3 Branding Myths - Busted!
3 August 2010
By Jörg Dietzel
In Branding Clinics I conduct for Spring Singapore or when teaching my ‘Strategic Brand Management’-module for the Spring SMU SME Leaders, I often encounter some branding myths, held by SMEs. Let’s have a closer look at three of those myths and see whether they are true or not.
1.Branding is only for the big guys
Many SMEs look at branding as something that applies to MNCs, who have big departments of marketing- and brand-managers to look after brand management. But MNCs were start-ups once, then became SMEs before they grew into MNCs – having a defined brand has often enabled their growth. The start-ups we work with have many other things on their mind – from product to pricing and distribution. But they have a chance to get it right, from the start, by building a brand that is differentiated and thus better suited to be successful in the market. Without differentiation, consumers will decide based on price, and it will be hard to grow the company.
It is about whether you want to use your marketing dollars to do just one job – build awareness and explain your brand positioning at the same time, or build awareness first and later try and change what the target group thinks about your brand since the initial positioning was not thought through or does not appeal to them. This is much harder and more expensive.
2.Branding is a luxury
Myth Number Two is related to Number One – many SMEs seem to think that branding is something they can embark on later and when they have ‘money to spare’. I guess this is based on a misunderstanding of branding – that it is just what you can see from the outside, i.e. the logo, colours, fonds, corporate identity. Actually, branding starts much earlier, with finding out about the needs of the markets, the strengths of the product and service, and how they can address those needs to make the chosen positioning relevant to the target group. It also looks at the competitors and their positionings and avoids a ‘me too’-position, in order to be differentiated. The logo, colours, packaging and tagline are just outward expressions of the chosen positioning. They help the target group to understand what the brand is all about and thus create a business advantage against the competition, starting from the very beginning of the business. Brands like Creative have learnt the importance of branding the hard way, being outsold by Apple which is more consistently and thoughtfully branded.
3.Branding is expensive
Probably the most prevalent myth. And the least true. I hold against it: Branding is free. Yes, free. Because branding demands no investment into anything that a professional business would not invest in anyway. So it’s no additional expense. Let’s look at the different elements of a branding project:
At the beginning stands the Brand Audit that looks into the target’s needs, the market, the competition. Information that you need anyway, in order to develop services and products that can survive in the market. So the research that you have done – be it in-house on 1-on-1 conversations and going online or through a third party, with (online) questionnaires, interviews or focus groups – is used to also look at the information that you need to develop a good brand positioning.
After that comes the positioning itself – what can I say about my brand that makes it differentiated, credible and relevant to my target audience? Something you need to decide anyway, though sometimes this is just developed ‘along the way’ and not so consciously.
Brand Design – you need a name, a logo, a corporate identity anyway, for business cards, signage, trucks, uniforms. But the same investment into these brand expressions is put to better use if the logo is not some arbitrary sign developed by the MD’s secretary but a professional logo that expresses the positioning chosen for the company and brand.
Touchpoint Management and Internal Branding – consistency is important, because people today don’t judge brands based on their advertising, but on their experiences with the brand. If your ad claims ‘we listen to you’, but when I call you I am on hold for 30 minutes, I don’t believe that you are listening or that my call is important to you. Many good positionings have become less credible through bad experiences, because the brand had not been translated into every touchpoint where your target – business or consumer alike – touches the brand. And your staff are your most important touchpoint, your ambassadors – wouldn’t you want to make sure they are trained and motivated properly to be able to convey the right image?
Then you reach out to your target group – through your website, through brochures or maybe advertising. Another step you will have to take anyway, in order to inform them about your offer, to create awareness and sales opportunities. These highly visible images will need to consistently express what your brand stand for, in order for your target audience to ‘buy into’ your positioning and choose you as a brand they want to buy or do business with.
So all of these steps you need to take anyway, in order to make your business succeed in the market. With branding, you are just making sure that there is a consistent message that comes through in every step, one that would help you to stand out.
Could you do all of this yourself? Maybe. But your staff are probably specialized in other fields, and busy with building your business. It may be better to have an outside consultant to scope out and handle the branding part of your business. Will that cost some extra money? Yes, it will. But schemes like BrandPact from Spring/IE Singapore support branding projects with substantial government grants and lighten the load for SMEs wanting to build a successful brand.
