand

4. Why Branding Pays Off? • Extensionability: Ability to expand a well-known brand to cover a new category, product, service, or locations • Greater company equity: A powerful brand means that you can get more money from your company when you decide to sell it • Lower marketing expense: Once a brand has been created, you get more payback for every Bath you use afterwards. • Lower risk and greater confident for consumers: People tends to buy from a well-known company over a no-name one

5. Building a Brand: The Decisive Edge for Your Small Business • Building a brand is one of the most important things a small business will do: • Marketing doesn’t happen without a brand and sales • We have already have a brand whether you know it or not! • A brand started when we open doors and sold our first product or service • People who contact your company has experienced your brand and formed an opinion about your business • Brand reputation is being formed and your firm’s future is being determined!

6. Building a Brand: The Decisive Edge for Your Small Business • The important question is: What do they think of you, and how it affect your sales? • If you cannot answer this question, you have no control of your brand! • Without control, your business is at the mercy of your competitors and other unseen forces in the market • Your company will lose because you choose not to play the branding game! • Profitable companies understand how to build a winning brand!

7. Building a Brand That Wins Sales! • It takes hard work, planning, execution and control to build a brand • Branding does have direct influence on building sales! • Branding is not merely creating image • Branding create reputation • Reputation is often the first interaction of buyers and our company • Branding create TRUST, and trust create sales!

8. Building a Brand That Wins Sales! • To build brand, we must rely on these five reputation building benefits: • A quality of product or services • Product and services that are available when customers need them • Honesty and make it easy for customers to do business with our company • Friendly and helpful people in our business • Product or services that provides a satisfying result to customers’ needs • These five benefits are minimum requirement to make sales and create a loyal, satisfies customers. They are foundation for your Brand Building

9. It Takes Time to Build Brand! • Look around you now! There must be at least a dozen of branding elements at work. Mostly it’s LOGO! • The Branding Game is constantly being played around you, all the time • The goal of brand is to own a share of your mine, so when you need solution, you will buy from the brand you trusted • For many, especially advertising agencies, they think that brand building is merely advertising • That perception is partially right • The best thing for brand building is REPUTATION • Branding do not require massive budget available only to large company. You can also do it!

10. Creating Your Branding Strategies: What Is Your Branding Strategy? • Branding strategy is the most overlooked part of a small business. Without strategy, you are at the mercy of your competitors!!!

11. Rules to Turn Small Business To a Big Brand • Rule 1: Consumer Perception is the key to success • Whether true or untrue, what customers perceived about us is the truth, regardless of the facts • Positioning is the key to success • Rule 2: First to the market player has more chance to win • First mover has more chance to position your brand into the mind of consumers first • First mover has the best chance to select the best positioning to win

12. Rules to Turn Small Business To a Big Brand • Rule 3: If you cannot be the first mover, the try to move the battlefield! • Don’t just become a copycat • Try to create a new and unique proposition that we can be the first, so that you avoid becoming an imitator • Rule 4: Focus clearly on your unique selling point • Don’t try to be everything for everyone • Concentrate on one thing in the mind of consumers. Try your best to be a Functional Brand! • Rule 5: Differentiate or Sell Cheap • If you fail to be different, customers will focus on price!

13. Rules to Turn Small Business To a Big Brand • Rule 6: Use Strategic Public Relations for brand building, and advertising just for maintenance • Advertising is less effective to introduce a brand • It has near zero credibility • It is too expensive for small companies • There is full of clutter that make advertising ineffective • It is a big boy game! • Strategic public relations is the key for success for small companies • It is credible • It is affordable

14. Rules to Turn Small Business To a Big Brand • Rule 7: Find a great name for your brand! • The name of your product is what separate you from your competitors • Find a unique and hard hitting name for your brand. Make it: • Short • Unique • Memorable • Rule 8: Make sure that you are absolutely consistent • It takes time to be clear in consumers’ mind • To often change of direction confuse your customers and dilute the power of your brand

15. Rules to Turn Small Business To a Big Brand • Rule 9: Know who are your enemies • No Tom without Jerry! Competition between brands create excitement among customers and media. It help the industry to grow • You have to know who are your primary competitors and fight with them • Rule 10: Be ready to introduce your second brand if needed • A second brand may be required to enter a new category or segments. • Use the second brand only when you are a dominant player in the existing segment or category

16. The Three Energizers of Branding • To develop a brand strategy, these three energizers must be in place: • Relevance of the offer: our product must contain an intrinsic value that appeals to the needs of the target market • Clarity of Brand Message to communicate to the target market: • Clear and focused message is required to influence the perception of our market • Be clear and concise with the benefits of our products and services • Be consistent to create familiarity, knowledge, preference, and finally trust!

17. The Three Energizers of Branding • The Quality of Your Branding Encounters: Make sure thatpositive impression is left every time customers have brand encounter. This will resulted in: • Satisfaction • Better word-of-mouth reputation • Loyalty • Higher price and higher sales • In branding, perception is reality!

18. Branding for Small Business is a Process • Branding is a sequential process, and not a one-time event • For small business, the brand manager is the owner or key employee • Easiest and most convenient method for branding is WOM and Referrals • Branding is Required to Compete! • Many small business never reach its potential because the company neglects to create a strong brand presence in the market • Entrepreneurs are mostly arrogant, overconfidence, believe that their product is so extraordinary that people will line up to buy! Even to the best product, branding is required!

19. Elements of A Brand • Pricing: represent value we offer to our customers • Distribution: how available our offer is? • Quality: this influence satisfaction • Presence: how prominent we are in the marketplace, high or low profile? • Reputation: the market’s opinion to your brand • Image: perceptions of your brand by buyers

20. Elements of A Brand • Benefits: the effect our product has on customers • Positioning: how different we are from our competitors • Preference: the customers’ propensity to buy our brand • Customer Commitment: the ultimate result of our branding strategy, loyalty is built through brand contact and relationships

21. Elements of A Brand • Other Parts of Branding: Some vital components of branding are: • Company name • Logo • Slogan and tagline • Letterhead and forms • Signage • Design of marketing materials • Website • Advetising • Staff dresses • Your facilities and maintenance

22. Critical Branding Questions • Answer these to start building a brand that wins: • What are the benefits of using your product and services? • Does your product or service have an advantage over your competitors? If yes, what is it? And how does it benefit the customers? • How do your competitors position their brands? • What is your main competitors’s marketing message?

23. Critical Branding Questions • Do your competitors deliver on their marketing promises? • Can that advantage be positioned into your brand identity? • Is there a marketing niche that would benefit from your brand? • Is your company name and logo descriptive and distinctive? Are there ways that it can be improved? • What is your company’s core message? And is your message clear and focused? Do your message connected to your target audiences?

24. Critical Branding Questions • What promises does your company make during the sales process? • Do you deliver on those promises? • What process can you use to determine if your customer or clients believe you are delivering oin your promises? • What research have you done to better understand the needs of your target audiences? • Does your brand have equity, personality or reputation? If not, can we do something to make it happen?

25. Brand is The Sum of All Parts • Branding is created from the integration of multiple components, and all of them are necessary. This includes other thing such as: • Touch point management • Employee education and readiness to serve • SO ACT NOW!!!!!!!