By Carlee Driscoll
It is way too long since I have covered branding in this column! We talk to clients and prospective clients about branding all the time, every day in fact. We tend to use big, well known brands as examples simply because everyone in the room can relate to them. The frustration we face all too often is that small business owners say… “branding is different for those guys, they have millions of dollars”.
The reality is that the principles of branding are really no different whether you are a mum and dad business or a global conglomerate. Branding is entirely scalable!
Sure, the money you have to spend on your branding differs from Coca Cola, IBM and Microsoft (the current top three global brands, collectively totaling a staggering brand equity value of US$196,074,000,000), but that doesn’t make your brand any less important.
Your brand should help you drive your business. Small or large, a good brand should help you:
- … Increase your market recognition and help you stand out from your rivals
- … Increase the resale value of your business and help you with your recruitment
- … Attract PR and other opportunities
- … Potentially charge more for your products or services
- … Turn your best clients into advocates
Remember that it is your brand personality that your customers relate to. Customers don’t emotionally connect with products or with businesses. Customers emotionally connect with people and personality traits. It’s your brand that gives your company a personality (along with your staff that ‘live and breathe’ your brand). Look after your brand and make it count!
Carlee is the Strategic Marketing Planner for Chilli. If you’d like to see how Carlee and the Chilli team can help you grow your business through brand equity call 5437 7788.
