What no one told you in Branding 101

You might have heard it all in your Branding 101 spiel ......
"Brand is king", "Brands are stories that are always being told", "Branding is an instinct ".....
 Brand this... Brand that .. and then of course the whole "how to brand" tutorials...

What no one really tells you is when should you brand?

When you are setting up a small business, you are getting pulled in 100 directions; you are worried about your product, the storefront, the new clients ....the list is endless. You throw your precious marketing dollars at a marketing person (or worse an automated marketing engine), not knowing what it does but expecting a line outside your store or an inbox full of orders to magically appear.

Of course if you are lucky it works, but for the unlucky ones, there isn't any line outside the door.

So off you go to meet new clients, trying to sell your product and you come across the age old conundrum  :

" I don't know who you are, where you are from, how you got my number ... AND you are trying to sell me what ?"

If you brand your product BEFORE you try to sell it, you should be able to answer that question well. In fact even before you spend a precious penny towards a marketing or PR effort, you need to brand your product or business. How else would you figure out WHAT to market, WHAT message to put out, WHAT people might buy?

Branding is the very first step to figure out  the answer to the above questions and few of the following

1. What "benefit" are you selling to your customers (People don't buy features, they buy benefits!).
2. What sets you apart from the store next door.
3. How do you want your customers to perceive you.

The answers to these questions will be the basis of your IMC(Integrated Marketing Communications) or simply, the unique branding message that you will put out through all your marketing material and channels.

So, before you print that brochure, put in that ad, get that billboard..

make sure you know what your brand is.