Stand out from the crowd

JORG DIETZEL debunks the three branding misconceptions he has experienced in his
branding clinics or when sharing ideas about smarter brand management to leaders of SMEs.

1. Branding is exclusive to the big companies

SMEs generally look at branding as being in the domain of MNCs due to them investing
more in marketing and managing their brand. But what they fail to realise is that MNCs did
not start out big; they too started small and having a focused branding approach is key to
accelerating their company’s development.

Product, pricing and distribution are just a few of the things SMEs have to worry about so
it’s naturally for them to devote less resource towards branding. However if they are able to
create a brand that is unique and more marketable, consumers will be less inclined to choose
 based on pricing and it would be better for the company’s growth.

Marketing can just focus on spreading awareness and explaining brand positioning at the
same time or spread awareness initially and later try to convert your target group to your
brand if the initial branding was not good enough or does not attract them. This is much more
difficult and costly.

Touchpoint Management and Internal Branding – being consistent is essential as nowadays
people don’t base their judgement on brands just on their advertising and marketing but on
their brand experiences, both good and bad. For example, if you advertise that ‘we listen to
you’ but you don’t pick up or respond to me after a half an hour, i would lose my confidence
in you.