If you have a small business and think that branding isn’t relevant to you because of the size, you are mistaken.
While you may not have the goal or reason to think about wide scale branding, you still should focus a lot of effort on the idea of branding your company to the small market you are associated with. Even the local corner store can find ways of branding itself in an effort to get customers to turn to them instead of the one across the street.
Many small business owners are aware of this, but unfortunately make mistakes in trying to capitalize on the idea.
Branding A Small Business Can Be Risky
Branding is a risky business. While you should definitely start implementing its strategies, remember to think carefully about how you do it first. If you do it wrong it can backfire very quickly, or at least cost you a lot of money for something that simply won’t pay off.
The biggest mistake people make with their brands has to do with the name. Either they forget that they need a unique name or they choose one that’s obscure and unidentifiable.
A corner store called “Corner Store” will have a lot of trouble with branding itself no matter what other strategies it implements simply because the name is too generic.
On the other hand, a lot of new businesses try to pick cool names that have nothing directly to do with the product. With a truly large investment you can get away with that, but the average company can’t pick a name like Amazon or Google™ because no one would know what they do.
Don’t Ignore Visual Appeal When Branding A Business
Not having good visuals, or ignoring the idea of a visual identity altogether is a big mistake as well. There’s a reason why companies spend millions on logo research and design. It works. To fully grasp what that means, think of companies like Tropicana who decided to change their visual look. Everything about the product was the same, even the name, but the results were so bad that changed back within weeks.
For a small company a simple logo or graphic will do, but it has to be something identifiable later on.
Don’t Move Away From Your Main Product Line When Branding A Business
Another detrimental action is to expand away from your key product line. A brand has to be associated wit one basic product or service. Starbucks makes itself known as a coffee shop. They sell related products as well, but venturing farther away from that key product is dangerous.
When they did expand their brand to include more things they had to be very careful about it, and are now a music seller to be reckoned with.
They succeeded because they ensured to introduce the new product slowly and in a way that maintained association with their existing brand. For instance, they started by strictly selling the music you were already accustomed to hearing in store while drinking your coffee.
The point of all of this though is that breaking the rules and making mistakes with branding is not something you really want to avoid. As a small business owner a brand identity will help you grow, but you need to do it right. Plan carefully and think ahead and hopefully over the next while you’ll be able to create a brand that works for you.
