What has branding got to do with me, I'm a sole trader!
Branding is about protecting your personal and business identity.
You need to take a pro-active approach to 'branding', and protection of that brand.
Your 'stamp' or 'brand' should be unique.
From the moment you begin to act on 'the great business idea' you need to think in terms of building a robust brand.
Ask yourself how you might feel if someone stole your personal identity, or if people began talking negatively about your business on the internet?
Remember the film called 'The Net' starring Sandra Bulloch, whose identity gets completely erased during this fast-paced thriller about cybercrime.
That film was set in 1995 and when we watched it back then, we felt quite safe in the knowledge that 'that only happens in the movies, doesn't it?'
Well, you're wrong, it's something to take serious note of, because it is happening right now.
Wouldn't it be devastating if one day you discovered someone had destroyed all your hard work in building up a top-notch business reputation: by imitating your business, stealing your ideas AND to make matters worse, delivering an appalling standard of service?
Ponder that for a moment.
This blog takes you back to Step One of setting up your business.
Getting the foundations right, and feeling really confident with the image you are portraying, will combine to help with the more complex issues of threats and security issues.
As a small business you should take a leaf out of the corporate's book.
Branding needs to pervade your business: there is no starting point and finishing point, it should be present in everything and everyone within your business.
A STRONG BRAND PRESENCE WILL BE INSTRUMENTAL IN KEEPING IT PROTECTED
- Management Message: Shout it out loud. When you are a young or a fledgling company you have the opportunity to set your brand in stone.
A strong brand ethos is critical because it will be talked about by others. YOU MUST INFLUENCE EXPECTATION OF YOUR BRAND. Help others who would want to promote your brand, i.e. satisfied customers or clients, to promote the right message about your brand. They add their own credibilty to your brand when they promote it on your behalf.
- Be efficient
- Be competitive
- Be consistent
- Be reliable
- Be innovative
- Visual Communication: You must portray a strong brand across every medium. Whether it's traditional media or new media the visual message must be consistent. Having a strong visual design for your business brand or personal brand is imperative. This is within your grasp even if you are a small business.
- A good starting point is to protect your domain name by buying up all the surrounding domains, so that no-one else can attempt to imitate your company on the web.
- If you are operating on a tight budget be enterprising. Find a young designer who impresses you and talk about how you can barter your services.
- Customer Interaction: Every member of your team, when speaking with customers or clients, must deliver the same consistent message about your brand. While you are a small business this is easy, but as you grow and employ more and more staff you should ensure that those staff have the same passion for the brand, that you have.
Having a team of people who understand your business ethos and can talk with confidence about the business, using the right language, will provide customers or clients with confidence.
- Prepare for Criticism: Be realistic. You will never be able to please all of the people all of the time.
What you can do though, is decide how to handle criticism. Customer service must be top-notch in order to deflect criticism. You can't always prevent it, but you can try to turn it into a positive experience by addressing it meekly and genuinely.
These tips will help to raise awareness in your brand. They will make it stronger and less vulnerable to attack.
Can you suggest other techniques to strengthen a brand? I'd welcome comments below.
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