SMMEs urged to take branding seriously
Lindiwe Mozola | Friday July 10, 2015 15:58
Matumba was one of the speakers at the KDM Global Luncheon Business Forum held at Tati River Lodge recently.
She said strong branding is the backbone of every business and once one gets it wrong the whole business could go down with chances of its survival not guaranteed.
Matumba said first and foremost the name of the company is a doorway to success, therefore, when choosing a name, entrepreneurs should think of one fit for the global village.
In addition, he said many SMMEs tend to focus more on branding only the product/services they provide than on the image of the owner.
Matumba indicated that a brand represents the sum of people’s perception of a company’s customer service, reputation, advertising and logo.
When all of these parts of the business are working well, the overall tends to be healthy.
However, SMMEs often treat branding as something best ignored until their small business grows into a big company.
“And this is very dangerous because branding is what takes your business to another level. The business cannot grow with poor branding,” she said.
An international business consultant and global partner for Africa at Clarity 4D, Victor Mensah from Ghana also echoed the same sentiments as Matumba.
He said many struggling businesses get it all wrong in branding and it is a tool that should firstly make a good impression to the outsider or a client.
“Branding holds the power. One can imagine it goes a long way into attracting potential investors and that starts with the name of your company. If it does not make sense to a client, nothing else will,” he said.
He also indicated that one’s attitude, clothes and language used are a brand on its own, therefore business owners should always be on guard as to how they talk to people because one may never know from where their next customer will come.
In addition, the way one dresses also communicates a lot to people on what kind of a business one does. For instance, when one is in the fashion industry the person should always wear outfits that will grab the attention of the outsiders.
“When you are in the fashion industry, when you go around people should stop and stare, and take delight in your outfit. They will start asking you questions about the outfit all the while scoring on new clients,” Mensah said.
However, many business owners may look smart and fit their area of expertise, but they fail to involve their employees who most of the time interact with customers.