6 dirt-cheap strategies to make a little brand big

Build it and they will come? Not always. Getting your name out there can be the make-or-break success factor. By EMILY ROSS.

By Emily Ross

Build it and they will come? Not always. Getting your name out there can be the make-or-break success factor.

Global brand consultancy Interbrand has a theory about the way a smart business thinks about its brands. The company’s “2007 Best Global Brands” study contained the following: “Brands which place high importance on managing the economic value of their intangible assets, and primarily their brands, consistently outperform basic economic measures.” 

In other words, look after the brand and reap the rewards. This rule does not just apply to GE, Nokia, Mercedes-Benz and other brands that top Interbrand’s global brand surveys every year. It matters in every business. Even without big budgets, a small or medium sized business can be a brilliant brand builder.

There is no silver bullet when it comes to brand building. For New York-based founder of marketing firm Quint Strategies, Wendy Parsley: “Brand building requires a company to ask itself hard questions and research to find the right combination that will work for them”.

Here is SmartCompany’s check list.

1. Tell everyone who you really are

As a new business, you must be able to effectively promote how your product is better than anything else. Parsley says to do this involves understanding what is unique about the business. “Once you can answer that question – don’t be afraid to tell everyone,” she says.

“To build a brand effectively, the benefits of the product have to be clear,” says senior consultant with D&E Communications Robert Melcher. “It’s virtually impossible to make a profit unless your product is preferred over all others to some segment of consumers.”

2. Keep your promises

Delia Timms started her online babysitting service FindABabysitter two-and-a-half years ago with a “shoestring” budget. She set out to make FindABabysitter a trusted, quality market leader.

Timms’s business has concentrated on making it as easy as possible for clients to find babysitters. “Great brands offer exceptional customer service and really deliver what the customer wants,” she says.

“This makes us most memorable, builds a quality reputation and drives lots of word-of-mouth recommendations.”

Director of Floate Design Partners Ross Floate works on the theory that a brand is a manifestation of a promise. “The problem is that most companies fail on keeping that promise,” he says.

“The most effective way to build the brand is to keep your promises. Word-of-mouth will do a lot of the rest.”

According to Floate, small companies often fail to understand that “what matters is the brand you build in the client’s mind when you deal with them.”

Every interaction a business has with a client is, says Floate, a “brand touchpoint, and it is at these moments when most companies fail. When they are slow to produce an estimate, or their phone manner is poor, or they have poor after-sales follow-up – this is when small companies drop the ball and their reputation diminishes.”

3. Get online, get viral, make it easy (and fun) to be discovered

More than 3.7 million people have watched a video of an iPhone being destroyed in a Blendtec blender.

The US-based company has created 116 different videos, pulvarising unlikely objects including stun guns, garden hoses, Chuck Norris dolls and cigarette lighters under the series: “Will it blend?” for YouTube. These $15,000 budget videos have helped Blendtec increase sales by 500% since the wacky ads went live.

The viral power of people sharing videos is an extremely cheap, effective way to build a brand, with bottom-line benefits.

For Lasse Goerlitz, marketing and PR director for Danish biotechnology company CLC, key brand building is done through Google Ads and advertising in niche email newsletters.

For FindABabysitter, strategic search engine marketing and other online marketing (such as links) have dramatically helped to boost the website’s search engine rankings and help drive traffic to the site.

4. Have a great story to tell

Press releases, blogs, articles in industry magazines, email blasts, direct mail pieces are all avenues should be explored. The media loves a “hook”.

Timms was able to leverage off the “stay-at-home-mum turned entrepreneur” angle. Appearances on top-rating television programs Sunrise, A Current Affair and more than 20 mainstream media profiles have been invaluable to transform FindABabysitter from unknown start-up into a recognised brand.

Similarly, businesses such as online hotel booking website Wotif have benefited from the “consumer benefit” angle as media outlets produce reams of free editorial about cheap hotel rooms offered on the site.

Stories on brave little companies – where entrepreneurs take on corporate giants (Crazy John’s, Seek.com.au) – are always going to get a run. It’s all about the right angle and connecting with the right media messenger.

5. Remember everything you do promotes or destroys your brand

Enron, HIH, ABC Learning, James Hardie and Pan Pharmaceuticals used to be blue-chip brands. Reputation, reputation, reputation.

6. Think big and don’t be afraid to break the rules

Google is the classic example of a company brand built without major advertising campaigns. As Columbia Business School’s executive director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership Bernd Schmitt has said: “You have to break the rules, challenge convention, and kill some sacred cows.”