SMME : Creating A Brand Part 1

Hi Entrepreneurs,

We have previously discussed how to introduce companies into the social media or the digital media space, but now that you have decided that you want to go into the digital space and so, it begs the question, what's the next step?

Building your brand

So before you actually decide to move your business on the digital space, there was a very important aspect to the first step from our first article : getting to understand your brand identity as it is, this is crucial since we need to understand the meaning of brand is, so I will simply put it in a simplified version.

Brand: I would describe this as the image, reputation customer experience, visual impression of the company, this means that the brand is mostly visual, verbal as well as nonverbal representation of the business, and what you stand for, so there's always a reason for existence of the business.

Example: Nestlé

South Africa's food and beverage giant has been in existence for a very long time, however, throughout that period, they have been consistent in keeping their brand identity : “Good Food, Good Life,” to provide consumers with the best tasting, most nutritious choices in a wide range of food and beverage categories and eating occasions, from morning to night.

Their brand statement remains true in every product that they offer, from coffee, creamer, noodles baby food, chocolate, and a very long catalog with products that have the same quality in consistency, taste and brand identities, there are lots more brands examples. You do not have to create a huge catalog in order to execute feats similar to Nestlé, in fact one product is ideal for proper focus into building a recognizable, trusted and legacy product.

Alright so now after we describe and gave you an example of what a brand is. I have asked myself these questions when I started identifying and studying brands and there are plenty more, these are basic questions an entrepreneur might ask:

Is creating a brand important?

The importance of creating brand to an entrepreneur is more or less directly proportional to how successful his or her business will be, think about it, if I am looking to have a highly successful business I will definitely need to turn it into a business that will last to accumulate the required funds for expansion. We described what a brand as the image, customer experience, emotional connection to the target audience. 

I believe that you can build a brand in almost any industry but one key element to survival in the industry is the fact that you need to differentiate, bring at least one different and new element in your business operations, so that you can be able to have (and I stress the word, ) an opportunity to show what you offer and the benefits or what you offer to the customer, how would you make their life better. It is incredibly clear that you need a brand that will be able to speak for you without even saying a word not having a brand is. 

What does it take to create a lasting brand?

The answer to this question, which I will try to clarify as much as possible in that firstly, you have to understand which problem you are solving for the customer, now in this case you have to understand what part of the market are you playing in, what type of problem are you solving so how are you making life better for your customer? A customer inquires about buying from your store, what is your value proposition that will be able to give you an advantageous edge and in what context is your business functioning in? So, you create a context for customer.  " Are you in debt you need help reducing your monthly installments? contact XYZ debt counselors for assistance on 123 456 8639”, I have just created a scenario with a particular context, this is an incredibly important part in the sales process where you introduce the pain point, the problem and solution, this perfectly creates a context for you which you will agree with and you don't even have to be in the exact situation to relate. This is a simultaneously important aspect of your brand position or your brand identity what it takes first.

NB: Your whole team or employees need to make it part of their fabric this is a section of the brand process you might lose or hire new (or more) employees, even your business partner(s) because these are the people who will work with you to be able to take the brand identity and make it their own, to actually progress the company and move it forward. Now, they need to do this in order for your business to exist, strive and build a following as well as a better consumer experience and image (or look) so that the target audience can be able to identify with your brand.

I have to stress that being able to differentiate yourself within the market and from other competitors, that takes commitment from all stakeholders (employees, partners and obviously your consumers) because you need to be able to work with people with similar goals. Having a good team can actually be the difference between having a fade and a very successful business. 

Time, the most expensive commodity, How crucial is it in the brand process?

The fact that you have to dedicate a lot of time into planning, strategizing, testing the strategies, implementing those strategies as well as monitoring those strategies means that you will have to account for the time or the process of achieving your brand goals. This is critical to actually developing a successful brand because successful brands don't materialize overnight, you have to actually prepare to stand the test of an undefined period.

You have to pay attention to the fact that this will take a lot of patience. Patience is also one of the key characteristics of an entrepreneur, one who understands  that building a very successful brand requires a lot of time this means that you will have a trial period which could take anything from a few months to a few years to create a very sustainable brand.

We will expand more into this brand topic in the following articles, Have you or are you in the process of building a brand? Comment below on challenges that come along the way.

Thank you for your support.

Setting up your business on Social Media

To the entrepreneur, Hi

In 2020, any business that plans to exist in the next 10 -15 years should be or starting out on Social Media for different reasons. I say this because it is almost if not already obvious that firstly, attention is rapidly becoming the most important currency, along with time and both of these currencies are mostly in the digital space, that being on your phone, the internet, social media, streaming services and so on. This is the best and most likely, profitable era to market your business on Social Media (We will discuss other media or platforms soon).

Okay...So now, you as a business owner have decided your business is ready to go online. But where do you start?

It is important for a small business to truly know what it stands for, I mean brand identity because this will dictate your business' success for it's lifetime.

1. Understanding Brand Identity/Story:

This  is why your brand exists, what need or problem are you solving for me, the customer? Once this is defined, you are ready to start with your Brand.

2. Know your Audience:

As much as this is determined at the beginning stages of your business, it would be very wise to revisit this step because:

 a. It is extremely useful for your choice of platform

 b. It will allow you to discover new markets you might have never considered before, or even redirect your product positioning to a totally different audience.

Knowing who you're specifically selling to is extremely important and you should ask yourself the following questions:

· Who is the best person for the product or service?

· What age group is the product or service suited for?

· What gender are you selling to?

· Which areas do they live in?

Other questions will follow through this process which plays a role in finding a specific audience.

3. What are your objectives?

This is where you draw up your objectives for being online (which will dictate where you place your brand);

This could be:

· to drive sales: lead generation and conversion.

· increase brand awareness: for people to know who you are or what you do, effectively.

· or even customer service: this could be for customer queries, which could also reduce the amount of phone calls you get for queries.

4. Connect with your audience (Taking Action)

In this step, you decide which social media platform your business will be active on, the following is a brief metric overview, I will provide a link that will give you current information on the social media platforms:

·Facebook : 

2.32+ bn users worldwide, great for interacting with customers and promoting your business (higher customer reach with paid ads), most age groups use it. nb:over 18 mil South Africans are on Facebook monthly.

· Instagram :

 1+ bn users worldwide, excellent for photo/video content sharing, average user age groups of 18 - 34 years, 

· Twitter: 

326+ mil users worldwide, very active user base, over 500 million tweets daily (short format content!!), average user age groups of 18 - 49 years

· LinkedIn: 

610+ mil users worldwide, very popular for B2B (business selling to another business), excellent for networking, professional format for communication. 

NB: There is a high and underpriced Organic Reach (Free Marketing to a wider audience)

Other social media platforms are available and very effective, however not too popular in South Africa (except YouTube), for more information please do make use of the links provided at the end of the article.

Useful Links:

How to setup a facebook page for your business

Setting up a Twitter account for your business

Setting up Instagram for your business

South African Digital Stats

Influencer Marketing Hub

The effectiveness of all digital media in your country

Please take a moment to give your thoughts on this article and any improvements. Thank you for reading 

SMME's Marketing in the Digital World

SMME's Marketing in the Digital World

Sounds very fancy, however in South Africa this is not a thing, culture or trend....

Hi, Happy New Year 2020, I am Difoloane Mokgabudi. I have always and still am fascinated by how big businesses are taking advantage of the new ways of digital marketing but our SMME's simply aren't. I am interested in how to get them to do it.

We know businesses have, over the years used billboards, flyers, pamphlets,newspapers, yellow pages, television ads to market/advertize, the list goes on. Those media required a significant amount of money! Is that what's demotivating SMME's? Is it a confidence issue or is it morals and ethics? Throughout our journey we'll tackle these issues which are tailored for SMME's (I will refer to them as small business).

We are blessed to be living in an era of technology, the internet specifically, which has allowed us to communicate with friends and family and somehow our small business are not able to effectively communicate with their customers which is the reason for slow sales or little to no brand awareness in most cases. I am prepared to guide you, the entrepreneur through the digital marketing space and exchange information with similar individuals who are considering reaching their target audience as it will give them the chance to freely express themselves.

Through these obesrvations, I have started to ask myself why aren't small, medium and micro enterprises taking advantage of digital marketing, Now you may be thinking to yourself: " it's expensive to advertise a mere micro entreprise" , I know it is expensive to market in these economic conditions as well as high levels of competition in all aspects of industries. However, Social Media is currently and relatively underpriced and also affords businesses to market for FREE (organic reach)!!

Well, what's going to happen?.....

I am going to directly speak to SMME's as to how they can access their market using organic (and paid) social media which will build brands and create cultures. Social Media has allowed every player in industry whether big or small, to have airtime to showcase their essence and state their value, which is critically important to building a loyal following, this conversation will be fun and thought provoking.

As we will be exploring social media, in depth analysis of the immediate business environment and customer engagement, I will require a form of practicality from the entrepreneur, this will take work!! . Every aspect of getting into the digital marketing space, in a South African context will take work and action.

Please stay tuned for the next article where we'll be starting to discuss the idea of social media marketing in a South African context and methods for starting off.

And Welcome to Quidy.