What Type Of Brander Are You

Branding: that's the quintessential ingredient that allows companies to become hugely successful. We've all heard about branding and the examples of great brands are well known: Coke, Disney, Mc Donald's, Federal Express, and on and on. The notion of great brands usually is housed in the national limelight. Therefore, instead of branding, the local business owner justifies these national brands in the terms of resources, specifically, how much money these national brands have to advertise.

Let's destroy that paradigm, shall we Then, you can stop making excuses and start making money. There are plenty of local branders all across the country who decided that they were going to tell their story with relentless passion and consistency. You all know who they are. Every local market has terrific local branders who are reaping their rewards.

There are three types of branders in small to medium business today: Branders in Chief, Brander Paranoids, and Brander Phobic's.

The Branders in Chief (BIC) are who I wrote about above. They're the folks who understand that the message needs to be right, and the pursuit to share information needs to be relentless. The BIC's test their message often and build upon the message as the market changes or as they change with the market. They understand that to be extremely profitable and successful, they need to create relationships and an identity within their business category with their clients, thus the result of successful branding.

The Brander Paranoids (BP) is the business owner who wants to brand but can't last throughout the first year. This group has the awareness that they need to brand and even seeks help to start the process. They launch the brand but don't see results fast enough so they fall back into the rut of sales and events to attract new customers. BP's can become BIC's, but they need to address their fear and partner with someone they trust who will hold their hand' through the first year, during the brand's infant years.

Brander Phobic's (BPh) are who you expect them to be: they are terrified of spending money on this so called branding thing when they probably will not see results right away. These folks are constantly spending ad dollars on attracting the NOW' transactional buyer. They have no desire to form long lasting relationships and believe that price alone is the only factor that contributes to the buying decision.

What type of brander are you Are you going to chase the transactional customers by lowering your profit margins, having HUGE ONE OF A KIND SALES and beating down doors to get attention Or are you going to start branding yourself and reaching out to the relational customers who wish to create a business friendship with you and who you will make a larger profit margin The choice is yours. The cost is the same!