Branding is the key to stay in business

While branding is considered as one of the most effective ways to survive in today's highly competitive business landscape, start-up and small companies may not need to shell out huge budget for branding efforts, as this can be done at less or no cost.

Advertising and marketing expert Dickie Soriano told Cebuano entrepreneurs to take "good care" of their employees, as they can be the effective brand builders.

"Your people are your best advertising agencies. Make sure to prepare your people to represent the brand to the market," said Soriano, who is the founder of Bob Cheong Design of Canhers Pte. Ltd. Pinpoint Inc. (BCD-Pinpoint), one of the largest full-service, CRM (Customer Relations Management) in the Philippines, and Southeast Asia.

Soriano emphasized that making happy employees, would make the company's brand stronger to the market, as they (employees) are the perfect mirror of the company's brand.

"Brand building is not an advertising experience. Your people are your best advertising agencies," he reiterated.

A company's own employees have critical role in establishing stronger brand to the market, as they can "make or break" their company's brand.

Although, he said there are several levels in establishing stronger brands in the market, for cash-strapped companies, the fastest and easiest way to build stronger brands is through employees.

Soriano was in Cebu recently as one of the guest speakers during the Business Summit hosted by Microsoft Philippines, and Entrepreneur Magazine.

He emphasized that today's business landscape is all about branding.

"Strong brand can make [your] food tastes better, make people behave emotionally, make people more forgiving for small mistakes," he said.

Building brands can be a huge financial allocation for companies, but for those which can not afford yet to start establishing brands, the company's own people can be the effective brand builder, while loyal customers can also become the "marketing department."

Consumer preferences are now changing, he said. Merely introducing a product is no longer effective to the market.

"Don't sell products, building brands, and sell lifestyle," he emphasized.

For restaurants for instance, he said merely selling good food is no longer effective, but selling the "experience" is now the name of the game.

He mentioned the success of Starbucks Coffee, he said Starbucks' main marketing tool is not to sell their gourmet coffee products, but the experience of customers hanging-out in Starbucks.

He also added that one way of creating a no-cost brand building is also to take care of customers.

Any business has only one purpose "create and keep a customer." Because of this, he said effective data keeping for customers, and building strong relationship with patrons are ways to "stay in the game."