BY RACHEL POH.
Branding expert and CEO of GE Consult Fred Wu talks about
branding, budgeting, strategy, implementation and why branding matters for
small business as well.
For most Asian regions, the word branding has been a big
thing that large corporations, SMEs, marketers, brand managers see as important
thing to the business. But ask if you are just a startup company or a SME with
tiny little budget? Does branding really matter to you knowingly every
single dollar counts for startups and SMEs, and most importantly, every single
mistake is felt significantly and immediately due to the finite resource.
For answers, let’s turn to branding expert and CEO of GE
Consult, Fred Wu who is fondly known for his decade-long startup and corporate branding
and turnaround expertise countrywide and region wide.
Q1: Now everyone
seems to talk about “branding”, why branding?
A: Simply put, your brand exists to differentiate and stand
above nuisance (with truly authentic voice) with the support of marketing as a
well-designed process to satisfy customers profitably. Branding is a promise,
an understanding and experience which your customers perceive who you are, not
you think who you are. Only the industry-specific knowledge and experience
enable you to do so, and that set you and your brand apart, it’s never just
fancy logo, name and slogan.
Q2: Why branding for
small business? Does it really matter?
A: Absolutely yes! Branding is applicable to any size of business,
no matter how big or small your business is. After all, believe it or not, if
your business has online presence such as website, social media channels etc.
you are already having footprint on the global map where anyone would visit
your page virtually anytime and anywhere.
Q3: How would you
build a serious brand with limited budget?
A: Think branding, think awareness. That’s said, for a brand
to become a proprietary eponym and known, promoting and increasing awareness of
the brand is utmost critical. Don’t talk about your branding if your brand
doesn’t have exposure. Believe or not, content is king in the virtual world
nowadays, and I have personally created some successful brands using largely content
strategy in social media. For me, social media is the key to build awareness
and buzz with a limited budget. However, the only thing you will need to
understand is the target customers you intend to approach and sell to, also finding
out where (Place/Promotion: Facebook or LinkedIn? or else?) and what (Product/Price:
Entry product with discounted price?) motivates them to purchase your offerings.
Q4: What are the
biggest branding mistakes SMEs make when they do their own branding?
A: Earlier I have mentioned that branding is something what your
customers perceive who you are, not you think who you are. The very first
mistake from my observation is that many
startups and SMEs fail within five years simply because they are not who they
say they are. For instance, what would you think if you claim yourself a
world class organization providing superior products and services, but in fact
you sell inferior goods at low end markets in order to generate quick sales
turnover and cash?
Q5: What are the most
important elements when building a small business brand?
A: I always believe that “small is beautiful” particularly
in business term as small business has tremendous flexibilities and benefits to
manage, maintain as well as respond to the competitive environment quickly and
energy-efficiently. “Chopping big trees with small knife” is another belief
that I always have in mind, and represents one of our guiding principles here
at GE Consult, enabling us to secure many big projects with large corporations,
MNCs and Fortune500 regionally without substantially exposing ourselves to
loans or other funding. The hint is that how do you maintain the passion and
enthusiasm to grow a small business from probably zero and beyond.
One excellent example, the Tune Group nowadays is
made up of dozens of companies headed by entrepreneurial-minded CEOs and managers
who have passion and freedom to run their businesses, correct me if wrong. This
most-admired approach goes against those traditional rules and family-oriented
ways of doing business that may seem unmanageable in due time.
**About GE Consult
GE Consult is a Malaysian-based marketing consulting
firm headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. Since inception in 2003, the company has
been pioneering professional business plan and company profile services in
Malaysia, and has assisted many local and overseas SMEs, large corporations and
government agencies to grow business. For more info about business plan
solution, read http://www.geconsult.asia/p/business-plan-index.html
