Forget branding, invest in relations
George Torok, Financial Post Published: Monday, May 12, 2008
The majority of business owners could be headed for disaster this year. Small business does best when it acts like small business. It does poorly when it blindly attempts to copy big business.
The results of an Ipsos-Reid poll in March, 2008, should scare you. It found "a majority (59%) of small to medium-sized business owners have identified branding as a top priority."
If that poll found 59% of large businesses were making branding their priority I would rest easier. Because that is the only way big business can strengthen their market position.
Branding is too costly for small businesses. Small businesses have a far better business building tool; relationships. That's the chemistry that makes them attractive to customers.
Read the rest of this article in the Financial Post.
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Enjoy this article that published in the Small Business section of the Financial Post this week. If you are a small business owner you might want to know why branding is a poor investment for you.
George Torok
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2 comments:
George,
I loved your Financial Post article about, "Forget branding, invest in relations." Most small business can't afford large advertising campaigns or expensive giveaway contests. But they can offer personalized service, customization and flexibility that will leave their larger opponents behind. Thanks for highlighting the connection between business size and customer relationships.
George,
I read your post and have to wonder if you're talking about branding as some people define it. And, yet, on your own blog, you post about Harry Houdini and his great personal brand.
With small business owners, the business owner "personal brand" IS the brand of the organization. Branding is more than logos, fancy stationary, business cards and the like. It's more than the "swoosh" of Nike, it's the mission and the values of the business. It's confidence and authenticity to that core that determines how others describe you when they introduce you to other. It's that description, those attributes, that make up your personal brand (the space you take in someone else's mind) And, to be in a good relationship with anyone, business or otherwise, it's important to "know thyself".
This is core to successful communication and it's that internal and external communication that determines ones' success especially in a market that no longer markets "to anyone" and rather "through" people as more consumers have the ability to make their comments/thoughts known through a variety of media.
I believe that a personal brand is core to having a good relationship and am in agreement with you that business, especially small businesses, rely heavily on the quality of their relationships. Yet, if that business doesn't know what they stand for, who they help, how they are perceived or how they make a difference --then they jeopardize any relationship - and all of these items are core to a powerful personal brand.
Maria Elena Duron
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