Should Small Businesses or Start-ups Invest in Branding?

As a small business or a start-up should you invest in branding? Well we always hear contradicting statements about Branding. Some think it is only for big companies and so a total waste of time for small businesses, while sometimes a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs spend too much money and time in the initial stages of their business journey fussing and stressing over their logo, typography, colour palette rather than just getting out there, getting visible, and getting started.

Well I would say – Branding works same for all, whether you are a big enterprise or a small start-up.

Firstly branding is not all about having a fancy logo or typography and visually appealing website. If you are able secure clients and sell your product or service you have already started to invest in branding of your business. The fact of the matter is that you are likely to be doing this unintentionally, but at some point you will sense the need for further focus, and direction as opposed to simply going with the flow.

Also let’s understand there is a distinction in the terminology that lot of businesses get confused about. Your visual design or visual representation of your brand is your brand identity.

But it’s not in and of itself “branding.”

How many of us buy a product or service because we like the logo? Investing in Branding does not mean only investment in brand identity. Rather visual identity is an after thought once you have experienced a service or a product.

In simple words branding is:

• Letting people know who your product or service is for (‘your market’)
• What they should expect when they buy that product or service from you (‘your delivery’)
• Highlight the benefits of using your product or service as compared to your competitors
• Building awareness
• Building credibility
• Getting recognised and liked
• Building trustworthiness
• Another way to think about it is…

Branding is the way you’ll create the positive feelings, perceptions about your product, service or self that will engage people to purchase things from you.

SO SHOULD YOU INVEST IN BRANDING?

If you are a small business who is just starting, there is no point spending thousands of dollars on a logo and a website or various branding services. I know you must be thinking I am crazy to give you this advice, as am taking away my own bread and butter.

But I am not one of those Brand Strategists that want you to believe your road to success is only through spending money upfront…

To be frank you can start your business on a small budget and slowly build your brand, you just need to know how and where to access the right resources – that will help you to build and grow your business.

Once you have given yourself a kick start and you know you are ready to deep dive, I offer a detailed Brand Strategy Workshop to help you get to your Brand Core, Brand Positioning and Brand Identity.

Trust me “You will know when you are ready”. At that time, let’s have a chat!