It’s January and we are looking at our goals and objectives. If you are not, it is a great time of year to give yourself and your business this well-deserved time and energy.  Not only does your business deserve it, you deserve it. Remember two things:

One: It’s your business, your creation, your blood, sweat and tears.

Two: Having goals and objectives increases the likelihood of improving that bottom line.

In this article I am going to look back before I look forward. 2011 was an interesting year in which there has been a lot of acknowledgement for the importance of building strong brands.  This is something which I have been waiting for and delighted to see happening more and more each day.  Businesses are acknowledging that branding is so much more than a logo.  It is everything that your company stands for and Irish businesses are really embracing its significance.

However, I still come in contact with companies that are frustrated with their business development. They blame the lack of budget for their problems and wish they could increase brand awareness to attract prospects. They all make the similar statements, "If prospects only knew what we offer and how good of job we do for our customers -- we would have great sales growth!"

So what do I tell them???

I tell them to start at the beginning. What does your company stand for? If you are looking at your business and trying to figure out how healthy your brand is, question your understanding of it first. It must begin internally before you work on communicating your brand externally. Do you know the most important values of your company?  You do know, it’s why your started your business, it’s what you do every day, and it’s what you want to be known for. You must revisit these and embrace them. When you analyse these values you need to pull out the values that make you different from everyone else. A strong brand allows you to stay away from constantly reducing your price, it allows you to maintain your price and gain higher margins. If your brand has clear elements of differentiation, it makes it easier for customers to separate your brand from the competition.  With clear differences you also make it harder for the competition to imitate. You are setting yourself apart. When you work on this, make sure you involve your staff and key partners.

Now that you have worked on your brand values and what you want to communicate to the world, the word ‘budget’ comes to mind. For some businesses they focus on the lack of a marketing budget as the main problem. Financially, it is tough at the moment but this is the time you need to take action and invest first into your brand. Interestingly enough, I find the bigger issues are actually the level of importance attached to branding and the time you give to developing a strong brand.

Your brand provides you with the most impact and visibility regardless of the size of your marketing/branding budget. From the sign on your office door, your website to every customer contact, your brand gives you the opportunity to tell the world who you are and what you are all about. If your brand does not do that in a differentiating way with conviction, it's time for you to revisit your brand and your brand platform.

Powerful brands do not need to be that complex. Sometimes we get bogged down with trying to make it harder rather than simpler.  Rather than getting caught up with limited budgets and the huge costs of using certain communication tools – look internally at how you and your staff can work effectively and efficiently in communicating your brand.  Where do you need to prioritise brand building efforts? Are you adding value? Is this value sustainable? Are your staff aware of what the brand stands for? If not, this can be one of your major downfalls. Are you promising something you cannot deliver? A brand must be what it does and what it delivers. 

The real strength of the brand is measured by the people who buy it – they are the clear measurement. If you are seeing problems with getting new customers, retaining customer loyalty and getting repeat business - you need to spend time on your brand.