Why traditional branding is stoopid…

Hey there,

You know, there’s one area of marketing that business often lose fortunes on. One are that has so much bad advice and hype, I’m surprised it hasn’t been banned from colleges and universities yet.

And that is the subject of branding.

There is a book that says “Branding only works on cows” and I believe that message is TOTALLY accurate.

The woefully poor advice and “tips” out there on branding may be the single biggest cause of new business bankruptcies in the history of the world.

Let’s start with the most foolish one.

“Get your name out there!” Who hasn’t heard that advice before?

Imagine… You’re running a carpet cleaning business.

That’s great. Now you need to find someone to pay you to clean their carpets.

Some marketing specialist tells you to go and get your name out there!

Plaster the area with flyers of your business name and logo on car windshields… hand out business cards in nearby shopping strips… hold up signs that have your business name on them… send out postcards that say you’re open for business and then… wait for the phones to ring off the hook.

Suddenly, 3 months go by and you’re phones haven’t rung off the hook yet. Not only that, but you can’t recall a single phone call generated from any of these devices.

“Well just keep getting your name out there”, the specialist tells you. “Sooner or later, people will become familiar with your name and start calling. It just takes repetition.”

What a LOAD of nonsense!

I’ve heard this worthless advice countless times from college professors to advertising sales people… to even marketing and branding “experts”.

There’s only one problem with it… it doesn’t work!

Here’s the deal with branding. Unless you have a NATIONAL company with locations everywhere, you don’t need to focus on establishing a brand because only a small percentage of the population will ever know you exist.

The only branding you have to worry about, is the people that do business with you. If you focus on getting as many customers as you can, and doing everything you can to make sure they are totally satisfied, and that you deliver great value… you will build your brand as a result of this.

They will spread the message, and your reputation will swell.
But the focus has to be on getting them in, so you can build a relationship with them first.

Advertising your company name and logo will do you no good if you don’t give them a reason to respond.

No matter how many times you send them a beautifully printed postcard with “Smith & Sons Carpet Cleaning” or a vague slogan like “We take care of your carpet like it’s our own” on it.Just look at the crappy ads you see on TV all the time.

Everybody knows the Geico Cavemen, but that doesn’t mean they actually want to switch to Geico. Most people just think the commercials were funny.

The cavemen became the star of the show. The insurance quote was just an afterthought.

A critical mistake frequently made by corporate advertisers.

If you’re a small business, it’s an even bigger mistake because you don’t have millions of dollars to waste.

For every successful “corporate branding” campaign, like the Dos Equis beer
“Most interesting man in the world” commercials, there are many more disasters. The odds are incredibly stacked against you.

Frankly, if your business isn’t doing at least 50 Million a year in sales, the “Public Awareness” style branding campaigns should be abandoned IMMEDIATELY.

Before you send out your next round of advertising, consider this… There are probably at least 20 or more other businesses that sell the same kind of stuff you do in your area, so why should they buy from you instead of them?

If you don’t have a darn good answer to this question… or the answer you’ve given so far hasn’t worked… you need to fix that ASAP.

If you want to get more free tips on how to build your brand profitably… while making lots of sales and profits… not just waiting for this mindless repetition nonsense to “take effect” go here:

www.adsthatsellmore.com

Until next time,

Wayne Brown
Marketing Strategist/Copywriter/Business Growth Coach
BusinessBuildingTechnician.com
1-888-895-8564