Marketing Your Business

Effective Branding - Why Brand Matters 

Many SME Business owners believe that brand management is an area of business development reserved for BMW, Coca Cola and BHP. Brand however is the critical resource that a business must develop to remain sustainable.
In his book “Business Laid Bare”, Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin business group, attributes much of his unique ability to transcend core business functions and successfully startup in non related industries to brand identification. “Consumers are buying a fun experience which delivers on its promise no matter what the product or service”. Virgin have successfully targeted a demographic and communicated a “feeling” which provides reassurance and consistency to the consumer. This in consultation with competitive pricing has seen Virgin take on markets in such diverse industry sectors as music, aviation, money and mobile phones.

So what role does brand play in all this and is it relevant to today’s SME? Brand not only communicates to the consumer the intangibles of the product, it also provides a significant vehicle to internally communicate the values of the organisation. Effective brand definition brings internal confidence. Organisations are able to clearly define and articulate their point of difference and what they stand for. If imbedded effectively within the organisation, this mantra becomes self perpetuating and provides a significant multiplier effect for growth.

The key to developing an effective brand is the ability to be able to effectively communicate it to both internal and external stakeholders.

When looking to communicate a brand, evidence suggests that the logo and presentation is critical for people to effectively understand what the brand stands for and relate.
Given this it is critical that the organisation be it a corporate entity, sporting club or school, clearly articulates their brand through strong logo and uniform presentation.

It is only when we can clearly communicate our brand that we can engage internal and external stakeholders and effectively grow our business.