What’s in a brand name?
The answer may be “zilch,” according to a trio of marketing experts who spoke to small businesspeople on Thursday at an Irvine Chamber of Commerce-hosted panel discussion called “Rising Above.”
“A brand name and logo are probably irrelevant…,” said Sasha Strauss, USC communications professor and managing director of L.A.-based Innovation Protocol, a strategic branding firm. “The (partly eaten) Apple isn’t amazing, the Nike swoosh isn’t gorgeous. The Starbucks logo is a naked mermaid.”
Rather, said Strauss, the promise behind the nomenclature and the graphic means absolutely everything. What a company vows to deliver, be it a product or a service, requires employees to send a consistent message to customers.
That message can come at a high cost, but shelling out big bucks for consultation is not the only way to make your business’ name and purpose known. In these tough economic times, here are some tips from the Irvine Chamber panel on how to leverage good branding, marketing and advertising without going broke:
Hire consultants among the ranks of UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business. (Alternative: post your needs on Craig’s List)
Why? Talented grad students want good grades and the experience, and your pockets aren’t very deep. A perfect symbiosis.
Use social networks as free sounding boards.
Why? Websites like Facebook and Linked In facilitate good, branched networking. On Facebook, for example, users can update their statuses to alert everyone in their network where and what they’re up to.
Make your Website visible to search engines. (If you don’t yet have Website, get one).
Why? Search-engine optimization, the process of improving search results to your hub on the Web, isn’t as difficult as it seems. Check out Google Analytics, a free service, to find what search terms are sticking.
Go out to lunch (or breakfast or dinner or coffee).
Why? Interacting with customers in non-workplace environments provides good opportunities to plant long-term seeds of interest and reinforce your business’ central promise.
Ask “what do we stand for?”
Why? If employees and customers can’t encapsulate what sets your business apart, nobody else can either.
Don’t waste time on the uninterested.
Why? Every business serves its own base. Write letters, compose e-mails or make phone calls to customers to remind them who you are and what you uniquely do.
Work a minute longer and harder than the competition
Why? Because it’ll pay off in the long run.
There’s no one who knows more than you do (as shown by the collapse of corporate giants)
Why? If there’s anything that the fall Lehman Brothers and others teaches, it’s that corporate giants don’t always have the best ideas or soundest strategies. Small and mid-sized businesses today have the tools (via the Internet) to succeed and spreading their message.
