SME - Basic Branding Kit
At the outset, when you are about to enter the market fresh
with a dream and a mission, you need to have the following:
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1.
Brand
Identity
i)
Brand/Company
Name
ii)
Brand/Company
Logo
iii)
Company
Stationery – Visiting Cards, Letterheads, Envelopes
2.
Brand
Strategy – A document that details:
i)
Brand
Core/Essence – Who am I?
ii)
Brand
Vision and Mission – What is my purpose?
iii)
Target
Audience – Who am I talking to?
iv)
Brand
Positioning – How does my Target Audience see me?
v)
Value
Proposition – Why should my Target Audience buy me?
vi)
Brand
Personality – What do I look like, come across like, what is my personality as
a brand?
vii)
Brand
Message – What should I say (through any form of communication) so that my
Target Audience responds the way I want them to?
3.
Road
Map – The document that details where I am headed in the next 1, 5 or 10 years.
4.
Essential
Collaterals – Website, Presentation, active Digital/Social Media presence
You may feel this is too much work and consumes too much
time. But in this cut-throat world, you may not have a choice really.
Invest a little time and money in
your brand – it pays.
As you get busier in running the company and business, you
will tend to ignore your brand and branding. It is a natural progression for
most and needs to be consciously dealt with. Your brand is not ‘any other
product’, it has the potential to join the ranks of big brands. If you believe
in this, then you must invest time and money in your brand. Treat branding as a
continuous growth program; you will do yourself and your brand a world of good.
The homework you need to
do, to begin a branding program for your company
A little homework goes a long way in making your
branding exercise fruitful. Just some rough notes on the following would be
enough to kick start your branding program with your consultant/agency.
1) Who am I? (Your company)
- Who is my buyer? (Who do I want my buyer to be?)
- Who are my competitors?
- Where do I want to be?
- Where am I today?
- What does my buyer think of me today?
- What do I want my buyer to think of me?
If you are too busy to work on these, no worries.
Your agency/consultant will help you answer these. Just make sure you make some
time for them.
SMEs in the industrial /engineering
segment can immensely benefit from branding
The irony of today’s global marketplace is that there are
few biggies, companies who make it to the Forbes list; while there are probably
millions of others who are in the SME segment. The clutter is more here than there
- at the top. The clutter gets worse in the
industrial/engineering/B2B segment; what with thousands of small and medium
sized companies vying for the same share of the market pie! Evidence lies in
the way these companies are identified by their ‘industrial belt’ status and
not by their name. If you check with your buyers, you will see the truth in this
statement. No prizes then for guessing why branding assumes all the more
importance in this segment! Every
company – small or midsized, has the potential to become a known brand.
You have a good product, a good team, great potential and a
global market. What you need is good branding, a solid plan, a sound strategy
and a clear road map. Armed with these 4, SMEs can break clutter, create
flutter and even take the market by storm. Branding gives you an opportunity to
go from a ‘registered vendor’ to a much-in-demand company; it ensures buyers
can ‘search’ you, ‘Google’ you from a sea of unknowns. Branding makes you known
for what you are – in the country and in the world; it gives you a chance to
make an effective statement; it makes you stand head and shoulders above the
rest.
Every product, every company – small or midsized, has the
potential to become a known brand. It’s all in the mind and more in the
branding. If you are inching towards the big picture you have sketched for your
company, branding is where you should begin.
All’s well that begins well. Happy Branding!
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