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.