Five Essential C's Of Branding
Small business entrepreneurs are most likely to market on several fronts simultaneously
. Your mind does not only think about "offline" and "online" but rather using different mediums within both categories print media, sponsoring events, web site marketing, social media marketing etc. Yet you are most likely struggling to
So why haven't you been able to build your brand?
You haven't been able to build your brand for one simple reason: you're not trying to build your brand! You're focused separately on marketing, selling and customer service, without using each channel to bolster and gain from the others. As long as you are busy creating strategies and measuring ROIs within fragmented channels, your brand is going to keep suffering.
What is a brand?
A logo is not a brand. A product is not a brand, either. Your brand is an intangible entity that connects all parts of your company together. But what is a brand? Let's say you sell an e-book today. If you marketed this e-book as a "how To" guide and made it useful, you'll likely sell a few and even make some money on the whole. But tomorrow when you try to sell another e-book, you'll have to market it in the same way, and for similar profits.
If, on the other hand, while you were marketing your first e-book, you had also spent time building your brand through multiple media channels, then your next e-book would not only sell easier but make more profit, and its quality would continue to add to your brand's value.
Brands are additive.
Brands are long-lasting.
Brands are powerful.
So what do you need to build a brand?
Brand-building requires cross-channel strategization, not to mention significant investment of time and brand savvy. But remember that every step you take towards building your brand will actually increase your product's value manifold, and that most of what it requires is simply good business sense. And keep the following five C's of branding in mind:
1. Consistency. Your brand should be consistent in the quality of its products and content. If, for instance, you're using a blog or social media for brand-building, be consistent in the quality of your posts and also in your involvement within each channel.
2. Competitiveness. As you're building your brand, remember that ultimately people are attracted to competitive quality and price. If they can get the same stuff easier and cheaper elsewhere, that's where they will go!
3. Connections. Connections with others (people and brands) and among your various channels are crucial to create a brand that not only draws its power from everything that your company does, but also, in turn reflects on all those channels.
4. Customer service. Regardless of how good your brand is, if you discount your customers, you're going to lose in the long run. Customer service is an ongoing aspect of brand creation that should never be compromised especially in the age of social media when customers are growing cynical about corporations and bad press lives forever online.
5. Campaigning. Depending on your budget, you should also consider brand-building campaigns from time to time. Big corporations is able to pay to do this on a larger scale, but smaller businesses need not compete with them just to build their brand. You can do something as simple as sponsoring a charity or local event and using social media to not only popularize the event but also emphasize your role in it.
by: Pilar Torres Wahlberg
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