Branding is mostly about teaching your target consumers, which is why it is often something that only larger businesses may fully engage in. That doesn’t mean a smaller business cannot brand itself, especially if the target consumers are local and nestled in one area; it just means that branding is easier for larger businesses because they have enough marketing power to teach their target audience something new.Firstly, let’s start at the beginning and ask:
What Is The Hardest Way To Make A Sale?
It is an obstacle that so large that it makes it difficult to give things away for free, let alone sell them. Is it trust? Without trust, you cannot transact any business deal, but the answer to this question comes before trust.The hardest way to make a sale is to teach somebody something. If you have to teach somebody something in order to make a sale, then you have one hell of a hurdle to jump. Why do you think it is so difficult for door-to-door salespeople to make a sale? They have to teach their customers things, such as what the hell they are doing there,and why anybody should care?
Let’s Clarify A Little With A Real-World Example
If you have ever invested money in a new business startup, you may have had this conversation:
You: So, what does X do?
Startup: It does X, X, and X.
You: Why would people buy it from you?
Startup: Erm, because it does X, X, and X.
They will buy when I tell them why. If a new starter needs money for advertising and/or for telling people why his or her thing is so fantastic, then that new starter is probably going to fail. Bigger businesses launch new products because they have the marketing power to teach people about them. For a smaller business to succeed, people must already be actively searching for their product or service in order for the small business to succeed. The worker searching for a burger van must already be hungry, the student searching for car repair must have already broken his or her car, the hotel owner searching for a plumber must have already sprung a leak.
If You Have To “Tell” People Why, Then You Will Struggle
Let’s clarify with another example. There are three cookie shops in a line, which cookie shop do you choose? Maybe you go to the one with the nicest smells, or the most handsome counter staff, or the one with the Smarties cookies in the window.The cookie shop that has to tell people why they should visit will struggle more than a cookie shop with a good-looking guy smiling from behind the counter. Now consider two restaurants. One is called “Barb’s Place” and the other is McDonalds. You are hungry, and you only have 10 minutes of your lunch break left.Which do you go to? The chances are that you go to McDonalds because it is a branded restaurant and you know all about it. Barb’s Place could be a restaurant where you have to sit down to eat, or it could be a fish place full of mercury-laden fish.
Branding Is About Teaching, Teaching In Order To Make A Sale Is Difficult
When a company brands itself, it comes up with brand principles and promotes them.These principles teach the target consumer about the brand. The company then attaches the brand to a product or service, and the job is complete. Branding means teaching your target audience something. It also means scaring people away. It means excluding some people so that you may become more inclusive for others.
Another Example Using Cookie Shops
Let’s say you are overweight and struggling with your health. You look in the windows of all three cookie shops and things look almost identical. However, one of the cookie shops is a newly branded company. This company only sells heart-safe food and organic food. You see their brand name and logo on one of the cookie shops,and that is the one you enter. Even though the other cookie shop had sexy men serving cookies in their underwear, and the other had sweet and tasty smells, you visit the branded shop. You visit it because the company taught you about their heart-safe and organic policy via their branding exercises.
Originally published on SHEMEETS
