What about BRANDING?

If you believe driving a Mercedes will bring you prestige, you believe in branding.

Entrepreneurs must realise the importance of Branding and work towards building a brand, a brand that brings you pride and glory. It is not only a company growth, it is your personal growth as now you will be able to visualise from a broader perspective.
We classify businesses into 3 major group below.

Start-up company:

Usually the reason given is they have limited resources and they are not willing to spend on an intangible asset. There are some people who believe in making themselves to look presentable but refuse to believe that their company has the same needs.

Traditional Businessman

Branding is not a popular option for traditional businessman. These are the people generally believes in building their businesses by

• Competitive pricing and personal services

• Establishing long working relationship

• Entertaining clients

It is difficult to pass on your successor for the obvious reason. Your clients may be replaced if they are employees. Their successors may have other ideas. There are just too many reasons to get your replaced.

MNCs or Larger SMEs

Generally, these are the companies who are willing to allocate a portion of their resources on branding as they feel this is to differentiate them from the rest. They didn't stop growing and branding themselves to capture a bigger market share. That is the reason today, they are MNCs and larger SMEs.

In a free market, no products or services are exclusively for any proprietor. Anyone can find a replacement product or sell the same service as you do. How do you stand out from the rest of the thousands of proprietors who are selling the same product or service?

More commonly than common, price war is imminent. You just have to imagine during a bidding session, so many hands raising to outbid the other party to offer a lower price. Next will be a series of cost cutting approach as to balance up the deficit in the lower profit margin. Everyone knows this but not everyone UNDERSTANDS how to apply it effectively. If a cost cutting strategy affects the quality of the services or products, this is no different from suicide.

Having a price war has an adverse effect in  the long run. In the situation when operational cost increased, raw material cost increased (These are constantly increasing), maintaining the business will be more challenging as profit margins are even lower. A low margin profit will post a higher risk for businss owners as there are very little rooms for set backs. If cost cutting is not a fessible option, then BRANDING is the answer to it.

I would relate BRANDING as dressing up. We all know we need to dress up appropriately to project the right image. We use certain products to make us stand out from the rest, to make us more superior than the rest. If we drive a Mercedes, speak good english, we are percieved as the richer and more educated group. If we dress up as a factory worker, we are percieved as a factory worker. I certainly have no intention to put anyone down but this is all human perception. For all we know, he may be a millionaire in disguise but when human perception is at work, you can't really think straight.

BRANDING is dressing up the company. It is a form of indentification, a form of differeniation. In short, Branding is what makes you, You! It separates you from the crowd and makes you stand out. It defines the distinctiveness of your services and products. It is how you are percieved by others.

When shopping for a pair of Jeans, you may hear your friends saying, you can't go wrong with Levis. They have been consistent in the quality of their products, designs, creativity and aftersales service to be the market leader. This is strongly percieved in the minds of the consumers. This is the kind of message you want your BRAND sends to all your customers. It makes fall in love with it, it makes you think you MUST have it and lastly, it makes you pay a premium for it.

For these reasons you need to protect your newfound identity by making sure you are consistent in what you produce, there is no glitch in your service level, communication, emails, phone call, client's visit, an event or an experience with your company( there are so many more examples). Training and educating your employees, your business partner (especially those who outsource some parts of their operation to other proprietors) is important. Everyone relating to your company is equally important as your customer do not differeriate you as a receptionist, a director, a product or services. A receptionist is as important as a director. They look at you as a whole.  It is exactly like how men evaluate the opposite sex. They don't just evaluate a lady is pretty by just looking at just the mouth, nose or eyes. The same goes to the ladies because we are all human.

Branding not only comprises of how you handle your clients/consumers, on a broader spectrum, you should also consider how you behave towards a supplier. It's naive to think that because you can get away abusing your suppliers simply because you are giving them business. It's just irrational to create a "I am good guy image" and on the other hand you turn into a psychotic monster.

Branding is huge because it is more than a logo, products or services, it encompasses so many areas. It takes a lot of effort, a lot of time to build a brand. A brand is an unspoken guarantee, an assurance of its quality, services and it's commitment to the community, to it's users. Once you have build a brand, it is more challenging to be replaced by other companies. Without one, you just like any other Tom, Dick or Harry. You have an identity but just that nobody knows you.

This reminds me of a story.....
A thief wanted to break into a house, he is afraid of waking up the occupants in the house. After thinking really hard, he stuff cotton bud on each side of his ears. Smiling to himself for this smart idea, he broke into the house believing if he couldn't hear a sound, the occupants won't be able to hear him too. What happens to him? No prize for the right answer. A fool believes in what he wants to believe in.

It is foolish to believe the consumers may think otherwise when Branding has been a proven success. If you haven't start branding your company. It is high time you spend some time to think about it. Consumers are getting smarter and smarter, all thanks to Education and the poliferation of Internet.