Marketing School: What The Hell Is Branding?
Today, we’re going to talk about home business branding. Get a coffee, because I’ve got a lot to say.
Branding is a very big deal these days. We talk about personal branding and business branding. There are many definitions of the term, but here’s one I like so you don’t have to go searching for it on your own:
“A traditional advertising method used to elicit a latent response from a target based on cumulative impressions and positive reinforcement.” (from AdServerSolutions, via Google dictionary)
Conventionally, brands were used to identify cattle. They did not say the cow was a good cow or a bad cow. They did not convey the temperament of the cow. They just identified the cow.
That is branding.
People think that a brand is a logo.
People think a brand is a uniform.
People think a brand is a storefront, a package, a company car.
A brand is none of these things – it’s a combination of them, and so much more. A few days ago, in response to one of my posts, Bill wrote this:
“Ever seen an ad for some service company, like the lawn care guys (excuse me, greenery maintenance specialist), and in the ad the guy’s driving the truck with the logo, and he’s wearing the short-sleeve shirt with the logo, and he’s wearing the hat with the logo., and he’s holding the clipboard with the logo. His shorts likely have the logo…. Branding is useful, but not super-useful. It’s almost, I don’t know, tertiary — like, yeah, I work here, see, I have the company logo on my butt. However, it doesn’t prove that I know squat. Think of the Geek Squad people. Initially, the image was interesting — gosh, so uncool, they must really know what they’re doing! … But now, the Geek Squad image is more of a Yeah, Sure, Right, I Really Believe that someone smart and bright will show up and do PC magic for me. Uh-huh. Its just an image. Didn’t I see you folding shirts at WalMart last week? It doesn’t convey ability; it just conveys that you’re on our payroll.”
This is true. A brand does not convey ability. It’s not supposed to. A brand is supposed to convey consistency.
Geek Squad puts the logo on the underwear of their tech guys not to make us think that Best Buy is more competent. They put it there to make us think of Best Buy. Whether we think well of them or ill of them, we think of them. That’s what they want, and that’s what they’ve got.
Ellen Degeneres has a very solid brand but she doesn’t wear a shirt that says “Ellen” on it. She doesn’t need to. She wears tuxedo pants and does funny dances on her talk show and wears minimal make-up. If you saw some other short haired blond pushing fifty, dancing around in tuxedo pants, you would think she looked like Ellen. That is good branding.
Branding And Your Itty Bitty Business
Since you don’t have a budget to set up a bunch of nerds in ridiculous looking vehicles, you’re going to need to find another way to brand yourself. With a smaller budget this tends to take more time, but it’s not only possible, it’s easy.
The For Dummies Version Of Branding:
Popular nostalgia has an image about the 1950s housewife. She worked hard, she cooked, she took care of the kids. Every now and again, her husband would take her out for dinner and the kids would sit around her vanity, watching her get ready. She would very carefully take her special occasion perfume out of wherever she put it so the kids wouldn’t get into it, and dab it behind her ears.
When it was time for mom and dad to go to dinner, she would hug the kids and they would smell her perfume.
Today, 50 years later, those kids remember exactly what their mother smelled like. If they smell that perfume on anyone else in the world, for the rest of their life, they will think of their mother.
That is branding.
They don’t necessarily think nice things about their mother. They might think of how much of an alcoholic she was and how every time she made a casserole she would stare sullenly into the sink, smoking a cigarette and ignoring her kids. But they think of her and only her.
That is branding.
At its heart, branding is about being the same. It’s about conveying the same image, each and every time you perform a function. Yes, a logo is a part of that. Every letter you send should have the same logo and typeface at the top. Every time your customers come to your website, they should see either what they saw last time or a big sign that says “Check out our redesign.” And every time they see you, as a person, they should identify with your brand.
As “some other Naomi” said in the comments, she’s a designer so she can walk around with antlers on her head and nobody would think anything of it. That’s part of her brand. Her brand is not “some other Naomi who wears antlers on her head.” Her brand is “some other Naomi who does some pretty crazy shit with her wardrobe.” If she showed up in khakis and a twinset, she would be lynched.
Homework
What’s your brand? If you’re like 98.372% of small business owners, you don’t have one. That’s OK. You’re in the majority. Most people don’t really expect you to have a brand. They expect you to wither into obscurity. Your job now, though, is to find yourself a brand. Think of something that embodies you, something you can stick to. Then think of what you’ll have to do to make that brand a reality.
Oh, and while I’m talking about branding, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you to go read this post. It’s short. Come back and say something when you’re done.
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Thanks, for the nice mention, Naomi!
Companies usually put way too much importance on their logos and don’t build their whole branding enough. You should use your logo smartly and consistently so that the people recognize you, but don’t expect it to sell for you alone.
And please, if you are building a website or marketing materials, don’t ask the designer to make your logo bigger. We really hate that: http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/
Hey Naomi,
Sweet, nailed the second spot, that should get me at least a billion hits today!
Years ago, I belonged to a weekly networking group and there was a former muckety-muck marketing person in it who used to be at Massive Mondo Global Corp (named changed to protect Coca Cola, er, I mean some big company from being exposed) and now was on her own as a small biz marketing guru.
So, she stands up in front of the group to give her speech and tells us at that branding is only for massive companies with at least $100 million to spend and small biz shouldn’t bother.
Hmm, i’m thinking, now I’d spent about $28 over the prior year and built a pretty powerful local brand that drove business and referrals. If only I had known. Silly me, I guess branding really is only for grown-ups!
Anyway, I do agree and I tell my clients that same stuff, but, here’s something to chew on…in the first few years, I think it’s not a bad idea to put a fair amount of work into branding, but the vast majority of your moola should go into more direct-marketing that will not only brand, but generate a very real and very measurable ROI.
I am a big fan of thinking of wildly creative ways to actually “get paid” to create you brand, rather than the other way around. Example, when I owned a personal training center, with every new client’s enrollment fee came a hat, t shirt, water bottle and bag with our logo and tagline. They paid me to get it (though they didn’t see it that way) and then wore them all over town, becoming my free brand evangelist minions!
PS - hey do I get some kind of longest-comment award? I’m all about the bling!
@ Naomi - Define the difference between “business image” and “business brand.” Do the two become one and the same? Do they play off each other? Do they represent two different areas? Do I look like a fool because you’ve already mentioned this in another post and I’ve forgotten?
@ Jonathan - Only if I can take your bling and do something marvelous with it, such as spending the rest of the day thinking about the population of my town wearing JCME parkas and toques (too cold for hats and t-shirts), insulated flask (water freezes quickly this time of year) and bag. I could be happy with all that.
@ James - dang, never thought about the flask thing! Sweet idea!
Branding is just like it sounds… burn your logo onto a cow’s ass!
But seriously… when you think of traditional cattle branding… aren’t you trying to accomplish the same thing? Burn your business into people’s mind so they think of you forever! You want to be the first thing that comes to peoples minds when they think of something they need. Logos, gear, direct marketing, vehicle warps, and so on, are all tools to do it… but a ‘brand’ is the overall perception of your company.
@ some other Naomi - I freaking love that site! Exactly. Your logo is for recognition and not much else.
@ Jonathan - Shit. I left my $100 million in my other pants. I guess I don’t get a brand now. I agree - don’t spend a fortune on branding. In fact, try to avoid spending anything on branding. Sadly, no prize for you though. Check out this comment craziness:
Jarkko Laine: Insanely Interested In Everything
You may, however, have my undying affection.
@ James - Will get off my ass and post about this. Perhaps today. Love the flask. Does it come with spiced rum? That’s swag, people.
@ Shycon - Yup. Cow’s ass, customer’s brain. It’s all the same thing, really. I mean, the whole smell-of-burning-flesh thing is limited somewhat with psychological branding, but whatever.
[...] Marketing School: What the Hell is Branding at IttyBiz. [...]
In my last company (first startup) we worked with one of the most recognized brands in the word - Coca Cola. We created something and then they actually bought it. It was a hard and painful process but when we told investors, employees, everyone else that Coca Cola was our customer we got instant street cred.
@shycon -
Oh no no no no … you’ve got to brand your logo on a PURPLE cow’s ass. :-) Ask Seth Godin if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
Naomi -
I get a lot out of Ben Mack’s definition of your brand: “The likelihood that a customer will do business with you, again.” (Based on your consistency of delivering the message about who you are in every single place your interact with your customer, reinforcing the reason(s) they want to do business with you.)
If you haven’t read “Think Two Products Ahead” by Ben, you really should. It’s 12 measly bucks and has some pretty great advice for crystallizing and strengthening your brand. If you’re tapped out from all the wine boxes let me know and I’ll send you my copy. :-p
I liked it so much, I bought the company.
Well, no I didn’t. But I did fly down to Atlanta to speak at one of his seminars in exchange for some coaching. Good stuff.
@ Dave - Haven’t read it. Will, though. And it would have been much cooler if you’d bought the company. :)
And I’ll have you know I’m not drinking wine right now, from a box or otherwise. I’m drinking Starbucks liqueur. Talk about branding!
@ Naomi - after much thinking away from the computer (seems to actually work better), I have come to realize that:
Image: Your particular business look, tone, feel and sense you convey
Branding: When a generic item, like facial tissue, becomes Kleenex (see, I already knew that to be branding)
So branding is image, but an image so well driven home as being THE leader that it’s the automatic company that leaps to mind when thinking of an item or the mental replacement of a company name that replaces an item noun (such as Kleenex).
Thought it bore mentioning that no, I’m not a fool and yes, there is a distinct difference and I think people often confuse the two.
Need coffee.
A brand, according to me, is what you recall the first thing:
i) after you brush your teeth (NYT, Starbucks, ABC…)
ii) when you’re stuck in traffic (your company logo, Ferrari, NFL…)
iii) after sex (Starbucks, David Letterman, Jay Leno…)
Thank God for branding… life would be miserable without it.
“Ellen Degeneres has a very solid brand but she doesn’t wear a shirt that says “Ellen” on it. She doesn’t need to. She wears tuxedo pants and does funny dances on her talk show and wears minimal make-up”.
That is interesting…I wonder how deliberate that was or was it just a matter of her personality/lifestyle that inadvertently created this brand…hmmm!
This is true. A brand does not convey ability. It’s not supposed to. A brand is supposed to convey consistency.
well said.
I tend to deal with small clients and there number one comment when we first discuss their business is that they want to stand out from the competition. when i tell them that part of that would be setting up a consistent brand they tend to get reluctant. i don’t need a brand, i just want all my boxes to be pink and closed shut with a sticker with my logo on it.
o.k. then no brand, we’ll just work on your image.
The next question of course is HOW to figure out what element of ourselves will go towards creating that brand. I’ve found just being myself and getting my name out there helps but I want people to think of me when they need a writing job done. I guess we all need to find a bigger way to make a statement or we’ll get lost in the multitude of nameless faces across the world.
[...] other day, we talked about branding. Some people left stuff in comments and other people emailed me to indicate that they didn’t [...]
Believe me, Michael. If there was a way I could package my service in a pink box with a sticker in the image of my own face, I would. I’ve yet to figure one out, though, so in the meantime I have to blog. :)
@ Rebecca - Very good point. It’s so easy to hang up your shingle and then look around saying, “Oh Shit. What now?” Thanks for stopping by IttyBiz - it’s great to have you.
I just love these posts, very refreshing and very interesting. It’s certainly making me think! and banging my head on the table at times :D
[...] wise I need to build a consistent message. And I’m not sure what that is yet. I guess this one ought to be top of the [...]
[...] approach and I know I’ll be visiting her virtual home for a long time. Naomi offers working from home tips that help you stay sane. Read her post What The Hell Is Branding? I met her through JCM Enterprises. JCM Enterprises [...]
very interesting.
i’m adding in RSS Reader