Remember watching John Travolta in the shower belting out the Band-Aid song, “I am stuck-on bandaid because bandaid’s stuck on me?” This is a classic example of branding.
Advertising has changed a lot in the past few years. It is no longer enough to come up with a clever jingle, show it to tons of people, and hope they will buy your stuff. Consumers are smarter than they were in the 70’s. They want more from their products than just clever advertising. So what’s a small business to do?
Develop your Relationship Marketing. Relationship marketing is cheaper, more measurable, and much more fun than branding. Relationship marketing is about getting to know your customers and helping them solve problems through your products or services. In the process, you actually develop your very own brand. Seth Godin describes a brand as: “a promise made over time.”
For this type of “promise-made-over-time” branding to work, you have to have a promise that is exciting – to you and to your customers. You have to fall in love with your business.So quit thinking of your brand as a clever jingle and instead work on developing your business integrity. A good way to do this is to:
1) Offer a high-quality product or service that people want.
2) Make sure your product or service is something you love as well.
3) Give your clients great customer service.
This reputation or status is what branding in business is all about anyway. You really can’t have that before you start. It’s like a baby learning to run before they walk. So worry more about building value in your business than choosing exactly the right logo for your brand. Here at Digital Marketing Diva, my branding is that I help small business owners (who are overwhelmed by all the ’stuff’ to do on the internet) get online with their business. It’s an exciting process to see the light turn on inside someone’s head as they figure out how they can help others through the power of the internet.
So what promise does your business make?
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