Juliana Davies, a self-made business expert, drops by The Defector’s Blog to talk about the growing importance of building and perfecting a good public face for even the simplest of startup ideas. Integrating social media and web branding is crucial, as the blog as discussed before; Ms. Davies’ article takes this idea a bit further with a host of practical and real-world tips for managing a brand both online and off. Ms. Davies writes predominantly about the business school experience, and has recently aggregated the top MBA schools of this year in an easy-to-use web format.
Building the Best Brand Without Enrolling in a Top MBA Program
Building a brand is one of the most important steps towards creating long-term success for one’s business. Yet, despite the necessity, many upstart entrepreneurs still fail to make branding efforts a priority. Though offering a quality product and identifying a market are essential steps to building a company, in today’s crowded marketplace, the companies with simple, recognizable brands will almost always be the first to capture the attention of consumers.
Social media is one of the modern world’s most valuable assets for building direct communication with a company’s target demographic. In the long term, allowing an open dialogue between consumer and company can elicit the type of trust and comfort that is a hallmark of almost all successful branding. However, losing control of the conversation and allowing it to turn negative can undo years of marketing effort. Procter & Gamble, an early adopter of social media, recently encountered one such blunder, wherein social media allowed a disgruntled customer to create an online campaign designed to pressure spinoff company Pampers to withdraw their newly introduced “Dry Max” product line after accusations that diapers caused severe rashes. Before long, the campaign had attracted 7,000 parents and provided Procter and Gamble a great deal of negative publicity.
This is but one example of how social media allows backlash against a company to grow far more rapidly than ever before. Professor of marketing at London Business School Patrick Barwise and Martin Hilti Professor Sean Meehan write, “companies that consistently deliver what they promise benefit mightily when social media amplify their reputation. The obvious danger is failing to keep pace with social media developments.” When building a brand, “the fundamentals” should always remain in the forefront. Too many companies lack a clear vision of what they want their brand to be, or allow short-term trends dictate their brands. While this may lead to a brief increase in sales, over time it often creates a brand inconsistency such that nothing that can elicit trust and comfort from customers.
In order to build trust, branding should always start simply. Catherine Kaputa, author and brand strategist behind SelfBrand, recommends starting with “a visual something – a shape, a color, a logo, a design that signifies your brand and cuts through the clutter of today’s marketplace.” From Twitter’s bird logo to Nike’s famous swoosh or Apple’s once-bitten apple, many of the best known brands are known by a simple image that could be easily recreated by billions of people around the globe. Kaputa also stresses the importance of simplicity regarding a company’s product line, offering online glasses shop Warby Parker as an example of a retailer that offers a limited but highly specific product. Warby Parker sells vintage-inspired frames for $95 a piece, and offers only 50 variations. “Customers are not overwhelmed with hundreds of frames,” Kaputa said, praising the strategy.
Though many entrepreneurs still view branding as a chore, it is frequently listed by business veterans as one of the factors they wish they had focused on sooner. “I know that marketing and advertising efforts are seldom viewed as a priority,” says Anthony Pappas, founder of the Pappas Group, “but in looking back on those first few months … I cannot stress enough the value of defining your brand early on.” By focusing energy on creating a simple, intuitive brand from the beginning, entrepreneurs can avoid many common pitfalls, saving money and time that could be better spent building a strong and long-lasting business.
Julianna Davies is a writer and researcher for MBAOnline.com. Feel free to check out more of her writing!