Surf any marketing blog in recent years and marketing gurus seem to be constantly telling small business owners that their “brand” is central and key to their success. But is that really true?

What is a brand?

Traditionally, a brand has been the logo, the tagline, the fonts, and the colour schemes used by a company on its signage, its website, its work uniforms, and its vehicles. A “brand” was something visual.

Now, depending on who you listen to, that seems to have changed.

What do brands do to be brands?

According to Stephanie Theisen at Leighton Broadcasting, your brand is still all that but now “it’s your building, your employees, your management team and your culture. It’s your products or services. It’s your pricing model and it’s the way you do business.”

So, if that is to be believed, it’s pretty much every aspect of your company. Ms Theisen believes that “a good brand eliminates the need to compete on price alone” and that companies with stronger brands will “win any sale”. Mmmm…

Branding and SMEs

It’s time to call out “SME branding” for what it is – an intellectual house of cards underpinned by a grain of truth perpetuated by an industry determined to saddle SMEs with expensive advice with no practical or profitable application in the real world.

“Branding” is just another spin on marketing consultancy work. The 50 most valuable brands in the UK as listed by Consultancy UK are the 50 most valuable brands because they are the biggest companies in their sector and, via purchasing power, they can spend more money on educating consumers and business buyers about them. It has little or nothing to do with “it’s your building, your employees, your management team and your culture”.

To be truly successful, an SME needs to be inwards- and outwards-looking. And while it’s always good to have a nice logo and a user-friendly website, making money on a consistent basis is achieved through the application of common sense commercial practicalities.

When looking outwards, your business should take every opportunity to be seen by existing and potential clients via a number of different routes – social media, internet, leaflet drops, advertising in specific publications and on their websites, and more. You will have 3 or 4 seconds at most on each exposure to sufficiently motivate them to respond.

When they do, pick up the phone and get in touch with them straight away. People buy people first and one-to-one communication allows you to find out more about the customer and their needs.

Looking inwards, incentivise your staff to sell more and to provide better customer service. Do everything you can to shave cost from the business – squeeze your suppliers and try to buy in supplies “just in time.”

It’s the simple things that make a business more profitable. In the end, your goal may be to become one of the UK’s largest brands but, to do so, you’ll need to demonstrate a history of profitability, cost control, and expansion management before that happens.

So the next time you get an email you didn’t ask for from a brand consultancy or corporate social responsibility “outreach” expert, please don’t find yourself diverted by it from the real tasks in hand when running your business.