It's not rocket science

Brand management. It doesn't matter how you say it, it always sounds like a very high-level, high- falutin, high-cost strategy. Something that you'd expect of massive global corporates like Coca-Cola and Nike. Something that requires a marketing department of at least two dozen qualified employees. Something that no doubt costs half the GDP of a small (or perhaps even large!) African nation.

And something that frightens most SMEs half to death, with the result that many small business brands don't have a fighting chance to survive, let alone thrive.

The reality, however, is that brand management isn't rocket science. And it doesn't have to cost the earth. Much of it is common sense, a fair proportion is finding and having faith in good partners, and the rest is detail.

Crucially, the result is an entity that not only provides internal focus for you and your staff, but one that also shows potential clients that your business means business.

The challenge for small to medium enterprises is finding the time to focus on your brand. So often, these companies start up with one or two partners, who do everything themselves - from the core business tasks to the admin that supports it and everything in between, whether that's making the tea or hand-delivering the end product.

At this stage, the only branding is probably on company letterheads or business cards - which have likely been knocked together for free and gratis by a friend who has some basic design skills. Not only is there no time, but there's also no money!

The net result of such endeavours is that the company brand begins to rest in the people who run it. For all intents and purposes, YOU are the brand. The company personality is your personality, and while your customers know and recognise you, they probably don't know your company's name and won't be able to recognise its logo.

If you intend to continue working solo, or keeping your company small and contained for the foreseeable future, this isn't a problem. But if you want to grow the business, you have to separate the individual from the brand. Customers have to know that, if you're sick or on extended leave, the company and its services will be unaffected. They have to start trusting the entity as much as they trust the individual.

It's at this point that most small businesses begin investing in conscious brand building.

Resist the initial temptation to bring in a branding consultant, designer or advertising agency and start placing ads in the media. Instead, spend some time thinking about who you are, who the company is, and what it does, and how they all fit together. You need to understand the brand, before you begin to build it.

For a small company, this is partly about personality, and partly about ambition. Who are you, and what do you want to achieve? One of the easiest and cheapest ways of building a solid company brand is to ensure that your brand matches your culture, and that the people you hire live this culture, so that the company and its employees naturally operate in a way that fulfils the brand promise.

(So if you're slightly quirky, make this a part of your brand. Hire people who understand the quirkiness and perhaps are a little quirky themselves. Don't try and be something you're not.)

Once you've brought the brand to life within, start to look without. For this, it often helps to bring in outside expertise. But don't forget to look at your own skills to see how you can contribute.

Avocado Vision, for example, is a company that focuses on improving the conversations that people have with each other. One of the most successful ways that we've brought this to life is via our website http://www.avovision.co.za/, which is actually a blog site that promotes interaction - between Avo Vision employees, clients and anyone else who wants to contribute. We don't sell anything on the site, but this has become one of our most valuable marketing tools - it shows what we do, rather than us having to explain it. And once it was set up, we manage it ourselves by doing what we do best - talking!

When it comes to outside help, employ a great designer and a great public relations person - and pay them what they're worth.

A designer will help you create a living embodiment of your brand, and then ensure that you keep this brand up to date, and that you use it consistently across all your communication - whether that's on a client presentation or a decal on your car.

A PR person will help spread your brand message, through clever placement of articles and creating contacts with the right media networks. Not only does this publicity open your business up to new opportunities, but it also reassures existing clients that they've made the right choice.

Crucially, create long-term relationships with your designer and PR person. If possible, put them both on a retainer, so that they too have an investment in your business and brand.

Finally, it's the small details that add up to create a big brand message. I call it the Toilet and Teaspoons rule - if your brand is all about freshness and commitment to excellence, but the toilets smell foul and the teaspoons are dirty, your clients will start to distrust your brand.

*Interpersonal communications specialist Juliet Newton established Avocado Vision in 1996. She, together with co-owner Elaine Sampson, focuses on helping people to communicate more effectively through training programmes with small groups, coaching interventions, conference talks and large-scale company interventions.