Branding before marketing?“Hang on a minute” you say - "branding is a part of marketing, so how can it possibly come before it?" Spot on! Technically the question doesn’t make sense, but we wanted to grab your attention so that we can point out a common marketing oversight, and help you to maximise the effectiveness of your marketing activities. That’s exactly why we recommend that branding is considered before investing in other marketing or promoting activities. Our definition of marketing is “the commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer”, and branding is a bigger-picture marketing strategy. As well as having immediate influence over buying decisions, it also maximises long-term return on invesment by creating higher business or product value. This is achieved by generating what the industry refers to as brand value – a brand that has real financial worth. This is a common strategy in large companies targeting the masses, and the same principle... Unfortunately, many businesses only take the short-term approach of focusing on immediate sales results. Usually they just don’t know there is an alternative – no one has told them – so they miss the opportunity to create significantly higher brand equity over the long term, as well as gaining the short-term results they need. Sales spikes don’t equate to business growth or health and they are rarely sustainable, particularly for SME’s. The interesting thing is that it doesn't have to cost more to create significantly higher business value or improved longer-term sales. It does, however, take branding knowhow. A good starting point is a solid brand foundation as part of a well-crafted brand strategy developed and implemented at the first opportunity. Feel free to contact us to arrange a time to talk about how strategic branding can work for you business. |