Branding Bricks

National Small Business Week is coming up May 20-26 (more here), and it’s never lost on me that every multi-billion-dollar brand had to start somewhere. Many times, it’s just a few people with an innovative idea of how to solve a problem for customers. My favorite example is Apple, but the list is endless.

I’ve had the good fortune of interacting with many small businesses throughout the course of my career, and the one commonality I’ve found with those that are most successful is passion on the part of the owner(s). Hey, it takes a lot of passion to work seven days per week to build a business, sometimes all alone, particularly in the early years of uncertainty.

But while passion is both great, and necessary, so is vision. Every small business has the opportunity to build its brand. If a brand is a promise, a construct that the customer relies upon to meet a need, it takes vision to identify what’s at the core of that construct so it aligns with the business’s strategy and becomes the asset that it’s supposed to be. I’ve got a couple of good examples of small businsses that have done just that.

In southwest Michigan, near Grand Rapids, you’ll find Jesse and HIlary Triick, husband-and-wife co-owners of Pristine Green Complete Landscape Maintenance, who use propane-fueled mowers and a work truck fueled by propane autogas, purchased after a fair amount of research and compettive analysis. The Triicks have built their business’s brand on the use of propane as their engine fuel of choice, cementing their brand’s promise of a gorgeous landscape through reduced emissions. Not surprisingly, the color green is a key part of the brand’s visual representation.

Hundreds of miles due west, on Main Street in Rapid City, S.D., is Who’s Hobby House, which I visited in 2000 when it was voted Hobby Store of the Year. The neon sign in the photo at the right is not only representative of the Who’s brand, built by third-generation owner Clancy Kingsbury and his family, it’s literally historical – its on the National Registry of Historic Signs. To me, the sign is a symbol of the brand’s longevity and history, signaling the fact that it will be around tomorrow, next month and next year for customers.

My point is that the owners of these small businesses had vision to build their brands through something unique that differentiates them from competitors, and they leverage that uniqueness across their marketing communications. Want proof? Check out the start page of the Who’s Hobby website and its Facebook page; ditto for Pristine Green’s website and its Facebook page. The look and feel of the brand promise is present across those channels.

So the question begs: If you’re running a small business, and you’re busier than you’ve ever been in your life, force yourself to take the time to stop and think – what does your brand promise customers? And if you’re not visualizing it, or visualizing it well, how would you? It sounds like yet another task, but it’s really having vision.

Then take those two key pieces of information to a local marketing services agency that specializes in small businesses that can help you shape those thoughts into action. If budget is tight, perhaps consider starting with SCORE, or the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a nonprofit that’s dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground through free or low-cost mentorships. I’ve just checked its website and there are a multitude of free workshops related to brand building, like this one titled Building Your Brand.

(Image courtesy of Who’s Hobby House.)

{ 0 comments }