BizSugar.com › Marketing › Forget branding, invest in relations

The majority of business owners could be headed for disaster this year. Small business does best when it acts like small business. It does poorly when it blindly attempts to copy big business.

The results of an Ipsos-Reid poll in March, 2008, should scare you. It found "a majority (59%) of small to medium-sized business owners have identified branding as a top priority."

If that poll found 59% of large businesses were making branding their priority I would rest easier. Because that is the only way big business can strengthen their market position.

Branding is too costly for small businesses. Small businesses have a far better business building tool; relationships. That's the chemistry that makes them attractive to customers.

The best way for small business to sustain or grow is by building stronger relationships with their customers. Relationships are built on individual connection, personal service and adaptability. In small business the owner or chief executive is close enough to the front lines to allow for this individuality. Big business is so keen on branding because it is harder to build relationships with customers, when the chief executive is light years away from the front lines.