Know-How Exchange : Branding

every business should think about branding, remember what branding is ... "its the promise of the delivery". If you buy into a good brand you expect a good delivery of that branded product or service (this delivery includes, pre-sales, sales, and post sales interactions with the company).

Everyone inside the organisation should "buy in" to the brands values (what it stands for), whether that be high (or low) cost, great (or average) customer service etc etc.

All brands should be based on something, and this something is the brand promise.

EXAMPLE: I buy a particular make of Mobile phone, because the brand promise is that it has the features and functionality I need, its highly reliable and great support is provided (should I need it). If all these brand values are in place, I will buy this brand again. If any of these brand values fail (i.e. the features in the literature are not delivered, it arrives faulty or the support from the organisation never sort out my problems) i will probably be turned off that brand.

Brands should also provide an emotional exchange, so in my mobile phone example above, if a new phone its the market which better suits my lifestyle or aspirations, I may be persuaded to try that brand next time.

FINAL POINT: Brands take years to build, do not expect overnight success.

Good luck

Thanks to everyone who posted to this thread. I''ve been so very busy that I haven''t had time to come back and rate or comment about your posts.

The thing about branding for my small company that is currently bothering me is, it is taking so much time to put in the extra work and personality touches on everything that we do, in order to create a great experience for our customer, and the return is not quickly apparent. I know this will take time to see the results of a brand, but sometimes I feel tempted to skip the extra features that make up my brand and just get the work done, and send the invoice.

In other words I don''t know if the customer realizes or appreciates the extra effort that we put into everything that we do, and I think asking them if it does will just get a "sure why not" type of response. I know a solid response would be that the customer buys from us again, or recommends someone else to buy from us, but we don''t have the volume of that occuring yet to recognize it. If the marketplace was abuzz with talk of our company that said "hey, this company is all about the best service, yada yada yada" then we would know it''s working, but for now it''s blind faith that we do this because we know we are supposed to.

I always assumed that the word "brand" was used because of a cow getting "branded" with the logo of the ranch where it was raised, and therefore the logo was everything, or at least a way to recognize the brand. Am I insane? I missed a lot of sleep this past week...

Or think about being branded a ''winner". Or a "loser". It''s a way to summarize a description about something.


Tell me the brand promise of several large companies.
FedEx. overnight delivery guaranteed?

Then tell me the brand promise of some small companies
Starbucks. ( I can''t think of it )

So in terms of creating a brand for a small company, should I determine what I want the company to be known for in the mind of the marketplace, then do everything to reinforce that belief, but without shoving it down their throats? I can''t stand up and shout "we''re the best". I have to do it through actions, and let my customers make that statement themselves, through their own convictions.

Branding is happening whether we work on it effectively, work on it badly, or not at all.

Your customers, vendors, staff, and any other stakeholders are continuously amassing an opinion, feeling or impression of you, your company and it''s products and services - conciously or unconciously.

To me, an untrained marketer, it''s those continuing and fluid mental and emotional concepts they have, and evolve, about the business - which are the essence of branding. It''s all about their minds and emotions.

All the answers in this thread are important and valuable and it feels presumputuous of me to chime in. However, my only concern after reading this terrific thread was to remember that branding happens anyway.

It seems to me that it''d be better to work on branding conciously and with a will, rather than letting it happen unattended.

Even the day-to-day "little things" are essential components. And doing as much as you can (logo art, USP''s, print material, ads, forms, staff behavior, and more), improving it as time and funds permit, is the best path.

These small things may seem overly tactical in light of a discussion about branding, which sometimes seems majorly strategic - but they are integral to the trust-building that supports your success.