On Tuesday this week, I received an email from one of our readers; Karangwa Israel asking how a Small and Medium sized companies with meager financial resources can build a strong brand and then compete favorably. His major concern though was whether the companies’ returns usually justify the heavy investments in branding. Whereas some companies especially big ones have managed to thrive in competitive environments due to their strong market strategies, I would also not entirely agree that they fully recover the amount of resources greatly invested in their brands and marketing. And neither do they accurately establish the correlation between the amount invested in brands and the return on brand investment. By principle, the “business performance is measured by the relationship it creates with its customers” and yet to have this relationship you must create some customer royalty which comes after by the royalty of customers to the brand. So for investments, in brand you are targeting to win more customers on your side. You are also trying to create a unique value that gives you an edge over your competitors. This requires paying attention to your customers’ needs, while controlling what you want your brand to mean to them and focusing on key brand values. Prof. David jobber identifies seven factors which are very important in successfully building a strong brand. Nick Rice, an American marketing consultant says that “proper branding is critical to your long term success”. He says that a lot of people think of branding as logo development yet in reality, branding is managing the thoughts and feelings of your customers to ensure that you are what they desire. What he means is that the log in itself will not make sales but it helps to reflect the brand of the company which will help the company make more sales and earn profit. He says that, “if your desired brand image isn’t what’s in the minds of your target audience, you’ve got to figure out where the gaps are and how to address them”. Contact: gahamanyi1@gmail.com
