The other day, I was discussing the importance of branding for even the smallest of companies. It makes a huge difference. Now then, myself, well, I consider my business acumen to include the tile of "branding expert" but then again my acquaintance, a web designer and fashion magazine publisher, is as well. My experiences have been in franchising, and I'd say between us we have enough knowledge to really set a small business person on the right footing. But that's not what this article is about, I am not trying to sell you any business marketing or branding services, I'd just like to talk to you about this for a few moments.
You see, we got on the topic of small time website entrepreneurs, many of them working out of their homes. Some of these websites are pretty darned classy I'll have to admit. It is of course their attempt at branding, and although they may show some notoriety, original thinking, and the beginning essence of branding many of them fall short. Worse, if they ever hope to scale up their operations, their brands are left flat, uneventful, and unable to take it to the next level. Going from a small blog like website which perhaps sells various wares online to a much larger e-commerce site with a corporate look is entirely a different thing.
This of course is good branding comes in. But mind you, it's not just websites, it's all of these small businesses that people start, grow, and then try to expand - they could use a little better branding help. It's much better if all of this is considered from the very start, even when penciling a rough draft for a business plan. You have to plan your brand, and allow your customers and clients to adopt your company brand and mission statement as a component of their life. If they do, they will continue to do business with you and promote your brand to all of their friends online, and refer you to their friends in the real world.
Some might say that it really doesn't matter, and I suppose if you are running a small dog walking service, or selling something very simple, then any personal brand will work out fine in the beginning, but not as you grow the business into something large it's important that you consider all this well in advance of even getting a business license, fictitious name statement, or starting a new company. Please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Branding Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow
No comments:
Post a Comment