Branding, schmanding.
The next person who tells me they want to “brand” their business may actually get a hot iron emailed to them. Somebody out there is
spreading the ugly rumor that branding is a worthwhile marketing investment for
contractors. It’s not.
First of all, branding isn’t bought. It’s earned, over a
long period of time, with regular installments of market credibility. It’s
actually kind of rented. The public and their perception are the brandlords, if
you will. They can raise the rent, kick you out, or hail you as the greatest.
It’s pretty fickle stuff.
Your manufacturer is
into branding and “protection of the brand” because they’ve earned it over many
years and millions of dollars. Sometimes that protection is well-placed;
sometimes not.
Every now and then, I’ll speak with a distributor about
doing a seminar, and they’ll want to see if the manufacturer might co-op the
fee, which is fine. But when I get a call to “make sure that my material
doesn’t conflict with the brand”, I feel like they’re referring to some
mote-dwelling, ill-tempered monster that feeds on people who might dare forget
to curtsy in it’s presence. Those calls are usually fairly short.
I’m not disrespectful; but there are two issues at stake
here. Am I to come speak to a group of business
owner/ dealers who need marketing help to keep their phones ringing at
some fiscally sane level… or am I speaking to protect an inanimate ghostly
perception? Sorry, I market to people, for people who have mortgages and
payrolls.
And I also “get it” about the brand. It deserves respect.
Carrier’s blue oval means
something, Maytag’s name conveys
something, Dave Lennox stands for something.
And those things, dear readers, are what the brand “is”. If quality slips, or
competition beats them up, it is said to be “erosion of the brand”. Wall Street
and Main Street
both take notes. Cadillac would be an example of one who “had it”, then lost
“it”, and is now steadily regaining “it”.
And if I use the word “it” in quotation marks one more time
in this article, I deserve to be branded in some non-public place, which might
start a new trend in body art.
My point is that, as a small business, you don’t need to
spend money to “brand” yourself for crying out loud. You need to spend money to
get phone calls (Direct Response). Then you need to make sure that customer
never leaves you (Retention). And to fill in the gaps between those two, fill
it with credibility (Publicity marketing) and professionalism (Image
advertising). You want to pepper in highly repetitious TOMA ads, which are the
nearest thing to a branding ad I’ll ever recommend. You want to be known and
recognized, away from the pack of pretenders who are copying everyone else.
Once you earn legions
of customers, and have exposed yourself repeatedly to your market through ads,
publicity, trucks, vans, outdoor signage, and the cumulative reputation among
your public, you then have a brand. Yes, you, without millions spent, or the
silliness in pursuit of the largely ungraspable.
The worst thing you can be in your market is unknown. People pay more for a known company or
brand than an “unknown”. People have “seen your name” or have “heard of you”
often equate this presence with “quality”. Hopefully this concept has been
ingrained in your marketing mindset by this point. But remember, your skills, customer service,
quality, and value are ultimately what “brand” you.
Final bit of advice:
If someone tells you need to spend money “branding” your company, please
run away. And should you bother to
return, please bring a mental health care professional. Your “friend” obviously needs the help more
than you need his business “sense”.
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