I firmly believe that the best thing small businesses and organizations can do to become more successful is to embrace and implement a focused brand development strategy. Unfortunately, there are too many businesses and organizations that either don’t understand branding, undervalue branding, or have misconceptions about how branding can help their specific situation.

I find myself many times, when discussing creative needs with a client, that these misconceptions about branding are some of the first hurdles we need to address. Because unless you understand the importance, value, and return associated with a solid branding strategy, you’re never going to tap the power of branding to its full potential.

So here are three common misconceptions that I hear frequently from clients and potential clients, and hopefully some helpful responses..

1. I think branding is over rated…I need to focus on my products and services.

Your products and services are very important – after all, these make up the engine of your organization. But what happens when the engine has no fuel to run? Your brand is both the fuel, and the spark that starts your organization’s engine, and keeps it running. You can have the best engine in the world, but without fuel, you’ll never go anywhere.

Remember, consumers don’t make decisions based on specific products or services like they did 50 – 60 years ago. Consumers make decisions primarily based on the emotional attachment and gut feeling they have about your brand. When I walk in an Apple store, I’m captivated by the brand, not necessarily about the computer. Sure the computer meets a need, but my decision to buy an Apple versus a Compaq is based on the brand surrounding it.

So focus on developing your products and services as much as possible. But don’t forget that without a surrounding brand strategy that effectively aligns with your business strategy, you’ll never get off the ground.

2. I already have a logo

Good for you! But a logo is not a brand. Your logo is just a piece of the proverbial pie, not the pie itself. Your brand actually has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with your customers. It’s not about what you think about your products, services, or business. It’s about what they think.

A logo is simply the face of your organization – it’s the ambassador that hopefully reflects what you want your customers to think and feel about who you are as an organization. Your logo is a branding element, that helps direct your customers’ perspective about how they should view your products or services. But you must have a brand in place so you know how and where to direct them.

Furthermore, you should be concerned if all you have is a logo. It’s rare that you can encompass all aspects of your brand into your logo, so you want to make sure you are utilizing other branding elements to support and carry your brand message. If you brand is the foundation of your organization, you should build upon it with a variety of branding elements based on your specific needs, target markets, and goals. These can include a web presence, new media initiatives, experience development (office space, brand environments), and even how your staff operates.

If you have a logo that is unique, creative, and reflects your brand idea then you’re on the right track – but you haven’t reached your destination yet – because your brand is much more than your logo.

3. We just don’t have the marketing budget right now.

Then you have your priorities reversed. Your brand strategy and branding initiatives shouldn’t be dependent on your marketing – your marketing should be dependent on your overall brand strategy. And let me ask you this, do you put a limit on the development of your products and services? How about a limit on your goals and aspirations for your organization?

Then why limit the fuel that will drive your organization to meet those goals by restricting your brand strategy with your budget limitations? I’ve covered the difference between viewing branding as a cost or an investment in another article, but those principles apply here. If you limit your brand development by how much of a marketing budget you have, you’ll never get anywhere – primarily because the marketing budget is the last money in, and usually the first money to get cut out when times get tight.

For the record, I’m not saying have a limitless financial strategy when it comes to your branding. What I am saying is you need to have a larger view of your brand – don’t limit the possibilities. Thing big. Think creatively. And then orient your marketing plan, your branding plan, and even your business plan around those thoughts and ideas.

QOTD: Which one of these misconceptions have you believed? What needs to be done to change your perspective and get your brand back on the right track?

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About the Author: Jason VanLue is a graphic designer and brand consultant who lives in Orlando, FL. He is the Founder and Principal of FiveSeven Studios, a small interactive design and brand consultancy that helps small businesses and organizations grow their brands. Learn more about FiveSeven Studios.

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In an information-soaked world, it is more important than ever for any business or organization to employ an integrated and focused brand strategy in order to be successful. And this is no different for small businesses – in fact, it might just be more important for small businesses. In a small business or organization, rarely do you have the financial support, time, or recognition in the marketplace to simply “plod” along. In a world where thousands of companies and products are vying for consumers’ attentions, it is vital to make sure you are positioning your product or service to cause consumers to choose you.

Remember, it does you no good to just offer your customers another choice – you have to offer them a better choice. You can do that by employing three primary branding strategies to your business:

1. You Must Be Different.

When creating a product, or thinking about how to market a service, it’s not enough to just “dive” into the marketplace. It’s estimated that the average consumer is bombarded by over 6,000 marketing messages every day. It’s no wonder then why consumers tend to develop habits that they stick with – especially when it comes to purchasing products or utilizing services. It’s your job to shift these habits and loyalties over to your organization, and you do that first through differentiation.

You have to be different. In your particular industry (unless you’ve created the next lightbulb) there’s probably several competitors within a 50 mile radius. More when you consider the ease of the phone and the internet. So what makes you different? Why are you unique from your competitors? What sets you apart that will make your target market pay attention?

Here are some quick questions to ask:

A) Identify your main competitors in your industry – what makes your products or services different from theirs?
B) Why would John Q. Consumer want to use your products or services over your competitors?
C) Make a list of how your products or services are similar to your competitors. Now make a list of how they are different. How can you exploit the differences to draw attention to your brand and away from your competitors?

2. You Must Be Relevant.

As important as it is, you can’t just be different. As I mentioned before it’s not enough to offer your potential customers more choices – you have to offer them a better choice. Your brand must be relevant. Your brand has to matter to the consumer – otherwise, you may have the most unique product on the market, but nobody will buy it because you haven’t done a good job convincing them WHY they should buy it.

Take Clear Pepsi for example. Pepsi came out with the product in the 1990s and it made a big splash initially because it was different. How could something taste like Pepsi but be clear? It was clearly a unique product (no pun intended). But Pepsi missed one important part of the puzzle, and as a result, the brand flopped a short time later. They didn’t make the product relevant. People didn’t care. They figured, if it tastes like Pepsi, why not just drink Pepsi? Or maybe they liked Sprite better.

The bottom line is that Pepsi created a unique product that people just didn’t care about. And it wasn’t successful. In the same say, you have to position your brand in such a way so that people will care about it enough to shift their purchasing habits. It’s a challenge, but a necessary one in order to achieve success.

Some questions to ask:

A) Why should consumers buy your product or use your service?
B) What will make the average consumer shift their habits and loyalties from your competitors’ brands to your brand?
C) What will the average consumer “GET” out of your brand that they won’t get out of others?
D) Why can’t the average consumer live WITHOUT your brand?

3. You Must Be Able to Evolve.

Finally, in order to achieve lasting success, and to not end up just a flash in the pan, your brand must be able to evolve. The first step is to create a unique brand and brand idea. The second step is to define why consumers can’t live without your brand. The third is to develop a long-term strategy for growth that allows your brand to stay ahead of the curve, and evolve with the changing market trends and consumer demand.

We’re seeing this firsthand in the auto industry. With higher gas prices, economic challenges, and changes in consumer tastes, the SUVs are shifting from a product of high demand to a product of low demand. Several SUVs are very unique products. And several companies have done a good job convincing the consumer why they should care about a particular brand of SUV. But how many of these companies will make the necessary changes for the brand to evolve? How will the changing market trends and consumer demands affect the long term success and failure of this industry – that will be determined by which brands successfully evolve.

In your small business or organization, you must think long term. You must employ strategies and initiatives that not only keep your brand in the forefront of your customers’ minds from a unique and relevant perspective – they must see you brand as one that is not affected by change, but rather as one that AFFECTS change. You’ve got to be a trend setter, a leader, not a follower. It may be different from business to business, from industry to industry, but if you don’t pay attention to the shifts in market demand, you’ll find yourself with yesterday’s news.

Some questions to ask:

A) What are the changes in market trends and consumer demand that I see in my industry in the coming years?
B) How can I position my brand to embrace change and evolve during those shifts?
C) How can I embrace technology to help my brand evolve – this can include the web, new media, and social networking.
D) Where do I want to be in 5 years? How can I position my brand now in order to make sure my brand is still different, relevant, and evolutionary at that time?

In order to achieve lasting success for your brand, especially for small businesses and organizations, you must do your due diligence to create a different, relevant, and evolutionary brand strategy. And you must have all three – it’s an all or nothing play. But if you work to create a brand strategy that effectively employs all three elements, you’ll go far in positioning your brand for success.

Quick Tip: When answering the questions above, think in dual perspectives – think from your perspective, and think from your consumer’s perspective. One good exercise is to take a completely unrelated brand outside of your market and industry, and answer the above questions as an owner, and consumer. It might help you come up with good ideas that can then be translated to your market and industry – and it helps removes the bias you may have.

QOTD: How have you made your brand different, relevant, and evolutionary – post your answers below.

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About the Author: Jason VanLue is a graphic designer and brand consultant who lives in Orlando, FL. He is the Founder and Principal of FiveSeven Studios, a small interactive design and brand consultancy that helps small businesses and organizations grow their brands. Learn more about FiveSeven Studios.

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Let’s face it, times are tight. It’s hard enough for small businesses and organizations to keep the cash flow going in a thriving economy, let alone in a difficult one. I’ve covered the importance of viewing branding as an investment, rather than a cost, but when finances are strained, your expenses and your investments seem like the same thing. After all, it’s all coming out of the same place right?
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I tend to agree with Gary Vaynerchuk – someone I greatly respect, and who is a rockstar in the social media / internet world – who doesn’t like the term social media. He claims social media really is just the next version of media in general. To GV, social media isn’t a form of media, it’s the new form of media. While social media hasn’t replaced other foundational forms of media, no one can argue that the paradigm is changing.

The internet in particular has experienced the bulk of this paradigm shift. What once was a one way conversation between brands and users has now become a two-way, interactive dialogue. It’s not enough to simply “put” information out there – now you must continue to offer relevant content that your users care about in such a way that keeps those users coming back for more. The whole “social” side of media simply means that brands are no longer completely in control of what’s being said about them – therefore it’s more important than ever to monitor and maintain your brand presence and identity amongst your current and potential users.

But how should small businesses and freelancers approach social media? Often I hear small business owners and decision makers brush off social media initiatives because they don’t see how a Facebook profile or Twitter account makes sense for them. I addressed this in a previous article where I said one of the keys to aligning your business strategy with your brand strategy was:

Don’t generalize – don’t just assume, for instance, that your business doesn’t need to utilize social media because you can’t see how your business will fit on Facebook. Don’t generalize one form of media or marketing based on one entity. Just like social media is much more than Facebook, your brand strategy should seek to find ways to reach your customers through the mediums they use the most.

You see, social media isn’t just social media platforms. Social media is the interactive, ongoing conversation you (or your brand) is having with your customers. Remember you’re always branding – your customers are always forming an identity of your brand in their minds – the question is what identity are they forming. The same is true of social media.

Social media isn’t just social media platforms.

Let me also say that every social media platform is not for everyone. Though I am a believer that every business should embrace social media initiatives, I don’t believe that every business should embrace the same ones. It really comes down to what you define as being part of the social media world – but the bottom line is that every business and every brand should desire and make an effort to interact and engage their customers on a regular basis.

So if your a small business owner, decision maker, freelancer, or someone in between, how do you embrace social media? I’ll leave the specifics for another post – defining what specific initiatives you should embrace – but I believe there are some general points everyone can and should employ. In order to create and maintain a solid social media strategy to help build your brand presence, you must do each of the following:

1. Create Relevant Content – Whether it’s through your website, a blog, a Twitter profile, or an email newsletter, make sure you’re creating content that’s both different and relevant to your users.

2. Maintain Relevant Content – Once you’ve created content you’ve got to maintain it. It’s not enough to build a Twitter profile and post once a month. Make an effort to keep consistency a priority.

3. Connect With Your Users – Creating and maintaining content is just half the battle – you also have to connect with your users over the content you produce.

4. Interact With Your Users – Just like you have to maintain consistency with you content, you also have to maintain consistency with your users. It’s not enough to build a community and connect with it once. Your users want to interact with your brand – make an effort to do so with them.

Social Media isn’t the end-all, be-all for businesses. Just because you employ social media strategies doesn’t mean you’ll be successful – you have to determine the best initiatives for your unique business and brand. We’ll talk about this more in our next article – but the bottom line is every business no matter how large or small needs to connect with their customers. There is no excuse to have a one-sided marketing strategy anymore. The day is here where your customers and potential customers are ready to interact with you and your brand – the question is will you connect with them, or leave them forming a negative identity of your brand in their minds?

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