SKOOL: Focus On Building Your Brand First Before Sales

I have seen many entrepreneurs in the township, I have been in contact with them are some I have been helping them start their businesses. One thing I have noticed from from many of them is that they do not know their brand or do not have a vision of their brand as to where they want it to be and how they want it to be received by people, in fact many township entrepreneurs do not focus on their brand, they focus on sales and profit more than anything else forgetting that a business goes together with the brand. If your brand is tainted or has lots of negetivities associated with it, chances are, you won't make profit at all. People run away from a bad brand, and your brand can be bad without you even noticing that so it is of necessity that one gives much needed attention to building and maintaining a positive brand and the one that lasts longer. Tech gurus like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates know the power of maintaining a good brand, that is why their companies Marketing campaign focuses mostly on keeping their brand in the minds of the people. Steve Jobs told this to his team of marketing, he told them to come up with a campaign that resonates with what they stand for, what they stand for is part and parcel of their brand. So I have come up with 5 things you can do to make your brand good and maintain that, here they are:

1: Focus on one thing

The Brand of companies that focused on one thing lasted longer than those that focused on multiple non related services. Apple and Microsoft strictly focused on selling computerized devices, they did not go and sell shoes or furniture, they focused on what they know best and that is why today when you talk about Microsoft or apple an individual will automatically remember a company that deals with phones and computers. So you have to work with one thing that you are good at and develop that and sell it to people.

2: Enhance your self Image

You can not build a powerful and progressive company brand while you the owner does not have a powerful brand, you must work on your self and build your positive self image, this type of energy you put in building your brand will work for your company, it will work for everything that you associate yourself with, for example, If Thabiso is well trusted by people, chances are, they will buy everything he says its good for their health. But when Sipho who is hated by people start selling something, they will doubt buying that product or buying from his company.

3: Copy and Edit

There will always be a brand better than yours and so you will have to keep on advancing, so the better way to make sure that the brand better than yours does not overtake your market, you will have to copy some characteristics of the best brand and edit them to suit your brand.

4: Associate Your Brand

There are people who stand for the same thing that your brand stands for, they are celebrities who have or represent the same values that are associated with your brand. So to promote your brand and build it further, make those people your brand ambassadors, not only will this strengthen your brand, it will also help you get a much wider audience coming from the fans or audience of the people you use as brand ambassadors.

5: Buy Off Companies

Not any other company, but you have top buy off smaller companies that are a threat to your brand. Like It Or not, the corporate world is very competitive, so if you do not eliminate a potential competition you will be left out. Bill Gates knew that very well, he bought off many companies like Nokia that had a potential of making Microsoft's brand irrelevant. Facebook also did the same buy buying off watsapp, because watsapp actually could have made facebook irrelevant, or at least it has the power to do so.

B.Machona
@B_Machona on twitter.