Brick by Brick

Building your Business with layers of Brand

95% of most businesses fail in the first two years. 91% fail in the first five. Slow sales, poor location, perhaps a bad idea/investment are the primary excuses. Yet, my work finds another more intriguing issue-branding.

Branding is value, the value of your product or service and more importantly the perception clients have of your business. A brand is often worth more than the business. Think of the brands you consume; Coke Cola, FedEx, Kleenex to name a few of many. Branding positions your business and makes consumers desire your offering.

The value of a brand creates an allure to the business. Consumers simply want to conduct business because of its power. Exemplars are Kleenex for its quality, Rolls Royce for its luxury and Harvard for its education. Building a useful, titillating and valuable brand produces a cachet. Prospective customers will find you, hear about your brand and value your offerings based on perception. The value of a brand enables the business to differentiate itself from competition.

Competitive pressures challenge regional and national businesses. However, a method to thwart competition is a strong brand. If you do not have one, it is time to build it. If you do yet are unclear of its value, test it. And if you have one big sales lag, it is best to reinvent it.

Brand development, or reinvention begins with your description of customer wants and needs. An imperative pondering question is "What does this firm do to serve our clients?" If you do not know, ask them! A client of mine owns two UPS Store franchises. While it appears simple enough, the owner did not appeal to buyer needs and subsequently lost business. With intervention from me, we discovered the client missed a major community demographic of entrepreneurs seeking a essential office services, i.e. copying, mailing, faxing, business card and brochure development. Redeveloping the brand to a "Entrepreneur Virtual Assistant", and fulfilling the brand provided a 22% increase in annual revenue.

The best tools for brand building are to:

  1. Survey your clients
  2. Interview several clients and seek trends
  3. Fulfill a market need that is congruent with your particular business
  4. Define the techniques used to help build the brand

Upon completion of your brand, test it and tweak it but do not change what is not broken. Once finalized, you need the time to experiment and decide what works and/or fails. Continue to test and build until you have exhausted your devices. Brands need time to be understood by customers and time to link the brand to a relationship wth you.

Finally, branding does not exist alone, it is pertinent to market the brand through advertising, promotions, public relations and web sites. Not only should you pull consumers to you but they should feel compelled to visit by hearing about you through numerous sources.

With so many marketing distractions you must build a brand that differentiates, that adds value, and that fulfills a need. With a strong brand your business will be built on a solid foundation.