Show your intention to succeed
When business takes itself seriously, so do prospective customers. An investment in your brand will establish your credibility as a serious operator fully committed to the success of your own enterprise. This is especially true of SMBs and retaliers.

To make yourself visible
This one is crucial. Post building that professional image, how do SMBs take their product to the customer. The answer lies in brand promotion. Explore organizations that can do innovative and integrated brand promotion for you.

To establish integrity
Looking professional, having a desire to succeed and creating visibility are key ingredients to attracting attention to your company. The real test comes when prospective customers scratch beyond the surface to decide if your company is trustworthy. A major source of failure in the attempt to build a great brand is the lack of consistency among all the contact-points with the customer. In such a case, the brand message makes a promise on which the organisation can deliver.

Reason: it builds brand by getting the business’s name in the office of the potential decision maker or the influencer. But how do we really know if this is what works for B2B marketing and branding. 

Can the atypical B2C fundas that we have lived on really be applied to B2B. Does it really make sense for an Oracle to use mass communication to market their banking and finance suite of products.

Are you and I really their buyer? The answer is no.

B2B brands like Oracle have solutions that have a niche market. The prospects are few but all over the place. So how does one make sure that the reach and visibility is achieved? Does brand promotion work in such a scenario? Infact does branding actually apply to B2Bs or it is just a fad – one borrowed from the successful and visibly so B2Cs.

Today, most B2B brands are exploring branding in a uniquely customised way. B2B companies understand that branding goes far beyond building a corporate identity and creating offering brands for a set of products/services. Branding is about promising that the company’s offering will create and deliver a certain level of performance and living that promise. The brand promise becomes the motivating force for all the activities of the company and its partners.

Thus branding is the road that a B2B company must travel to define what it wants to be excellent at and how its offerings differ from competitors. It is the outward expression of the company’s earlier decisions on positioning its products and articulating its value propositions
to buyers. Companies today hire B2B specialised agencies that give them a platter of an innovative media mix to carry this promise across to its prospects. This is the ‘Alternate Media Strategy’. It is a ‘below-the-line’ blend of various media and modes specifically thought out for the targeted industry and audience. Various communication and marketing media get that right twist for effective brand building – one that doesn’t challenge the spender’s ROI or ROE. Famous marketers and brand specialists have already given us the answers. The trick however lies in effective manipulation.

The author of this article is Charu Nathan, Creative Director at a B2B branding and marketing agency, CREATIVE INC. To read more, get in touch at charu@creative-inc.net

A brand resides in the mind.
Unfortunately, many small and medium-sized businesses think that branding is a thing of the larger brands, and SME/SMBs products sell on what is called WoM. Branding or advertising is a waste of precious revenue and even if they make decisions about branding, it is without much consideration for their own products and services. Worse, they often fail to consider their customers and prospective customers. Enthusiastic about aping a successful at eyeball hits advertising campaign or a slick sign, they fail to consider the overall impact these disparate exercises will have on their business. They are disappointed in an investment that didn’t generate returns and often feel that it doesn’t pay to advertise.

But, lets just look at it from their PoV. Small and medium-sized businesses face adversity on a daily basis. Accustomed to being jacks-of-all-trades, it’s difficult to relinquish control and hard-earned money to something as intangible as branding. Conduct a thoughtful investigation in how a branding exercise will benefit your company. Keep sending a consistent message about your company and adopt a strategy focused on the customer view of your business. Take the help of a similar SMB branding company that can develop a good branding strategy. You will enjoy valuable visibility and interest generation. Both conditions lead to an improved revenue stream.

The challenge of a limited budget
Companies like Vodafone and Coke have the luxury of million dollar budgets to promote their company but the SMB is often operating on limited resources. With relatively small investments, SMBs making educated decisions about their image will achieve tangible returns. Best of all, these investments can be staggered over time as long as a clear brand strategy is adhered to. Not just that, your branding/advertising agency can use your limited resources carefully to draw up a plan – one that strides along achieving set targets and milestones for you.
Summing it up, brands create an emotional bond with customers and there is no reason why SMB/SMEs should be left behind.

About the Author
The author of this article is Charu Nathan, Creative Director at a B2B branding and marketing agency, CREATIVE INC. To read more, get in touch at charu@creative-inc.net or visit the CREATIVE INC blog at http://creative-inc.in/blog/

One thing that’s common between all three brands is the high level of bonding that the brand has with its customers. A stage where the customer considers himself to be in-sync with the brand. He associates with the brand at the closest possible level – so much so that he willingly dedicates his time towards the activities of the brand and spread the brand further. This state of mind, the highest in the Brand resonance ladder, according to Professor Kevin Lane Keller is called Brand Evangelism. And the consumer in such a stage is called Brand Evangelist.

Every day, a new brand is born and an existing brand is killed or has to die. Companies spend millions and sometimes even billions of dollars just to sustain the brand in the consumer mind space. Note, the adjective is SUSTAIN. Yet there are some brands who can boast of having a brand tribe – a set of people who would stay with the brand, nurture its vision and take it to a whole new level of existence. So much so that the brand becomes a way of life. And Harley, Apple, Google, Coke are some of the best examples.

When we talk about a brand as a tribe, we are talking about followers and not just customers, who involve themselves in the brand’s activities, and make it a part of their daily lives. But the question here is, how does a brand become a tribe? What does it take to have tribesmen?

While it is understood that it takes lots of efforts to convert a customer from the state of unawareness to making him a loyalist or an advocate. But from here on it takes dedicated efforts to convert an advocate into an evangelist. While an advocate would recommend a product to his/her friends, an evangelist would go a step further and promote the brand further.

It means directly interacting with the consumer, by creating communities – where they can interact with the brand as well as each other. A case in point is the Harley Owners Group (HOG) formed way back in 1983.

The benefits of having a tribe are plenty. There is always a set of tribesmen who you can bank upon to leap up for your products as soon as they are launched. They would also encourage others to become a follower. Then there are the valuable feedbacks and new product ideas.

But all said and done, building a brand community is never easy. It requires lots of initiative in terms of money and efforts to build and sustain such a tribe. One of the pillars on which a brand tribe would rest upon would be a thorough understanding of the consumer’s mindset – one that is crafted intricately to match with that of the personality of the brand and the brand’s customer.

Geevarghese Thomas

Creative Writer, Copy Desk

6:45 am – The thought of going to work on a Saturday made me go sick in my knees. However, “work is WORSHIP” (a belief instilled in us, ever since our childhood… courtesy our age-old traditions) made me rush in for a quick cleaning. Thanks guys (Close Up Whitening Toothpaste, Park Avenue body soap, Gillette shaving foam and Mach 3 blades) for making me the “ME”.

7:45 am – Checked my mobile planner for any meetings for the day. Finding none, I went in for those uber cool Levis jeans and bright Lacoste T shirt coupled with those new Woodland shoes I got the other day.

8:00 am – Looking at my Fastrack watch, I realised I still had sufficient time to glance over the morning newspaper (Thank GOD! TOI arrived early today), sip a cup of steaming hot tea (TATA, the only one I prefer for its essence) and my routine breakfast (Kellogs Cornflakes)

8:45 am – Before leaving home, I ensured my Apple iPod was fully charged.

9:30 am – Reaching office, I switched on my HP laptop to make final tweaking on the rebranding presentation of Nestle, before heading for that BIG presentation.

1:30 pm – After that hectic presentation before my boss (what gruelling sessions! man), I felt the need to satiate my hunger pangs with some delicious food… Thank GOD! It was a colleague’s birthday as food from Pizza Hut was at our doorstep.

2:15 pm – Was back at my seat. Searched some vital information from Google for making amends to the presentation.

5:15 pm – And lo… three hours had already passed by. All I remembered was making frequent sips of the frappy coffee from our Georgia Coffee vending machine. Finally my work was over and I started to leave for the day.

5:30 pm – Before leaving, just wanted to check with my friend if she was willing to catch upon a movie at PVR. She was prompt at answering and I did not waste my time in getting the tickets via Bookmyshow.com.

10:00 pm – After that three-hour long melodramatic movie, dinner was a more of a humble affair.

10:30 pm – Back home, before retiring for the day, I checked my Gmail A/c and surfed HBO and Star Movies for some classics, finding nothing, I decided to go to bed.

10:33 pm – Before going off to sleep I switched off my mobile alarm, (Who wants to get up early on a Sunday!)

4:30 am – In my sleep I hear that nerve racking alarm tone… Howz dat possible, I switched it off myself. How could this happen?

4:32 am – Wake up only to find an SMS, “GOOD MORNING! WELCOME TO A BRAND-AID WORLD”.

That must sound crazy… But it’s true to the very core. Behind every nitty gritties of our daily chores, there seems to be a BRAND – a brand that dominates our perceptions and actions. And that’s probably why we say – “That’s my Bentley” and not “my car”; “Need to buy a Bisleri” and not “water”; “My Nokia is giving me some problem” and not “my mobile phone”. That’s my story. To sum it up the Bentleys, the Nokias, the Bisleris, the Woodlands, the Mac Donalds, the PVRs – all have given us this BRAND-AID WORLD. What say! I am there already. What about you?

Bahnik Biswas

Senior Manager, Copy Desk

When we talk about brands, there are a certain tangible and intangible set of characteristics that spring to our mind. Here, let’s leave out the intangibles, since they are a result of the brand’s perception or image in the minds of the customer – built over a period of time. We are talking about the tangibles – in terms of its look and feel, whether in the form of the brand’s communication or while in the hands of the customer as a product. Different elements like the logo, its usage, colour, typography, layout and sometimes even the jargons used, they all combine and form what is called Brand Guidelines. A set of dos and don’ts – the brand guideline/brand book is nothing short of a particular brand’s bible when it comes to showcasing it to the world. Sure it takes a piece of wizardry to come up with a handbook that would define the face of a brand worth millions of dollars.

But do you know what takes an even greater wizardry? Following them, consistently, in all communiqués. And the reason is simple. Often, the people or the agency that creates the brand book might not be the ones who would be actually designing or writing for the brand. Thanks to the advent of specialised branding agencies. Brand guidelines, no matter how they are cleverly crafted, are often perceived to compartmentalise the ‘creative freedom’. There would always be a tussle between fitting the creative, whether it is the design or the typography into the guidelines. A small nudge here and a slight tweak there. And you are done. Guilty of a cardinal sin in the world of branding. Remember, the creatives serve the brand and not the other way round. The company’s brand must carry through to the customer, so that they can associate and recall the brand.

Branding in simple terms is science. That means there are no ifs and buts. There is only a yes or a no – there is space for a may be. A good, solid brand identity is a very strong intellectual asset to have. An unmistakable logo and consistent branding across all stationary and communication collaterals speak volumes about how professional the entity is.

It is important, that individuals who directly interact with the brand – the Brand Manager on one side and the Account Manager at the agency’s side take up the role of a Brand Guardian. Thorough with the possibilities of the brand communication, the brand guardian should at all times ensure that there absolute consistency in terms of the brand’s elements. In fact, this could well be the difference between owning a brand and owning a heritage brand.

Geevarghese Thomas

Creative Writer, Copy Desk

What comes to your mind when you think “Coca Cola”.

What is the first thing we picture when we talk about Olympics?

Surprisingly, in each case the answer is an image respectively. It is this image, an outcome of immense research coupled with typography better known as Logo.

The logo of a company is the shortest and most precise form to express the individuality, judgment, image and intention of an entity or a company. Often people identify a particular organisation by its logo. It is short, smart and has an immediate appeal to the target audience of a company.

With time the concept of logo has undergone immense changes. Logos, today are much more stylish, dramatic and abstract. Now, lets take a blitzkrieg through the concept of Logo.

LOGO AS DEFINED TODAY:
•    A logo carries the image of a company. Its function is to create a long lasting, recognisable impression on the mind of a potential client or customer.
•    Set in a special typeface, it is a graphic element, symbol, and icon of a trademark or brand, which are the shapes, colors, fonts and images usually different from others in a similar market.
•    A logo is an iconic symbol designed to represent a company, product or service. It also depicts an organisation’s personality.
Generally Logo is dimensionally petite in dimension, thus as to fit into a variety of communication modes. It has been generally seen that the name of the corporate or organisation appears with the logo along with the brand descriptor that conveys the essence of their market positioning and offering.

LOGO SIGNIFICANCE:

Though names are what help us to identify one individual to another, it is the face of an individual we retain in our memory for longer. Similarly, if we shuffle our memory bank, we’ll find that we remember things, which appealed us visually than things that were told or written.

Uniqueness of a logo stands out here. A logo helps us to avoid confusion in the market place, among clients, and rest of the target audience. It definitely acts as a trademark and may be used to identify business organisations, products, events or services. So, deciding on a logo carefully is critical for any business.

Think about it. This is nothing but a positive Brand Image translating to a very very promising Brand Image. In slow economic times like these, it might be hard to justify branding and its spend because every rupee needs to directly generate leads and sales.

So how can you brand if you’re not yet the leader and times are slow? Here are three low-cost ways to support brand building while you are filling your sales pipeline.

Develop a impactful Brand Identity and a Positioning Statement
If prospects see your logo and there is always a strong positioning statement with it, you will be building recognition of what your company does and/or how it differs from its competition. Between the company name, the logo and the positioning line, you will be establishing your brand and cutting clutter.

Maintain Consistency in Look and Message
Establish and follow guidelines for your brand. This can be easily done through a basic brand manual that defines templates for your “Go to Market” communication tools like Website, emails, direct mails, brochures, adverts and all communication commonly used for in your marketing initiatives. Whenever a prospect sees anything about you, they carry a consistent image and impression.

Establish and support active PR through new age means like social media marketing and networking —
Use innovative PR and marketing like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc to keep your brand visible in the market scenario. Use social media for exposure and interaction with your industry and potential customers. Participate in industry specific events and exhibitions for effective one to one interaction with customers and other industry players.

The ideas expressed by no means represent a full branding campaign but they can help your company cost-effectively support and build a brand while generating business