What is branding?
After a long discussion on the UK small business forums about whether branding is important for a small business, I thought I’d talk about it more here. A major problem is the concept of what a ‘brand’ is, so we’ll start there.
First off, a brand is not just a name or logo, or something that Coca Cola has and you don’t. A brand is how a customer or potential customer feels about your business. It is their perceived image of your business. It is created from every point of contact your customer has with your business. From the very first time they hear the name, through to their customer service experience, through to your product quality, and so on. It is everything they think, or more importantly, feel about your business.
Big businesses go as far as using psychological techniques to try and make you feel a particular way about their business and product. They carefully choose colour schemes and language. They make expensive television commercials with just the right music and visuals.
While small businesses usually don’t have access to this high level of expertise, it’s worth starting to at least consider these factors in your business. And the information is out there to find on the internet.
So let’s talk about how this effects your website. Obviously, your website presents a very strong image of your business. It can be their first impression of your business and it can be their main impression of your business. To be honest, being in my industry, I expect great customer service…but a great website really blows me away. You might be able to tell how excited I get by my make it easy for your customers post.
So isn’t it time you spent a little more time on your website? Isn’t it time you started thinking about what customers feel about your business?
Some people will say that branding is for big businesses. The question to ask yourself is ‘do you want to be a big business?’ If you do, maybe you should start thinking like a big business today.
