The Brand is increasingly a real asset for the company, which increases the perceived value and improves the relationship with the customer, creating loyalty and making them accept to pay for the products and services offered even at higher costs than the market ones. That’s why a brand-oriented strategy can become crucial for all companies, especially for those that do not have large amounts of capital to invest in communication or advertising.
There are more than 4 million small and medium-sized enterprises in Italy, equal to 99.9% of the total amount. The vast majority of them are unknown on the domestic and foreign market and are content to survive in a limited geographical area. It is therefore evident that the operational mentality of these realities focuses almost exclusively on the product and mainly on a commercial approach. In this scenario where the competition is very high and where 142,000 companies close every year, few professionals understand the importance of having a strong “brand” to not only survive but also to be able to develop their business in terms of both economic and geographic. Furthermore, there is little knowledge of the meaning of “Brand” and there is a tendency to confuse it with “Trademark” or “Logo”.
The Brand is increasingly an asset in itself for a company. In fact, it increases the perceived value of what the company offers and improves the relationship with the customer by making them loyal and making them accept to pay for the products and services offered even at higher costs than the market ones. That’s why a brand-oriented strategy can become crucial for all companies, especially for those that do not have large amounts of capital to invest in communication or advertising.
Michael Watras, founder of Straightline and defined by the Italian press as the “American Branding guru”, underlined several times during his interventions pro awakening of “made in Italy” in our country that those who play a decisive role in development and the consolidation of the Brand within an Organisation are undoubtedly the Entrepreneurs and CEOs, indispensable to ensure that the whole company understands, collaborates and supports all the steps for achieving the final result”.
But many times, especially entrepreneurs and CEOs of small and medium-sized companies, are led to make some important mistakes: they base their business strategy only on the product, they do not notice that the competition grows and is increasingly combative and they do not want to see beyond the short term. On the contrary, they should better understand the importance of the Brand and its indisputable advantages, and influence and inform the entire company structure on its undeniable and tangible power. Nowadays, strategic brand management becomes increasingly indispensable, using its methodology and tools. It constitutes the indispensable phase for the design and implementation of every programme relating to the construction, creation and management of the brand, in order to maximise its value. But it must also be closely linked to the broader strategy of the company, as well as to its culture. We cannot ignore them, indeed they must constitute their essence.
In order to develop a correct and effective Branding strategy, it is essential to implement a process that involves a series of “operational phases”, which our group of Human Capital Solutions experts can explain in detail and implement operationally.
