I recently attended the GrowSmartBiz Conference offered by Network Solutions.

A week later, I am still thinking about my Walk-Away Impression: Branding is more than your logo.

We are accustomed to thinking about branding our company name or our product name. But, we should think beyond the customary.

Branding is not just a logo. It is a strategy.

Everything associated with your company — your products, your staff, your leadership team — is your brand.

For a small business, branding is even more important.

Your brand is: how you execute your projects, how you conduct customer service, how you, personally, represent your company to the public.

“Brands are promises which we value and are prepared to pay for and if we feel those promises have been broken, we’re less likely to trust.

But some brands are resistant to recession. While consumers may have less cash for big-ticket items such as cars, and their distrust of banks has increased, they still have enough coins in their pocket for Coca Cola, McDonalds, Gillette and H&M.”

-          Jez Frampton, Interbrand Chief Executive

What about top-end brands like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton or, perhaps, Bentley?

Surprisingly these luxury brands have held their own, falling less than the average drop of 5%.  (Though, I am part of the 5%. No more expensive purses for a while)

Here are the world’s Top 10 Most Valuable Brands in 2009:

1.     Coca Cola $68.7bn

2.     IBM $60.2bn

3.     Microsoft $56.6bn

4.     GE $47.7bn

5.     Nokia $34.8bn

6.     McDonald’s $32.2bn

7.     Google $31.9bn

8.     Toyota $31.3bn

9.     Intel $30.6bn

10.  Disney $28.4bn

See the full list from Business Week.
Interestingly, IBM knocked Microsoft off of the second-place it held for years.
But where is Apple? (One of my personal favorite brands) Apple made it into the top 20, right below Samsung.
Hewlett-Packard almost made it to the top 10, trailing at no. 11

What do these brands have in common?

• They are all large, established companies that have proven stability and earned the trust of consumers with a reliable product(s).
• They have clear product strategies. They are good at what they do. Take Google as an example. Need I say more?
• They give consumers what they expect. This is the no. 1 reason McDonald’s is so successful. People all over the world know what to expect when they enter a McDonald’s.
• They sell products that nearly everyone can relate to.
• They are classics; traditional and not controversial.
• They each target a large base of consumers. i.e., most people drink soft drinks, most people need appliances, most people drive cars, and most people use computers & technology.
• Half of these brands are technology companies. The message? If you do not already have your brand on the web, accessible from mobile devices, now is a good time to get it there. Chances are, if you are reading this blog, you are cognizant of how technology affects your business.

I will go out on a limb and say that most employees in these top companies are proud to represent their brand. An example of branding from inside out, I worked for Hewlett-Packard for 12 years. The reason I was in the company for so long was because of its people, its company culture. No matter where I travel in the world, when I worked with fellow HP colleagues, we always collaborate and look out for each other.

Most of us do not have the advantage of 100 years of company history or a staff of thousands behind us.
So, what do we do?
We take advantage of “The Long Tail,” described in a book of the same name by Chris Anderson, who is the Editor in Chief at Wired Magazine, and the Keynote Speaker at this conference. As media choices expand, so do the opportunities to address your particular market.  The Top Ten companies that I listed above have the “head” of the market.  But, all markets are strange animals.  They have long tails.

Think of the image below.  We don’t see the head of this dinosaur.  We don’t have to worry about it.  We can let IBM, Microsoft, and Google worry about the head.  Our job is to focus on those consumers who do not need, do not want, and cannot use the mass marketed, top ten brands.  They need the attention to detail that we small business people can provide to their specific market.  We can do well by focusing on the customers who don’t just want any product or service, but one that is designed specifically for them.