Many SMEs underestimate the importance of good corporate branding. Here is why your business needs it more than you might think.
When we start are on small business, we tend to get carried away with the bigger picture and neglect some of the details. One such detail is our corporate branding. Most of us will produce a name and a logo and leave it at that. We might not even bother with the logo. We are here to tell you that you should be placing your corporate branding on every tee shirt, every vehicle, and in every room that your business owns. Here is why.
Corporate Branding Is Essential for The Growth Of Your Business
No business can hope to put on a fully professional face without an instantly recognisable logo and corporate branding technique. Advertisers still operate by the old marketing rule of seven. Leaving that customer must see your logo and branding 7 times before it becomes instantly recognisable. Never imagine you are a customer who is walking through your premises. How many times do they see your corporate branding? Is it as many as seven?
There is a lot to be said for social media and online digital marketing nowadays. We tend to focus on this as advertising. We to reach our clients by focusing on the SEO of our websites to funnel traffic back to our businesses. But let us remember that a simple sign placed out on the street will alert more passers-by to your company than any online marketing might do.
How to Implement Corporate Branding in your SME?
So, at its core, the benefits of corporate branding focus on advertising. The logo and the name, combined with the colours you choose and the repeating styles you use throughout your corporate literature, will all come together to create a corporate image. The idea is to create a persona that goes with your brand. People get to know that persona and become return customers.
The best way to create these personas is through market research. You must reach out to your target market and discover the things that make them want to buy, and what turns them off. Once you can recognise these things, you can devise ‘safe’ logos, colours, and branding, which does not offend and invites, rather than repels [i].
Once you have this information, only then should you go to an advertising agency and have your logo and branding drawn up. Once you have it, you should put it on everything – and we do mean everything.
Corporate workwear is one of the essentials. It forms the backbone of where you should place your corporate branding. Yes – place it on the obvious locations like signage and websites, but also put it on your staff. Someone walking home in your tee-shirt is spreading your logo. Each member of your staff emblazoned with the branding promotes teamwork, efficiency, and uniformity. Clients can easily recognise staff members, too.
The Benefits of Corporate Branding
Why bother with all this? We hear you ask. There are lots of reasons why the most successful companies stick to hard and fast rules about uniform. Here are some of our favourite benefits of corporate branding.
Gives Returns
Whatever you spend improving our brand will come back to you in the long run. Branding gives great ROI. Advertising does not even need to be paid for to work. Consider Google My Business, for example. Purchasing uniforms will pay for itself in terms of brand exposure.
Customer Loyalty
Customers are brand loyal. They can be loyal to salespeople too, but once they have bought from a brand and know it to be good value or provide a good service, they will return. A strong corporate brand allows them to instantly recognise your company as one to be trusted. Think about McDonald’s. People do not return there for the servers.
Narrows Opinions
When you do not leave space for misinterpretation of what your brand is about, you will find those loyal customers leap to your defence in certain situations. Consider a Facebook advert where a customer chooses to complain. Others with a positive experience will correct them. It is only human nature.
Conveys Professionalism
When you engage in uniformity throughout your corporation, you promote this sense of authority. This makes people think you are professional, but also inspires them to come to you for advice in your field. It is a short step between coming to you as an expert and buying your goods or services.
Your SME Needs Branding
Even if you are a small business, mimicking the professionalism of larger corporations is easy to do when your branding is correct. On the other hand, working without it could have the opposite effect.
