Branding for Small Business: Good or Bad?
For as long as I’ve been in the field of marketing, there has been an ongoing debate as to whether branding is useful for small businesses.
Many people argue that a business owner has more important things to worry about than creating a brand, and that it’s best to wait until you are established before branding yourself.
On the other hand, many are of the opinion that you will never be able to establish yourself and become successful unless you invest in branding.
So, which is the right answer?
Is branding necessary for the success of your small business, or is it a waste of your time and money?
What is branding anyway?
Before we get any further into this discussion, I think it’s important to establish some definitions. There are two in particular that I’d like to settle on.
Brand
The word brand means a lot of things to a lot of people, so for the purposes of this article, I’m going to stick with my favorite definition. The reason I like this definition so much is that it makes sense, it is all inclusive, and it doesn’t require any caveats. It is also a definition that most of the experts agree on.
“A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer”
What does that mean? Basically, any perceptions, memories, images, or ideas that your consumers have about your company, that’s your brand. Think about Apple—new, trendy, simple—that’s their brand. Microsoft on the other hand has a geeky and corporate brand.
Branding
Branding, while similar to ‘brand’ is a slightly different thing. Branding is an action.This is a subtle distinction, but I think it’s rather important for small business.
Branding is the act of building positive perceptions in the mind of your consumers
Branding is what happens when you’re out at a trade show and have big signs. Branding is buying an ad with your picture or logo on it so people will see your company. Corporate sponsorship = branding.
Why Branding Stinks for Small Business
If you’re in small business, there are several reasons you shouldn’t spend time or money branding.
The first is argument against branding is simple—it costs too much. Both time and money are at a premium in small business, and since there isn’t much of either, what you have shouldn’t be wasted on things that don’t have a direct return on investment. Income is king, and everything you spend should bring in more money.
The second major argument says that small businesses can’t have brands. The logic goes as follows: in order to have a brand people need to see your logo and remember you. Big businesses spend millions of dollars so they will be remembered, but what chance is there that a small business can ever have their image stick in the mind of the consumers?
The second argument against branding doesn’t really hold much ground in my mind, since the solution is pretty simple. Smaller company, smaller budget, smaller brand. You might not ever be remembered by the whole of the USA, but you can probably get your image to stick in a 5 mile radius around your company, or in your local networking groups.
Why Branding is Awesome for Small Business
There may be several arguments against branding a small business, but there are an equal number of counter arguments.
The first pro-branding argument is the obvious one: branding doesn’t have cost that much. There are many ways to put your image out into the community without spending a lot of money.
In my mind this has a lot of weight, and can be completely true, depending on your situation of course.
The second argument says that to avoid branding and focus only on sales is taking very short term view of your business. Branding is a long term process, and having a good brand at the start will help create a solid business for you into the future. Starbucks started as a single shop and built their whole company on a fabulous brand.
The final argument for branding a small business is that having a professionally designed brand will show that you’re, well, a professional. Credibility is the key to making sales, and by having a poor or non-existent brand you will be throwing away your money, even if it is spent on “direct income generation”.
The Best Plan of Action
I’ll come right out and say this first: if you had to put me in one of two camps, pro-branding or anti-branding, I’d definitely be in the pro-branding group. I think ignoring something as big as how your company looks and how people perceive it is a big mistake.
That said, there are a lot of important things to consider with small business, and I agree whole-heartedly with many of the anti-branding arguments. I’ve seen many small businesses spend so much time and money branding that they slowly withered away and died.
Time and money are clearly critical to small business and spending all, or even most of it, on branding will be a poor decision.
Creating an awesome brand, however, will build immediate credibility for your small business and can boost the sales from all of your other activities.
So what’s the final verdict?
I recommend spending enough time or money to create a professional and credible brand, but not spending much on “branding-only campaigns” until your company can really afford it.
What are your thoughts?
Reader Comments
Hi Mason:
Branding is a waste of time only when your brand strategy hasn’t been well defined. Unfortunately, most people confuse brand strategy (what your brand stands for) with branding (the activities or signals you give in support of that brand strategy).
If your brand strategy is wrong, it doesn’t matter how much branding you do. On the other hand, if your brand strategy is right, branding doesn’t have to cost much to be effective.
Mario,
I couldn’t agree more. Having a well defined position and meaning for your brand is crucial to success. Once you have that, effective branding can be as little as handing out business cards and putting your logo on all of your materials.
The problem is that creating a well defined meaning and strategy for your brand can be very difficult. It takes time, and that’s something many people aren’t willing to invest.
I dunno, I hate to always be the antagonist, but I’ve done well with MS word and publisher.
I think that for me branding just costs too much, and is it really going to make that much of a difference? I doubt I could afford to have a logo designed for me anyway.
Hi mason,
First, kudos to you on your “brand”. Great-looking, simple easy- to- nav site with solid content. Perfect for busy small businesses!
With over 25 years of battle scars in face-to-face sales and direct response marketing, I tend to fall into the “anti-branding” school of thought.
Lots of small businesses get confused about branding. It is important. But, unlike Nike, Coca-cola, and McDonalds, small businesses can’t afford to “buy” branding. They got to BE their brand.
Branding starts with marketing strategically, rather than shot-gunning the masses and competing as a commodity.
Small businesses must determine their genuine, compelling difference and the value they deliver to their clients.
Lots of brand focus is on style over substance. It’s too often the wrong message, delivered to the wrong market, with the wrong media.
When you deliver the right message to the right market using the right media, branding naturally happens… without throwing dollars away.
Walt
@Anthony — There are certainly a select few people who can do a reasonable job creating their own logo or branding. Personally, I recommend against this unless it happens to be your profession. Why not spend that time working in your own area of expertise, and allow another expert to do their job? In my experience, it usually works out better for everyone that way.
@Walt — It sounds to me like you’re in the pro-branding category, as long as it’s done right.
I agree that the ‘throw it at the wall and see what sticks’ method really sucks for small business. Once you do create that strategic difference, though, a solid logo and identity can go a long way towards helping promote it.
And then, like you said, the branding will come naturally with your exposure and other activities.
A series of thoughts were triggered by this article and Walt’s comment on branding, especially when Walt said, “They got to BE their brand.” This is very true!
To put a different spin on it, however, we can think of small business branding as a tool that small businesses can rely upon when being out there at networking events and in advertisements. With a solid logo, message, and benefit, you can use your brand to make you feel more comfortable and secure.
Having a set of images and feelings that are associated with your business also makes it easier for you to explain what your business does. The easier it is to explain your business, the more likely you are to be remembered and understood.
And then my final thought (which I MUST add because it is my biggest small business pet peeve), is that even if you do not have a logo or specific brand, keep business signs and documents consistent in their appearance. There is a restaurant near me with three distinctly different signs (different logos, fonts, and even slightly different colors), and it makes me think that the restaurant is too old or poor to maintain appearances. Do not do this to your business! If you choose a font or color or layout for your store, stick to it throughout your visuals or replace the old signs if you cannot find something consistent.
@ Mason - As always, thanks for your thought-provoking and valuable posts.
As a freelance website designer, I have found it difficult to brand, mainly because I just use my name more than a company name. However, I have noticed that the more that I advertise on business sites that I am having people search for me by name vs. just clicking on the ad links. So I don’t see any way that it doesn’t pay to do branding. Thanks for the article.
Branding is a great tool for small businesses, mainly because it makes it much easier to get to their target audience. Plus, on the internet it’s way better for your business to be called “FreezingCold”, for example, than “Cheap Air Conditioners”. The second title would have a much harder time being promoted online.
It may come at a big price, but I think branding is good for any business. There is nothing better than getting the word out there and making sure people asociate your name with a certain quality product.
Add Your Comment