Name the most successful businesses and you will have a picture of their brands/brand names in your mind. Such is the power and importance of branding, regardless of the size of a business.
With branding, there is one strict principle: learn to respect it first. Once you do that, you can get the whole world respect it. Branding can foster sales and marketing in a small business in many ways. Here’s how:
- Make it interesting: Make your brand look, feel and sound interesting. Follow Seth Godin’s Purple Cow Theory. It simply means that if you have a purple cow, it can give competition to the most excellent cows easily. A catchy tagline, an interesting brand name, a lively logo and an easy-to-navigate website can boost the marketing of a small business in a fortnight.
- Use newer branding platforms: If you want to build a brand that increases sales, place it where it is seen most. Today, it is the audio-visual and social media. Using these media is like shouting out your brand in a creative way that leads to a great brand reputation and finally to sales.
- Do surprise branding: Always give your customers an element of freshness and surprise through using a variety of themes in your branding. Recall the ‘zoozoo’ ads of Vodafone that utilized various themes from beauty to news to music to day-to-day messaging in order to build its brand and increase sales. However, never forget to hammer your customers with a standard brand logo and name each time you surprise them.
- Have a fool-proof branding plan: Most branding fails due to a lack of Plan B. Always have a back-up and make sure both your plans are equally competitive. For example, a small publishing agency totally changed the place of selling a book for teenagers from schools to malls only to reach out to larger audience and create a brand. This not only increased their expected sales but also created a lasting curiosity among adults over the book.
- Get creative: While soaring sales is your focus, you don’t have to make your brand appear too serious or tedious. Unless you are selling medicines, your brand must have a very thoughtful and witty tagline pitched in a smart way to its customers. Your brand must speak to your customers naturally.
- Brand your employees: Give your employees a chance to feel they belong here by creating badges/uniforms containing company’s log or tagline. This will boost their morale and lead to better work efficiency. A company that looks good from the inside will automatically shine from the outside.
Branding requires creative brainstorming. In fact, if you follow some of these principles, you will be able to save the cost and do smart branding to increase marketing and sales.
