When first starting a business, you will spend countless hours coming up with a name, a logo, and choosing a corporate colour. While all of these things are important, are they really important as we are led to believe? Are they really necessary for every small business owner and is there a way to go around them?
Now, there’s a great chance that you never actually asked this question. After all, branding is so intertwined with the popular business culture that one can’t imagine a business without a brand. With that in mind, here are several arguments that aim to prove that branding isn’t nearly as relevant in today’s world.
- Availability of information
The first thing you need to understand is the significance of the availability of information. You see, it is no longer as important for your audience to remember much about your brand. Why? Well, they can look it up online in a matter of seconds.
Second, people are no longer as interested in what you have to say about yourself. Instead, they’ll head over to the reviews and see what are the impressions of your customers. How do you get positive reviews? By providing an exemplary service. It’s really as simple as that. Sure, your brand may add more leverage to your efforts but it’s not essential.
Then, there’s the matter of price comparison. Sure, you can market yourself as the most frugal business in the game but is this really the case? Remember, it only takes a minute or two for them to check your offer against that of a competitor. Does this mean that your branding is completely irrelevant? Of course not! However, it does mean that it has a lot less weight in the decision-making process of your customers.
- Buying a franchise
This point is a bit controversial for several reasons. First of all, while it is important to have a strong brand, you don’t have to build it from scratch. Instead, you can buy a franchise. This way, you get a better starting point, seeing as how there’s already some degree of brand awareness present on the market.
Second, you need to keep in mind that buying a franchise brings other benefits than just a brand image boost. You also get a more cost-efficient initial business experience, additional help from the franchisor, and a higher likelihood of success. Seeing as how you already inherit a business model; it will be easier to convince investors (and partners) to follow your lead.
Finally, you get more leverage when negotiating. In other words, you get a much higher B2B recognition, as well, which increases the impact of your negotiations with strategic vendors. It’s a win-win scenario and it doesn’t require you to actively invest time and effort into branding.
- Diminishing brand loyalty
Customers are not as loyal as they were before. What does that mean? Well, first, it means that they might switch businesses after a single negative experience. Even without a negative experience, they might go someplace else if they have a better offer. There’s nothing wrong with self-interest and this phenomenon is not necessarily a negative thing.
This is something that takes place globally and you need to figure out that you can easily turn it to your own advantage. How? Well, by focusing on your service rather than your brand image. Also, keep in mind that influencer marketing may make you go viral even without a strong branding campaign.
Keep in mind that while loyalty is a valuable asset, it’s not reliable 100% of the time. So, instead of fearing all the customers that you’ll lose, think about all the people you can poach if you successfully outcompete others.
- A great business development strategy is more important
Good business development is better than branding. As long as you understand your consumers, distribution channels, and consumer behaviour, you will generate a positive user experience. This will make people come and stay far more effectively than any other effort on your part.
Here, you need to have in mind the customer lifecycle. First, you need to attract prospects. Next, you need to build engagement. Finally, you should turn opportunities into clients. Keep in mind that this doesn’t require a brand, seeing as how all your interactions are quite unique. It all comes down to making things easier for prospects who are already ready and willing to buy.
All in all, showing everyone that you do have a plan for the future is the way to go. When entering a business relationship with you, your clients, partners, and strategic vendors want to know that the outcome will be positive. While no one can guarantee that, a good business development strategy will make it more likely.
- Focusing on what really matters
So, if you’re not spending all that time, resources, and effort on branding, what should you be doing instead? One of the things is competing on real value. Products that are in demand at lower costs, superior delivery systems, and additional features are just some of the ideas.
Next, you need to fully commit to creating a positive customer experience. This is a really big step and something that you just can’t afford to skip. As we already mentioned – a single negative experience will make you lose them. However, a single negative experience elsewhere can turn someone who was previously unavailable into a potential customer. You need to use this potential to the best of your abilities.
Other than this, you need to look for new users for your old assets, as well as find new consumer segments. These two tasks are a bit more demanding but they have a peculiar way of providing an incredible amount of value.
In conclusion
So, does all of this mean that branding is irrelevant? Of course not! It just means that you need to reallocate your resources so that they better match your long-term plans. Eventually, you need to come around to branding but, for the time being, you have more pressing matters to tend to.