As I sit pool side at the happiest place on earth reading Small is the New Big I can’t help but come to the conclusion, that most companies are wasting their time and money on branding.
Don’t get me wrong I put on my t-shirt with a commercially licensed logo, Levi’s jeans, Nike sneakers, get in my Toyota, drive to McDonalds and order a big mac and coke more often then I’ll admit to. However for small and growing companies spending time, money, and resources on branding is not the most productive choice.
When you’re growing a business the best way for you to do any branding is to put out a higher quality of work. I remember reading that the average person has to see you name between 8 to 12 times before they remember you. The same person only needs to hear your name between 1 to 4 times from friend or acquaintance for them to remember it. (I really need a citeable resource for that and I just can’t remember where I read it or find it online).
If you wanted to make the argument that shameless self promotion and/or visibility building is branding, I might argue the semantics of the issue, but eventually agree it’s important. However shameless self promotion without the work to back it up, it’s just a load of BS. So work on having something worth promoting, before you actually start promoting.
