What is the best time to begin obsessing about your business’s “brand”? The answer is maybe never. Brand is one of those fuzzy catch words that gets thrown around in upper management circles, even though no one really knows what it is or why they are pursuing it. Is this how you want to be wasting valuable time and energy? Let’s cut to the quick of the issue and let you in on the best definition of brand we’ve heard to date, courtesy of British industrial designer, James Dyson. “A brand,” he says, “is what allows you to charge a higher price for a generic product.”
Dyson’s thinking is that if what you’re selling is truly unique, no brand is necessary to sell it. All you have to do is promote the clear advantages of your product, since there is none other like it, and sales will take care of themselves. A product like this doesn’t need a “brand” to stand out from the crowd because there is no crowd of imitators to stand out from. With a unique product, the advertising message focus should not about building a brand but rather about clearly explaining how it is different and better.
Having a product that isn’t distinctive isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are thousands, probably millions, of examples of products that do very well even though there are dozens in the marketplace remarkably similar. Take Coke for instance. How many different soft drinks are for sale on the beverage aisle of your local supermarket? We’re sure you have better things to do with your time than count them all but we can agree the number is “a bunch.” Coke needs a brand to stand out and that’s what their advertising aims for. So does Cadillac. So does Clorox Bleach.
The branding process is all about injecting excitement into what, for all purposes, is a pretty standard, non-exciting product. Some business’s equate their brand with their logo. A logo is not a brand just because it looks different than other logos. Dyson thinks the average business wastes too much time trying to consistently position their logo, when that energy could be directed toward securing more business by simply proving how well you do your business. Ultimately, the bottom line is sales. Whether or not you have an effective brand is immaterial if you’re not closing deals and making money.
The Creating Wealth Team
