Brand Power
by Fred Roed on 04/09/06 at 2:45 pm
5 comments
It is natural to wonder why we, as small businesses, should be pouring time, energy and money into our brands. Is it a waste of time, considering how much it costs to build a brand? What impact does it have on the bottom line, if any? And how do we quantify it?
Anyway, here are some examples of small business Brand Power (not related to those cheesy TV ads ‘Helping you buy better…’)
- Kauai health biscuit R9: Pick n Pay R0.90
- Fresh loaf of bread at Melissas R12; Fresh loaf of bread at Rosmead Spar R6
- Café Coton collared shirt R500; Meltz collared shirt R90
- Vida e Caffe tall Americano coffee R12; Wimpy coffee R5
- Crocs at Sport Unlimited in Tokai R490; Crocs rip-offs at Mr Price in Tokai R70
The expensive items in each line are items that either I or friends of mine have bought in the past few months. They are all small businesses, or recently small businesses growing at a rapid rate, and are investing in creating a brand name for themselves.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
thescott
Sep 4th, 2006
its important to note though, that with pretty much all those examples, quality (taste etc) is far superior too. its not just that they’re can charge for the label printed on the packaging.
Andrew
Sep 5th, 2006
I agree, but the quality is seldom double or 5 times better. It seems that about 20% better quality + good brand = 200% price tag.
Fred
Sep 5th, 2006
I’m not even entirely sure that the Kauai biscuit my wife bought tasted better than the Pick n Pay one. The Cafe Coton shirt I have is also not a whole lot different from the one I got from Meltz.
And Rosmead Spar makes a kickass loaf of bread – way better than the one that my sister gets from Melissa’s.
Small businesses, ignore brand power at a price! (The price on your products that is…)
Karin
Sep 5th, 2006
Don’t totally agree with Fred (agree with last statement), and want to add:
consistency in quality (be it in packaging, website layout or even advice given to prospects) allows a small company to ‘brand’ out quality products regardless the price-tag
Perky
Sep 5th, 2006
I tend to agree with Karin and thescott on this one.
Vida e Caffe tall Americano coffee is more than twice as good as Wimpy coffee, (and thats coming from a tea drinker).