Can You Afford Not To Invest In Branding?
Over the years I’ve seen companies who invested in proper branding, and those who couldn’t see beyond the initial investment. There are companies who succeed in spite of their brand, and those who are building valuable equity on a brand that will last the test of time. These strong brands add leverage overtime, while others lacking proper branding struggle for legitimacy and are forced to compete on price. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity. My advice is invest early before you build a mountain of collateral. Give your company a focused voice with a brand that appeals to your target audience.
So what are the reasons for not investing in proper branding?
- The initial cost is usually the main focus.
- Fear of change, and how customers might react to the change.
- Time away from other projects.
What businesses aren’t usually factoring in, is the cost of putting off the proper investment in a quality brand. These brand elements are the building blocks of all your marketing and interaction with your customers. The structure of your brand elements dictate how all of those moving pieces come together. All of your presentation material, print collateral, business cards, website, software applications, mobile apps, uniforms, signage, etc… When you add up the costs of all these items, they add up. What companies don’t often think of initially is the cost of replacing, and rebuilding all of these items.
“The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand you are a commodity. Then price is everything and the low cost producer is the only winner.”
Philip Kotler – Professor at the Kellogg School of Management
The ideal, is to invest initially in a quality brand that will allow all of the above branded collateral to last longer over time. So instead of having to redo and reinvest multiple times, these companies are able to build once. Then add smaller iterations that are more cost effective.
We can use this same analogy for the importance of proper user experience design before developing software, apps, and web applications. In both scenarios, by skipping the proper preparation, companies end up finding their hands tied as the cost of change becomes ever more expensive. In hind sight companies would pay only a fraction of the cost if they had invested upfront. And best of all, they’d have quality branded products that last the test of time for a fraction of the price, while building a company their employees will be proud to stand behind.
The takeaway
So, before you ask the kid down the street to come up with a logo for your company, think carefully about the true costs in the long-term. Invest before you build a mountain, or you might find yourself having to rebuild it multiple times.
