How to build a brand

THE myth that 'branding' and 'advertising' are one and the same may possibly be one of the biggest misconceptions that many small and medium enterprises tend to make. While the two are related and need to go hand-in-hand to succeed, SMEs first need to distinguish their brand before jumping into marketing their products and services, says a branding expert.

Brenda Bence, president of Brand Development Associates International Ltd, was recently in Brunei to conduct a branding workshop organised by Asia Inc Forum. Bence is a certified executive coach who has managed brands for Procter & Gamble, Bristol-Myers Squibb across four continents and 50 countries. She now travels the world, speaking, training and coaching on the topics of corporate and personal branding. She also wrote personal branding book series titled "How YOU are like Shampoo."

In this exclusive interview with The Brunei Times, Bence goes back to basics on what branding is and explains how SMEs can simplify and formulate a successful branding strategy.

What are the biggest mistakes that SMEs make when it comes to 'branding'?

Well, number one, is focusing more about what you want out of the business instead of what your customers want. The other thing is with brand names, and I see a lot of people getting very 'creative', especially when you're a small business, and you don't have a lot of money to spend on communicating, you want to communicate your brand name, that communicates what you do. Unless you're a 'Starbucks', and you have millions in deep pockets, I'd say, go for simple, go for straightforward and explain what your business is. I think that's another mistake people do, it's that there isn't enough market research and understanding of the need that is truly out there and really understanding the need and diving in.

Brunei has a small market and many of the SMEs who are more ambitious want to venture into exports, can a local brand make it in a global arena?

You need to make sure that you're making a need that's not just domestic and you can start domestic and understand the domestic market, but if you're looking at a global enough need, a need that is expanding on borders, then it becomes a universal need. You can say, "We have met this need in Brunei and this is how we're doing it". Now do (they) need to adjust the need? Is the need exactly the same? How is the target different? It's always about the target market and the customer.

Let me give you this startling statistic. There was a research that ... said that the average person living in a city runs across 3,000 brands. It's a little hard to believe but if you walk down a grocery store aisle, any street where you're got signs, you will see hundreds of brands. SMEs need to stick out more than the multinationals, because the multinationals have got big bucks. You've got to find a way to be smarter, faster and more adept at getting your brand across to every other brand. You want to find a way to stick out? You have to brand it.

Pricing is one of the ways many SMEs in Brunei tries to compete with and stand out amongst each other. Is this a form of 'branding'?

If you are just competing on price, it is not a brand. It's a commodity. You don't want to be in that market because someone will always beat your price. There has got to be a point of differentiation that meets a need out there in the market place that no one else is meeting, or you are meeting better than the competition. What I am hearing (from Brunei) is the challenges around pricing, and one of the things I'm trying to dispel is that (customers) 'make a decision on price alone'. They only make a decision on price alone if that's all they're seeing. It's our job as branders to get them to go beyond price. We want to talk about value. It is the difference between performance and price. If you got a truly good performance, that is different from the competition, you're going to be willing to pay a little more. So when I hear people say pricing is the biggest issue, I always want to challenge that. Price is always a function for performance and if you've got performance, you've got to find a way to highlight that and leverage it. Get it in the hands of the customers for free if you have to, because they're going to see the value-added of it.

Would that mean that they need to 'rebrand' or reposition their brand?

You really need to understand your brand positioning. If you say there's a 'repositioning' that's going on, that tells me that something's happened in the market. Either the target has changed, or the position has changed, either the need has gone away or something changed in the market, or they haven't done a very good job. So really, you have to sit down and go back to the fundamentals. Where am I weak, or where am I strong? Bring down the weaknesses and bring up the strengths.

How much market research is enough market research?

The key thing is that you have to do the most market research that you can do. It doesn't mean that you have to do a full quantitative research like multinationals are doing. I had to start my own business and I came from a job where I had millions of dollars literally to spend, with branding, and had to start my own company 10 years ago. You take the same fundamental research techniques and you do it in a smart way. For example, big companies do focus groups, they pay moderators. They pay big fees. You don't need to do that. Find five to six people who you think are your perfect target audience, who are really your ideal customers for purchasing your products, and invite them all to dinner. Talk about your product and service and get them engaged, and get your feedback.

A little bit of research is better than no research, and get some indication that you've got a product that you've got a need, and there are lots of things you can do. You don't have to go out there and throw a dart in the wall and hope it sticks. There are lots of ways. Get out there and get online. Go on chatrooms. There is so much knowledge out there now which you can get without spending a lot of money.

Now explain how this is different from advertising?

Advertising is media. Branding and marketing are two very different things. They are related, but branding is how you want your customers to see, think and feel about your brand, then the competition. Getting crystal clear on that is fundamental for success. Once you decide what your brand stands for, then you can decide how you want to communicate it and so then it comes to whether you need advertising or whether you just go with social media. Maybe nine out of 10 of your clients are coming in through referrals and recommendations. This is the funny thing about small businesses. We think that we have to advertise and do all the marketing, but the truth is that strong businesses are created with a strong word-of-mouth. It doesn't cost much at all. It just takes satisfied customers and asking them to please share your service with people they know. If every one of your customers is happy and you ask them to please share that and give you five names of people you think would be interested, within a matter of months, you can get several hundreds of people. Think smarter, and don't always rely on things like advertising. If you do need to advertise, social media is a really cheap opportunity, but you have to be careful about how you go about doing that, and the thing is that you have to stay true to your brand.

How can SMEs find a solution to reaching their customers through advertising their brand?

Number one is be true to your customer. Maybe your customers don't need 'creative'. Be where your customer is. So if your customer is at home, then you need to do some form of advertising to reach her there, but most of the time, your customer is out at a bus stop, on the Internet, and so on. You need to find out where they are and communicate that way most effectively. Be true to your brand, and where your customer can be reached most effectively and find out where you can reach them. Don't worry about being too creative, and worry about being true to what you stand for and once you do that, your brand will build itself and get satisfied customers.

I always say to small businesses, you have a huge team. Every person who has ever come in contact with your brand, can become a cheerleader for your brand. They can market for you, so your marketing can be a lot stronger than you think.The Brunei Times