Being the First in Your Market

It is expensive and difficult to be a trailblazer. When you are the first to come up with a product or service, it can be a grueling battle to get noticed and accepted into the consumer world.

But once you succeed in becoming successful, you will have a new fight on your hands. There will be several copycats pop up and try to take your place.

Fortunately, the first to Brand an idea or product is difficult to take down.

Moving a king off their established mountain isn’t easy and Brand Recognition is huge among those that were first to market. By reviewing some recognizable name brands – it’s easy to see the importance of being first.

Aspirin: the first over-the-counter pain reliever.

Kodak: the first film.

FedEx: the first to ship overnight. Their branding marketing strategy was so effective – their brand name became a verb – “Just FedEx this”

One of the small secrets to solidifying your brand is to find a way to make it a verb – like “FedEx” and “Google”.

How to Gain Popularity

Being first doesn’t always mean you will be the ultimate winner.

RC was the first cola but Coke gained number one in ALL cola’s. Pepsi came along with their “Taste Challenge” and although they still don’t succeed in obtaining the top spot – they did establish a snug second. Bye-bye RC and thanks for all the fish!

Branding on Difference

Sometimes leveraging how different you are compared to the top brand is a smart marketing ploy.

– Look at 7-Up. They positioned themselves as the “un-cola”.
– Kodak was first in film but Polaroid was different and became first in ‘instant’ developing film.
– Tylenol positioned themselves as a non-Aspirin pain reliever.
– McDonalds may have been the first chain in fast-food but Burger King is “flame broiled.”
– Look what Subway did to the fast food industry, a fast-food chain that promotes health and weight-loss.
– Hertz may be number one but Avis “tries harder.”

You don’t have to be first in your category to stand out, nor do you need to be second. Flying at the tail of the aircraft still gets you to the same destination as the folks in first class. Take full advantage of the fact that the big brands in top spot have done much of the research, hard work, and spent a tonne of money for you. Study them, see how they got there, and carve out your own special, focused niche.

To accentuate this just look at where all the McDonalds are. They spend money and time on researching the best places to plop their restaurants. Their competitors just waited to see where they went and then built up the street or across.

Another example on a smaller scale is a guy I know who owns a flooring company. He moved his business to the same area as the Big Guns and floated a big balloon over his store with one word “Carpet”. This balloon was big enough to be seen from every competitors parking lot. Most of the walk in traffic to his small carpet store were people brought to the business park by his competitors advertising.

You can do the same thing.

Top Tools for Effective Branding

Reputation Management – One of the top branding tools often overlooked is Reputation Management. The internet is full of places where people can go to leave negative feedback about your company. Believe it or not – it is extremely important that you address these comments in a smart and effective manner.

When your customer is searching for the product or service that you provide, they will stumble across (sometimes several) review sites that come up. They WILL read the reviews and if negative reviews are left out there to fester, you could be losing clients and sales. Take the time to find these sites and do some damage control.

Business Name
Your business name has a lot to do with your company and how easy or difficult it is for people to know what you do. This includes the search engines. Make it simple for Google and the public to find you and understand what you are selling.

Trying to establish your brand using a trademarked name (ie Pepsi or Google) will require you spend much more time, money, and focus, on helping people identify what you do initially than a simply defined name like “Ed’s Electrical Supply’s”

Marketing Video
Producing a quality marketing video will get your message out to your prospective customers. Video’s can have a tendency to go viral, which means millions of people have the potential to see you, your company, and what you are offering. But don’t bank on it. Focus on making informative and useful videos to structure your brand and company, and introduce your service to prospective customers.

Newsletters and Reports
Publishing a newsletter or a report on a monthly or weekly (even quarterly) basis puts your message and brand in front of an interested and targeted audience. Newsletters should reinforce your brand; contain your corporate colours, your logo, and your message. The contents need to be useful and timely.

Logo
Logos also fall under graphic services but are a very important and fundamental step in your branding process. Logos should be simplistic, recognizable, and be able to adapt to any surface or presentation. Whether your logo is going to be on a website, business card, or company jacket, it needs to be clear and identifiable.

Business Website
You really should have an effective website. Having an online presence is absolutely necessary, without one, you are probably losing a lot of business. Regardless of the market you are in you need a website. As well, your site needs to be mobile friendly and easy to navigate.