Why do you need a brand?
People like brands; they feel comfortable buying a brand named product. Take McDonalds for example; the food may not be the healthiest in the world, but when you’re hungry you trust the consistency of their product and price no matter which one you go to. The other thing is no matter what country you are in the brand still stands tall.
McDonalds and many other companies have spent billions of dollars building brand names for themselves. Using that as an example, you have to seriously consider the value that a brand brings to a business.
Choosing a Brand Name
There was a time when McDonalds was represented by Ronald McDonald. This raises the question, is it better to have a generic brand name or use a personal name for branding a business.
There are pros and cons for both. Using your name as a brand puts a face on your business, some people warm up to this much quicker then a generic name. On the other hand what happens to that business if the owner dies or compromises their reputation, does the brand suffer too?
If you choose a generic brand name for your business you have more flexibility. People will look to the corporation or company as the face of the business, not any one individual. Some brand names live on like Hilton. Despite the negative press that some Hiltons engage in, the business really doesn’t suffer much.
Brands Pay Dividends
Branding your business still works. You can see this in many product lines. Go visit your local drug store and ask the pharmacist. If you check the generic brand of cold tablets, same quantity as lets say the brand called advil. You will see a price difference of about $4.00, the generic brand being lower. Check the ingredients in each, you will find out that there is no difference what so ever. You will also find out that the brand name sells equal to or better than the generic one. Brands pay dividends.
It takes time to build a brand name from scratch. People pay big franchise fees to purchase brand named businesses, this tells you the importance of brand names.
It is well worth considering the value of brand names when you make your business plan. Be prepared for the time and money you must spend to build a brand, from all the evidence you will be well rewarded for your efforts.
Accelerating Branding
The use of sales force automation helps with branding because it gets the word out about your product or your company in the masses. Once you have branded your product or your company you will begin to see an increase in sales and profit through the newly acquired customers received.
Branding is very important to a business it is also very important to a product like the Microsoft brand for instance everyone is familiar with the Microsoft brand of products and services even a MacIntosh user is familiar with the brand of Microsoft. Microsoft started out as a small company offering an operating system for home and office computers now they have an entire line of software products called applications.
Some of these applications come standard on you new home or office computer and others can be purchased through a retail chain or at the Microsoft website. A new product by Microsoft is a Windows phone. The phone is to compete with the iPhone.
The McIntosh is another brand nearly everyone in the world is familiar with. The McIntosh is another brand of computer operating system software. The McIntosh company is better known as Apple. The Apple iPhone is a very popular phone device among cellular phone users.
Many people choose the familiar carrier just because they are familiar with the Apple brand and are therefore comfortable using the Apple iPhone by AT&T.
With the use of the Internet branding has never been easier. You could be a small town mom and pop shop and develop a product and be able to brand yourself Worldwide with the help of the World Wide Web. The use of the Internet is becoming more popular with many things. Today many companies are attempting to brand themselves with the aid of the Internet.
The Internet is also being used by teenagers who become enterpreneur’s. Many teenagers around the World are making their first million dollars before leaving high school. These new millionaires are developing products and branding these products through the website designed by them to sell these products.
Make a brand!
When choosing a product that you wish to sell as a business it is essential to think from the consumers stands point. Meaning that what is it that you seem to either use a lot of, or has a good cycling rate. The best chooses are normally right in front of your face. If you are a consumer of the product more than likely you will know the ends, and outs of the product its self. By knowing what you like about the product that you are trying to get others to buy makes it easier to pass the knowledge on to someone else.
What makes it appeal to you will make it easy to sell, asking questions about the product from other see to if they agree with your stand point, or if they have other ideas of what makes it so consumable in the first place. If that fails to spark any interest on your be half, you can always go with the number one rule of thumb.
Which is the things people can not go without: foods,cloths and household goods are some of the number ones that top the list. By choosing these things to start your small business will help you to build the foundation, or platform in which you can branch off of at a later date. If its something that you love to do than you are already in the circle. Giving you a better stand point as to how you are to reach the ultimate goal a loyal consumer base. Once you have that you can watch as your profits grow leading to more sells, and a better turn over on your end. Advertising your product with the people that you want to reach will also help in this matter. Linking yourself to other business is a way to use them to help push the product in the right direction. Like if you where selling food for instance you would want to link yourself with a cookbook, or things that get the persons mind thinking about food.
Once you have accomplished all of these you can just sit back, and allow the business to work for you. Or as I said earlier branch off into another market related to the product that you are sell making sure to think of all the fine points as you go. Research your investment to the fullest.
