A business brand is about the reputation a business has earned through good service. In the hands of the consumer it is the emotional attachment they have with a particular product or service. In the hands of the business, it is a powerful tool used to communicate company values and influence consumer decisions.

Some businesses have a poor brand because of slow delivery times, late payments and not delivering the service customers expect. These types of factors contribute to a poor brand and a poor reputation. It is unlikely a business in this state has much prospect for successful growth.

Businesses that have a good reputation through good relationships with suppliers and customers have a greater chance of developing a successful brand. The smaller the business the more likely the good reputation is in the trust clients have with the business owner and key staff as they take a personal approach to delivering the business services.

When your key staff leave or retire, so do these relationships of trust and reputation. It takes additional time to recruit, train and develop new staff into key members again which places additional pressure on the business to maintain momentum.

When your key staff are working extended hours there is no slack left for them to successfully grow the business and these pressures combine to make it difficult to achieve even a minimum level of growth.

For a business to grow and prosper, the good business reputation needs to be moved into the business itself and your emphasis must be on the brand. When this happens, value is added and the business is free to grow and develop without the limiting boundaries of the individuals running it. Your business is free for example, to develop systems to reduce key staff workload and to outsource certain business processes. This leaves your key staff available to work on high value contributions and not on routine processing that simply attempts to maintain the business equilibrium.

Think of a well known brand that you use, you probably do not know anyone key who works for the company yet you trust to buy from them. Ownership of that brand can change over time but the value remains in the loyalty and emotional attachment that the brand represents.

This loyalty to a particular brand clouds rational thinking and ordinary people struggle to see alternatives. A company with a good brand has an advantage over competitors and new entrants to the market. A good brand will normally remain strong, clouding over potential business weaknesses such as on environmental issues and labour policies.

One key factor in a strong brand is making sure that existing customers and potential customers know why they would buy from your business instead of some other business. These points of differentiation should satisfy the consumers choice from both rational and emotional perspectives. This will leave a feel-good factor in the minds of your consumers very hard for your competitors to displace.

All your business correspondence should reflect your brand, your business cards, your letterheads, your website, your advertising and everything you say to customers. All of this must reflect a consistent image.

People do not suddenly decide for example, which new car to buy next. A decision is made over a long period of time and after being influenced by a multitude of brands, company advertising, sales launches, car reviews, competitions, word of mouth and every other conceivable form of modern brand communication.

Those companies that succeed in communicating a consistently clear brand message have the greatest chance of influencing decisions and so command a greater opportunity for success.

When you next order business stationery or design an advertisement, consider your own brand name development. Look at the world’s commercial brand giants and question why they are successful. Even the greatest businesses started out small at some point and the one thing they all have in common now is a strong brand.