The technology developed over the past 30 years has led to increased productivity, the supply of products and services, the removal of barriers between countries. This made possible the emergence of new industries such as mobile telephony, snowboarding, coffee chains, home video, discount stores, etc.
The result? For businesses, it influenced the intensification of the price war, falling margins and lack of differentiation. For consumers, it has caused increased accessibility to products and services and their similarity.
How do we manage to choose products and services when the offers are 95% similar? It remains that 5% that differentiates products and services from each other. Branding is the process of discovering and clearly and coherently expressing that unique 5% owned by a company that can make a major difference in its favor. In brand language, that 5% around which the business is built is called the brand idea. In the case of businesses run by an entrepreneur, the organization develops around his beliefs. Even if there is a central idea on which the evolution of the company rests, it is usually not realized and is taken up and carried forward in an informal, intuitive way.
Once the management of the entrepreneurial company feels that the uniqueness on which the business is based is not reflected by the way the organization manifests itself, its products and services or its communication, it is vital to initiate the branding process. Thus, once the branding process is launched, the beliefs and idea of the brand are institutionalized and their integration into the deepest aspects of the business is ensured. Similar to how waves propagate in an impact zone, once the central area of brand uniqueness is discovered, the branding process helps to spread it throughout the business, ensuring a decisive impact in the life of the company.
Ask yourself and those around you what is the central idea of your business. Do you have a common idea about this? How do your colleagues answer the question: “How do we differ from our competitors?” What about your customers?
Is the uniqueness of your brand, which you just revealed together with your team, found at the level of products and services? Do you feel that the current communication about your company and its people is centered on that 5% that makes you unique in relation to the competition?
What about the attitude of the people in your company? Can this be the engine that protects you and keeps your brand idea intact, over time?