BARQ & A

Posted By: MAS

Is no brand in fact a brand? Why?

BARQ’s response:

MAS:

In the strict sense of the question, “no brand” is, by definition, not a brand. this is mostly exemplified by those companies who do not understand branding, or don’t think that branding is of any great importance to their company’s success.

In a real sense, “no brand” means “no promise.” Your brand, in my opinion, is a your company’s promise to perform in a particular manner. This means your brand is your reputation. If the quality of your products and services varies based on market fluctuations (demand, resources, taste, style, price, etc.) the market can expect that you cannot be counted on to deliver consistently.

Compared to FedEx, how many times has UPS delivered damaged goods, or delivered late, or lost your package? They seem to be working on becoming an extension to their customers’ business rather than the most reliable 3PL provider. Are you looking for a business partner, or a reliable delivery service?

In the B2B world, where our firm focuses, most companies have a very limited understanding of branding. To many of these companies, branding means consistent logo placement. Most of the SMBs in America today were built by engineers, accountants or salespeople. Very few companies were started by marketers. These “hammers” see every business challenge as their particular “nail” and they attempt to find solutions from within their realm of expertise; salespeople look for new sales tactics, engineers look for new products, accountants look for ways to cut expenses. To all of them, branding is something big companies do with extra profits, not a means to increase long term profits and company value.

Back to the question, “no brand” is the definition of a commodity. Whatever a company produces is either a commodity that competes on price, or a branded item that competes on the company’s ability to create value in the minds, hearts and behaviors of their customers and prospects.

BARQ
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